The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus (National Theatre)

Tony Harrison based his palimpsest on the fragment of Sophocles' satyr-play 'Ichneutae' discovered in the debris of the city of Oxyrhynchus in 1897. He interweaves the scholars' 'tracking' of the Sophoclean play with its own tale of the satyrs' tracking of Apollo's missing cattle. The heart of the play is Harrison's inconclusive consideration of modern culture, its appropriation as a tool to divide society and its ultimate value in a society so divided. It was first produced at The Quarry, West Yorkshire, in 1988.