Crates is the pupil of the great Cynic, Diogenes, living in a barrel in Athens 320 BC, and experiencing regular beatings from Athenian officials for his lectures on the subject of ‘the pursuit of happiness’. The audience acts as a small gathering of Athenians and police spies to listen to his expoundings on the old-age question: “What is happiness?”
Programme note: “One of them asked if a man recovering from a severe beating by the city officers was the best person to give a lecture on the pursuit of happiness. Are there as many gaps in my philosophy as there are in my teeth? A man must live, even a third-rate philosopher who is persecuted far above his abilities.”