What do you think?
Rate this book
Iphigenia in Splott
Stumbling down Clifton Street at 11:30 a.m. drunk, Effie is the kind of girl you'd avoid eye contact with, silently passing judgement. We think we know her, but we don't know the half of it. Playwright Gary Owen uses the Greek myth of Iphigenia to tell a modern exploring social deprivation, poverty and class in contemporary Wales.
65 pages, Paperback
First published May 15, 2015
3 people are currently reading
136 people want to read
About the author
Gary Owen
63 books15 followersGary Owen is a Welsh playwright and screenwriter. His recent plays include Violence and Son which had its premiere at the Royal Court in June 2015, and Iphigenia in Splott for which he won the James Tait Black Prize for Drama.
His other works include Love Steals Us From Loneliness, Crazy Gary's Mobile Disco, The Shadow of a Boy, (winner of Meyer Whitworth and George Devine awards), The Drowned World (winner of Fringe First and Pearson Best Play awards), Ghost City, Cancer Time, SK8, Big Hopes, In the Pipeline, Blackthorn, Mary Twice, Amgen:Broken, Bulletproof, and Free Folk. His adaptations include Spring Awakening and Ring Ring, a new version of La Ronde, for the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama; and Dickens' A Christmas Carol for Sherman Cymru. He is a Creative Associate at Watford Palace Theatre, where his plays We That Are Left, Mrs Reynolds and the Ruffian, and Perfect Match have been produced, and Associate Artist at Sherman Cymru. Gary also co-created and co-wrote two seasons of Baker Boys, an original series for BBC Wales. Work in 2016 includes Jeramee, Hartleby and Oooglemore, a play for toddlers at the Unicorn Theatre, to be directed by Tim Crouch; and Mrs Reynolds a’r Cena Bach, a Welsh adaptation of Mrs Reynolds and the Ruffian for Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru.
His other works include Love Steals Us From Loneliness, Crazy Gary's Mobile Disco, The Shadow of a Boy, (winner of Meyer Whitworth and George Devine awards), The Drowned World (winner of Fringe First and Pearson Best Play awards), Ghost City, Cancer Time, SK8, Big Hopes, In the Pipeline, Blackthorn, Mary Twice, Amgen:Broken, Bulletproof, and Free Folk. His adaptations include Spring Awakening and Ring Ring, a new version of La Ronde, for the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama; and Dickens' A Christmas Carol for Sherman Cymru. He is a Creative Associate at Watford Palace Theatre, where his plays We That Are Left, Mrs Reynolds and the Ruffian, and Perfect Match have been produced, and Associate Artist at Sherman Cymru. Gary also co-created and co-wrote two seasons of Baker Boys, an original series for BBC Wales. Work in 2016 includes Jeramee, Hartleby and Oooglemore, a play for toddlers at the Unicorn Theatre, to be directed by Tim Crouch; and Mrs Reynolds a’r Cena Bach, a Welsh adaptation of Mrs Reynolds and the Ruffian for Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
July 8, 2022
Nice.
This is a modern take on the ancient Greek work constructed by Euripides, Iphigenia in Aulis.
Splott, located in southern Wales, the Cardiff region, is where this re-imagined play takes place.
Rather than Agamemnon, we have Effie, a young woman. She lives in the lower strata of her country.
I find this more interesting. A woman’s search for her own moral conclusions amid the heaviness which society places on them. She is independent, free, and smart and resists ridiculous constraints others place on us.
It is endearing and it often affects the heart of the reader, the audience (I would imagine).
The dialect could be tricky for Americans and other non-English readers as a first language. Pun intended. Are jokes allowed anymore?
I enjoyed it on many levels.
This is a modern take on the ancient Greek work constructed by Euripides, Iphigenia in Aulis.
Splott, located in southern Wales, the Cardiff region, is where this re-imagined play takes place.
Rather than Agamemnon, we have Effie, a young woman. She lives in the lower strata of her country.
I find this more interesting. A woman’s search for her own moral conclusions amid the heaviness which society places on them. She is independent, free, and smart and resists ridiculous constraints others place on us.
It is endearing and it often affects the heart of the reader, the audience (I would imagine).
The dialect could be tricky for Americans and other non-English readers as a first language. Pun intended. Are jokes allowed anymore?
I enjoyed it on many levels.
March 22, 2019
Beautifully written and rightly angry. Bonus points for setting something in Cardiff and not mentioning Chippy Alley.
April 26, 2019
A brilliant play, offering biting social commentary and an interesting allusion on the myth of Iphigenia. The performance was incredible and I would have loved to have seen it on the stage.
April 5, 2019
Hard Listening!
Iphigenia in Splott, what an absolute triumph! Sophie Melville delivers the kind of performance that just defies description in Gary Owen's powerful play. Effie is a character that at first seems to lack any kind of redeeming feature and make no mistake if you don't like swearing you are going to have a difficult time with her. Check out the samples provided before downloading to get a fair idea of what to expect.
