Which theatre performance, in any age, would you choose to see?
Aristophanes’s Lysistrata (fifth century BC, Athens). It humorously, and coarsely, delivers some simple truths: peace is better than war, and sex is better than abstinence.
David Turner, Bellevue Heights, South Australia
• Laurence Olivier and Maggie Smith in Othello (again!)
Edward Black, Church Point, NSW, Australia
• Euripides’s Electra premiered at the Greek city of Dionysia.
David Tucker, Halle, Germany
• Sophocles directing his Theban plays in 500BC would be my choice. The power of the dramas of Oedipus and Antigone echo down the centuries with the universal themes of life, death and tragedy. To be among a contemporary Athenian audience would be an amazing experience.
Margaret Wilkes, Perth, Western Australia
• The original performance of Aeschylus’s Oresteia in 458BC, which many regard as the greatest of all poetic dramas. To see that performance would answer so many questions about Greek tragedy and the ancient Athenian theatre. Its power and genius still excites an overwhelming sense of wonder.
Josh Beer, Ottawa, Canada
• Any Shakespearean play at the original Globe Theatre.
Ursula Nixon, Bodalla, NSW, Australia
• Shakespeare rehearsing.
Richard Orlando, Westmount, Quebec, Canada
• Easy. West Side Story. Leonard Bernstein wrote music and lyrics, with great numbers and told a story.
David Olson, Las Vegas, Nevada, US
Which universe are we in?
Is there such a thing as an unaswerable question?
If it exceeds one’s intellectual limit.
R De Braganza, Kilifi, Kenya
• There are some people who know everything, including, no doubt, the answer to the posited query.
Greg McCarry, Sydney, Australia
• What is going on right now in parallel universes?
Michael Allen Fox, Teneriffe, Queensland, Australia
• Have you just asked it?
Joan Dawson, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
• Who am I?
Amy Gibson, London, UK
• It all depends on the level of proof demanded.
Philip Stigger, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
• Why did you have to die?
Fred Fairhead, Adelaide, South Australia
• Notes & Queries and politicians have an answer for every question. Relevance is another matter, but we know our motives are pure.
Margaret Wyeth, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
• How about “What is the meaning of life?”
Frank Bailey, Hamilton, New Zealand
• Only once you take Google away.
Sunil Bajaria, Bromley, UK
• Why are you asking?
Jennifer Horat, Lengwil, Switzerland
Poutine is a genuine killer
Weapons of war aside, what is mankind’s most damaging invention?
The need for more “stuff”. If need is the mother of invention, then who invented all this stuff that we don’t really need and so throw away, thus depleting our resources and polluting our world?
Gai Wright, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
• Indifference.
Richard MacBride, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
• Poutine.
Mary Garnett, Kaslo, British Columbia, Canada
Any answers?
What is real wealth?
Burkhard Friedrich, Berlin, Germany
Who would be your candidate if there were a Nobel prize for being noble?
Gerald Garnett, Kaslo, British Columbia, Canada
Send answers to weekly.nandq@theguardian.com or Guardian Weekly, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU, UK
