Tristram and Iseult and other poems

The English poet and cultural critic Matthew Arnold was the son of the headmaster of Rugby School who became a fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. He famously described Oxford as "that sweet city with it's dreaming spires". A deeply committed Christian he was well-versed in Greek and Latin classics and had a fascination with pre-christian myth and legend. His version of the Celtic legend of Tristram and Iseult is dramatised here.

This selection includes some of Arnold's best known poems Dover Beach, Thyrsis and The Scholar-Gypsy as well as early works like The Forsaken Merman and a dramatised reading of The Strayed Reveller. His poetry was strongly influenced by Woodsworth, whose death he memorialised in the final poem.

(Summary by Alan Mapstone)

Cast of Tristam and Iseult
Tristram: Greg Giordano
Iseult of Ireland: Agnes Robert Behr
The Page: Adrian Stephens
Huntsman: Algy Pug

Cast of The Strayed Reveller
The Youth: Inkell
Circe: ShrimpPhish
Ulysses: Alan Mapstone