Effie's a product of a country where we've lost all true sense of value sacrificing what's truly important on an altar of corporate greed. Where basic services are valued lower than profit and fat cat bonuses.
Once you get past her rough exterior you notice that underneath there is a kind of nobility about Effie as she gets dragged down by a world that doesn't have the time or resources to care. This really is a play for our times and Melville's performance is as good as anything I have ever heard on Audible! It sent shivers down my spine, revolted me, enthralled me and in no small measure moved me.
This is rough, hard-edged and challenged me to think yet again about how skewed our value system has become!
Footnote: The play only lasts about an hour and twenty minutes with the last half an hour or so being an additional feature; interviews with Owen and Melville. Still interesting but means the play might come to a halt quicker than you might have imagined.
Iphigenia in Splott, what an absolute triumph! Sophie Melville delivers the kind of performance that just defies description in Gary Owen's powerful play. Effie is a character that at first seems to lack any kind of redeeming feature and make no mistake if you don't like swearing you are going to have a difficult time with her. Check out the samples provided before downloading to get a fair idea of what to expect.
Effie's a product of a country where we've lost all true sense of value sacrificing what's truly important on an altar of corporate greed. Where basic services are valued lower than profit and fat cat bonuses.
Once you get past her rough exterior you notice that underneath there is a kind of nobility about Effie as she gets dragged down by a world that doesn't have the time or resources to care. This really is a play for our times and Melville's performance is as good as anything I have ever heard on Audible! It sent shivers down my spine, revolted me, enthralled me and in no small measure moved me.
This is rough, hard-edged and challenged me to think yet again about how skewed our value system has become!
Footnote: The play only lasts about an hour and twenty minutes with the last half an hour or so being an additional feature; interviews with Owen and Melville. Still interesting but means the play might come to a halt quicker than you might have imagined.
May 16, 2019
4.5 🌟. I so wanted to give this the full 5 stars but had to drop .5 as I thought that the whole 'Iphigenia' message was crammed into the last few minutes of the play which was a little disappointing in my opinion. That said, this was an amazing performance and I'd thoroughly recommend the audible version which is a recording of the actress who played Effie on stage in the original production.
July 22, 2020
Updated Review: On my second reading, I see the adaptations much more clearly. I see the echoes of the Iphigenia story, but one of the interesting things here is how the structure of the sacrifice is imposed on Effie--for the good of a society riven by austerity, she has to sacrifice herself and the financial compensation to which she is legally entitled after the death of her baby. And in a very direct way, Effie confronts us--the audience, or in my case the reader--with the consequences of that austerity, the consequences for the poor of how our society functions. In this sense, what had been the historico-mythic sacrifice of Euripides' play becomes an immediate sacrifice. This is an interesting change, because when Euripides staged Iphigenia's sacrifice under Agamemnon's orders, it already belonged to the mythic past, and therefore didn't implicate his contemporary audience (or at most only peripherally), but when Effie makes her sacrifice it is immediately for us, and she both opens and closes the play with that accusation.
Original Review: This is a difficult play to really see as an adaptation. I mean, there is clearly some echo of the Iphigenia myth here, but I'm not sure it's necessary to make the point that Owen is making. That being said, I think there are interesting issues raised here when we consider this play as an adaptation specifically of an Athenian tragedy--to the extent that Athenian tragedy was civically and democratically engaged in a world building project, and there are definitely echoes of the attempt to build a new and more equitable/just/democratic society here.
https://youtu.be/mYgsZ2cVCWI
Original Review: This is a difficult play to really see as an adaptation. I mean, there is clearly some echo of the Iphigenia myth here, but I'm not sure it's necessary to make the point that Owen is making. That being said, I think there are interesting issues raised here when we consider this play as an adaptation specifically of an Athenian tragedy--to the extent that Athenian tragedy was civically and democratically engaged in a world building project, and there are definitely echoes of the attempt to build a new and more equitable/just/democratic society here.
https://youtu.be/mYgsZ2cVCWI
June 12, 2015
This is a new play by Gary Owen, performed for the first time in May 2015, and is a monologue by Effie (Iphigenia, obviously) and featuring, as one of the characters in the tale she tells, a lad called Lee (Achilles) discharged from the army having lost the lower part of one leg to an IED.
The parallels stop there, however. This is not a modern retelling of the story of Iphigenia. Effie is not an innocent princess. She spends her life getting drunk and having sex, and fighting her way through hangovers, and being aggressive in every encounter. Dare to tell her to mind her language and she’ll lay into you verbally; threaten her with the police and she’ll threaten the safety of your children. She has a nothing life with nothing and no one to live for.
The perfect sacrifice.
