These two fantasies are linked by the presence of phantoms – of the murdered Iphianassa in the first (which is set in an ancient Greek palace), and of three imaginary spectres in The Oliphant (set in a modern London club). In Sophocles’ Elektra, Iphianassa is mentioned in passing as the fourth sister at the palace of Mycenae; but this drama brings her and her murdered sister Iphigenia to the fore as it welds the various versions of the myth into a single and poignant narrative. The French epic The Song of Roland stands in the background of The Oliphant (a musical instrument), a dark entertainment in which Toby, once a school fag, acts out his lifelong trauma at the hands of the boy he once served: Sir Roland, who is now a larger-than-life public figure. The denouement is surreal: can the action be ‘actual’, we wonder, or does it merely unfold in Toby’s mind?