But as she gains motivation to change her life, and as we gain hope for her future, we, like Agamemnon, are torn between the desire to see her sacrificed and the desire to see her treated as any human being should be.
As a book, the play is an easy and entertaining read, and also thought-provoking. The story of Iphigenia is a very important one for me and I worried at times while reading Iphigenia in Splott that the title was not doing justice to the brilliance of Euripides’ Iphigenia in Aulis, but the ending laid my misgivings to rest.
The parallels stop there, however. This is not a modern retelling of the story of Iphigenia. Effie is not an innocent princess. She spends her life getting drunk and having sex, and fighting her way through hangovers, and being aggressive in every encounter. Dare to tell her to mind her language and she’ll lay into you verbally; threaten her with the police and she’ll threaten the safety of your children. She has a nothing life with nothing and no one to live for.
The perfect sacrifice.
But as she gains motivation to change her life, and as we gain hope for her future, we, like Agamemnon, are torn between the desire to see her sacrificed and the desire to see her treated as any human being should be.
As a book, the play is an easy and entertaining read, and also thought-provoking. The story of Iphigenia is a very important one for me and I worried at times while reading Iphigenia in Splott that the title was not doing justice to the brilliance of Euripides’ Iphigenia in Aulis, but the ending laid my misgivings to rest.
June 25, 2020
I wish more people would read this.
I listened to the audio book. Usually when I do that I'm doing something else- knitting or baking or going on a walk.
But I just listened. Jesus. This is such an impactful play.
Warning: will make you hate the Conservative party even more.
This is especially impactful for someone who's lived in two of the most underfunded areas of GB: the North East and Wales.
Please give it a read of you can.
I listened to the audio book. Usually when I do that I'm doing something else- knitting or baking or going on a walk.
But I just listened. Jesus. This is such an impactful play.
Warning: will make you hate the Conservative party even more.
This is especially impactful for someone who's lived in two of the most underfunded areas of GB: the North East and Wales.
Please give it a read of you can.
May 23, 2018
INCREDIBLE. SO. So underrated! 😫
June 28, 2018
everyone should read this. gutted that I didn't get to see it performed.
May 30, 2020
This was absolutely phenomenal. Great writing. I listened to the audiobook and the actress was SO good. My husband tried to talk to me while I had this on through my headphones, and when I realized I said “Oh sorry, someone was yelling and it was getting very real”. Seriously though, this was one of the best plays (the writing) and best performances I’ve ever heard. I loved it.
Note: To anyone that is thinking, I don’t want to listen to something that has yelling, that sounds terrible, I ask you to reconsider this once. I have listened to audiobooks that have loud parts and it’s annoying so I turn it down, but this actress was so raw and real and intense that I wanted to turn it up and yell along side her (also note: I did not. I’m not going to go that far. But it WAS that good).
Note: To anyone that is thinking, I don’t want to listen to something that has yelling, that sounds terrible, I ask you to reconsider this once. I have listened to audiobooks that have loud parts and it’s annoying so I turn it down, but this actress was so raw and real and intense that I wanted to turn it up and yell along side her (also note: I did not. I’m not going to go that far. But it WAS that good).
January 9, 2026
maybe one of the best one-person plays I've watched/read—Sophie Melville is so good in this
You’re right, it’s fucking ugly, actually. It’s ugly and it’s scary and looking at it puts the shits up me cos I think, look at us, we are these little soft creatures and it’s so easy to hurt us, anything could happen any time and ruin us. So it’s not beautiful. It’s as far from beautiful as anything can be. But it’s part of you. And if it’s part of you, I can take it.
April 18, 2019
I've just finished and I have no idea where to start.
The unfolding of the story takes you to places that are hard and unyielding, and Sophie Melville is just phenomenal. It's gritty and I honestly sobbed near the end, it really speaks to the heart of community and humanity! Gary Owen is a phenomenal playwright, and I'm just sorry that I never got to see it in person.
The unfolding of the story takes you to places that are hard and unyielding, and Sophie Melville is just phenomenal. It's gritty and I honestly sobbed near the end, it really speaks to the heart of community and humanity! Gary Owen is a phenomenal playwright, and I'm just sorry that I never got to see it in person.
April 30, 2020
This is one of the best things I’ve read in a very, very long time, and in 61 pages hit me harder than anything I’ve read in receipt memory. I highly recommend this to everyone, but don’t come to me when you’ve finished and have the same pit in your stomach as I have right now. Can only imagine what it’s like on stage.
August 4, 2017
A wonderful monologue which I've always managed to miss when being performed, but reads like a poetic novel, and is done justice in the written form. It's snappy, sharp and I can honestly say unexpectedly poignant and beautiful.
January 2, 2023
I'm jaded about the possibility of the underlying societal problems ever actually being solved. But. This is brilliantly written. I just wish I knew the Greek myth better because I could definitely only scratch at the surface of the parallels.
September 21, 2023
I have no idea what the myth of Iphigenia is. All I know is this is a great piece on class and poverty and how those ‘above’ treat those ‘below’, and how those ‘below’ simply have to deal with it. Tragic and powerful.
June 30, 2018
Very expensive book for such a short read very disappointed,.
Don't buy this book as it is very expensive and takes 20 minutes to read and is not worth it.
Don't buy this book as it is very expensive and takes 20 minutes to read and is not worth it.
May 14, 2019
Wow, I wasn’t expecting that. What an intense play, thought provoking and real.
July 11, 2020
Poignant, gripping and incredibly funny! This play went through so many twists and turns in ways you least expect.
May 30, 2022
A powerful and angry play. Raises many issues from class oppression to State neglect. Saw this performed live by Red Stitch in Melbourne, and has the same tough impact on the page.
January 15, 2023
A great, blisteringly aggressive yet tender monologue culminating in a version of the classical sacrifice proffered by the title.
June 6, 2025
4.25/5
August 1, 2025
i read this whilst also watching the shitty new ‘my oxford year’ film and god was it a dichotomy. ye this wrecked me
August 16, 2025
Page turner. Fucked up but very good.
November 12, 2025
effie diva you deserved better
September 24, 2020
This is an amazing modern interpretation of "Iphigenia in Aulis". Although you will be able (at least by the end of the play) to see the parallels if you know Euripides' original, it is such a powerful, well-written piece that I am sure you will be able to appreciate it without any knowledge of the play on which it is based.
If you are uncertain about reading a play, the fact it is a monologue probably makes it seem a little less unnatural than a multi-character play format with each character's name preceding their speech.
The characterisation and character development are powerful and realistic, allowing you to join Effie on her heartbreaking journey; you will feel her despair, her hope, her disappointment. You will be there with her at that formative moment which changes her life and you will join her in the agony of the most heart-rending event she has ever experienced.
The setting was also a triumph. Gary Owen chose Splott (a district of Cardiff), a location with which he was familiar, allowing him to add yet more realism to the drama - and a strong visual element, if only in the mind.
In addition to all this, there is a political message which gives the play poignant meaning in addition to an immersive experience of Effie's life in Splott.
I will issue one warning - the monologue contains constant swearing - which, far from being gratuitous, is entirely in keeping with Effie's character. It's removal would change her character, alter our reaction to her and the dynamics between Effie and other characters whom she mentions. It would also strip her of one of the few sources of power which she possesses. Hopefully, if you think Effie's foul language might be an issue, this will help you to decide whether or not this drama is for you. Reading or listening to a sample might also be advisable.
If you are uncertain about reading a play, the fact it is a monologue probably makes it seem a little less unnatural than a multi-character play format with each character's name preceding their speech.
The characterisation and character development are powerful and realistic, allowing you to join Effie on her heartbreaking journey; you will feel her despair, her hope, her disappointment. You will be there with her at that formative moment which changes her life and you will join her in the agony of the most heart-rending event she has ever experienced.
The setting was also a triumph. Gary Owen chose Splott (a district of Cardiff), a location with which he was familiar, allowing him to add yet more realism to the drama - and a strong visual element, if only in the mind.
In addition to all this, there is a political message which gives the play poignant meaning in addition to an immersive experience of Effie's life in Splott.
I will issue one warning - the monologue contains constant swearing - which, far from being gratuitous, is entirely in keeping with Effie's character. It's removal would change her character, alter our reaction to her and the dynamics between Effie and other characters whom she mentions. It would also strip her of one of the few sources of power which she possesses. Hopefully, if you think Effie's foul language might be an issue, this will help you to decide whether or not this drama is for you. Reading or listening to a sample might also be advisable.
May 16, 2019
A monologue play which I listened to on Audible - performed by Sophie Melville. This (audio) book really blew me away - the force of the character of Effie - so fully formed and true to life, an explosion. I know this girl, perhaps the Bristolian version - she grew up in my area, I went to school with her, I was probably intimidated by her. But maybe I only think I know this girl. It is undoubtedly the personal story and sadness that had the deepest impact on me but the play does a lot more. It is an inciteful commentary on social class and marginalisation within our communities also, it reflects a sense of powerlessness in the face of so much being taken away.
September 29, 2021
A really, really fantastic exploration of class, loneliness and motherhood. Perhaps took slightly too long to get to the heart of the issue but once it did- oh boy. Effie was almost annoyingly unlikeable at the start but her decisions and overall character arc turned this around and in turn made me question my own dislike in the first place. Whether Effie is a product of her society or her own self sabotage is up for debate but she undeniably had a good heart. She just wanted someone to love, to not be alone. Damn. FUND THE NHS.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews