This chapter seeks to provide something of an overview of these productions, with a particular fo... more This chapter seeks to provide something of an overview of these productions, with a particular focus on some of the contrasts among them. While these were not the only productions of the Oresteia produced in the late twentieth century, they are all marked by the importance of their directors and their theatre companies. (For a list of productions of Agamemnon, see the appendix to Macintosh et al. 2005; for productions of the Oresteia in its entirety between 1950 and 2000, see Taplin 2002, 10-11, and for a relatively complete list, visit the database at the Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama at the University of Oxford.) Each director stands pre-eminent among the theatre practitioners in their respective countries, shaping the development of the theatre traditions within their national borders but also beyond those borders. And for each of these directors their versions of Aeschylus's Oresteia are numbered as being among the most significant productions of their careers, thus providing a valuable touchstone not only for the reception of ancient Greek drama on stage, but also the development of modern theatre performance traditions in Europe (though perhaps England, for a variety of reasons, ought not to be considered European). Karolos Koun's Oresteia (1980) Koun's production of the Oresteia has a much more complicated relationship to the past than the other three productions. As Sidiropoulou observes, the productions of Hall, Stein and Mnouchkine were "created within a context of relative political stability and economic prosperity in the West at a time when humanist ideals of progress and faith in a unified European future seemed more possible that ever" (2018, 167). These directors took it for granted that Eumenides was rooted in democratic ideals and that their own productions would reaffirm those ideals. And similarly, the place and function of the Oresteia in the cultural canon was secure in England, CHAPTER 36
Discussion of Tony Harrison’s translations and adaptations tends to focus on the texts; both Harr... more Discussion of Tony Harrison’s translations and adaptations tends to focus on the texts; both Harrison’s and the classical texts with which he is engaging. This chapter, however, explores his engagement not with the literary remains of the ancient world, but rather its physical remains. The chapter examines the ways in which works such as The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus, The Labourers of Herakles, The Kaisers of Carnuntum, and The Gaze of the Gorgon engage with the material remains of antiquity, arguing that the physical remnants increasingly exert an influence on a par with the literary texts and that, while Harrison’s works from Trackers on remain deeply engaged with ancient texts, their engagement with antiquity and its legacy are far broader than that of the earlier writing.
While Tony Harrison’s career as a poet was perhaps inevitable by the early 1970s with the publica... more While Tony Harrison’s career as a poet was perhaps inevitable by the early 1970s with the publication of his award winning volume The Loiners (1970), this chapter argues that it was not a given that a significant portion of Harrison’s poetic output would be for the stage, nor that the British Theatre would readily welcome a contemporary poet writing verse plays. I argue that Harrison’s career in the theatre was fostered by his early commissions from the National Theatre and the collaborators he worked with in those early years, especially director John Dexter. Their work together on Harrison’s translations/adaptations of two seventeenth-century French plays—Molière’s Le Misanthrope (1666) and Racine’s Phèdre (1677), staged as The Misanthrope (1973) and Phaedra Britannica (1975)—allowed Harrison to bring to bear on his theatrical translations for the modern stage the ideas that he had been exploring in his doctoral thesis on Vergil and translation. Moreover, the close involvement of ...
The Oxford Handbook of Greek Drama in the Americas, 2015
This chapter provides a brief survey of the more signi cant English-language productions of Greek... more This chapter provides a brief survey of the more signi cant English-language productions of Greek drama in Canada. It is by no means an exhaustive account and for the most part ignores one-o productions, focusing instead on performances of Greek drama which are notable, either for their long-term commitment to productions of Greek drama, or their signi cance to Canadian literature and/or Canadian theater history, and which can be said to have had an impact that stretched beyond the original production and audience. The works discussed include productions by the Classics Drama
The purpose of this thesis is two-fold: (1) to evaluate Plutarch's value as a witness to Empe... more The purpose of this thesis is two-fold: (1) to evaluate Plutarch's value as a witness to Empedocles' work, which survives only in fragments; and (2) to discuss whether it is possible to reconstruct Empedocles' Eis Empedoklea. It consists of five chapters. Chapter one is an introduction to the thesis topic and the previous scholarship on this subject. Chapter two gives a brief introduction to Plutarch and his interest in Plato. It examines how Plutarch cites Plato in Platonic Questions I-X (Moralia 999C-101 IF). Chapter three discusses what is known about the text of Empedocles' work and Plutarch's interest in that work. It examines the Empedoclean quotations found in Plutarch's Moralia. Chapter four discusses whether it is possible to reconstruct Plutarch's Eis Empedoklea. Chapter five is a brief summary which brings together the material from the previous chapters.
Film of the "Ode to Man" chorus from Sophocles' Antigone, made in collaboration with Barefaced Gr... more Film of the "Ode to Man" chorus from Sophocles' Antigone, made in collaboration with Barefaced Greek.
This chapter seeks to provide something of an overview of these productions, with a particular fo... more This chapter seeks to provide something of an overview of these productions, with a particular focus on some of the contrasts among them. While these were not the only productions of the Oresteia produced in the late twentieth century, they are all marked by the importance of their directors and their theatre companies. (For a list of productions of Agamemnon, see the appendix to Macintosh et al. 2005; for productions of the Oresteia in its entirety between 1950 and 2000, see Taplin 2002, 10-11, and for a relatively complete list, visit the database at the Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama at the University of Oxford.) Each director stands pre-eminent among the theatre practitioners in their respective countries, shaping the development of the theatre traditions within their national borders but also beyond those borders. And for each of these directors their versions of Aeschylus's Oresteia are numbered as being among the most significant productions of their careers, thus providing a valuable touchstone not only for the reception of ancient Greek drama on stage, but also the development of modern theatre performance traditions in Europe (though perhaps England, for a variety of reasons, ought not to be considered European). Karolos Koun's Oresteia (1980) Koun's production of the Oresteia has a much more complicated relationship to the past than the other three productions. As Sidiropoulou observes, the productions of Hall, Stein and Mnouchkine were "created within a context of relative political stability and economic prosperity in the West at a time when humanist ideals of progress and faith in a unified European future seemed more possible that ever" (2018, 167). These directors took it for granted that Eumenides was rooted in democratic ideals and that their own productions would reaffirm those ideals. And similarly, the place and function of the Oresteia in the cultural canon was secure in England, CHAPTER 36
Discussion of Tony Harrison’s translations and adaptations tends to focus on the texts; both Harr... more Discussion of Tony Harrison’s translations and adaptations tends to focus on the texts; both Harrison’s and the classical texts with which he is engaging. This chapter, however, explores his engagement not with the literary remains of the ancient world, but rather its physical remains. The chapter examines the ways in which works such as The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus, The Labourers of Herakles, The Kaisers of Carnuntum, and The Gaze of the Gorgon engage with the material remains of antiquity, arguing that the physical remnants increasingly exert an influence on a par with the literary texts and that, while Harrison’s works from Trackers on remain deeply engaged with ancient texts, their engagement with antiquity and its legacy are far broader than that of the earlier writing.
While Tony Harrison’s career as a poet was perhaps inevitable by the early 1970s with the publica... more While Tony Harrison’s career as a poet was perhaps inevitable by the early 1970s with the publication of his award winning volume The Loiners (1970), this chapter argues that it was not a given that a significant portion of Harrison’s poetic output would be for the stage, nor that the British Theatre would readily welcome a contemporary poet writing verse plays. I argue that Harrison’s career in the theatre was fostered by his early commissions from the National Theatre and the collaborators he worked with in those early years, especially director John Dexter. Their work together on Harrison’s translations/adaptations of two seventeenth-century French plays—Molière’s Le Misanthrope (1666) and Racine’s Phèdre (1677), staged as The Misanthrope (1973) and Phaedra Britannica (1975)—allowed Harrison to bring to bear on his theatrical translations for the modern stage the ideas that he had been exploring in his doctoral thesis on Vergil and translation. Moreover, the close involvement of ...
The Oxford Handbook of Greek Drama in the Americas, 2015
This chapter provides a brief survey of the more signi cant English-language productions of Greek... more This chapter provides a brief survey of the more signi cant English-language productions of Greek drama in Canada. It is by no means an exhaustive account and for the most part ignores one-o productions, focusing instead on performances of Greek drama which are notable, either for their long-term commitment to productions of Greek drama, or their signi cance to Canadian literature and/or Canadian theater history, and which can be said to have had an impact that stretched beyond the original production and audience. The works discussed include productions by the Classics Drama
The purpose of this thesis is two-fold: (1) to evaluate Plutarch's value as a witness to Empe... more The purpose of this thesis is two-fold: (1) to evaluate Plutarch's value as a witness to Empedocles' work, which survives only in fragments; and (2) to discuss whether it is possible to reconstruct Empedocles' Eis Empedoklea. It consists of five chapters. Chapter one is an introduction to the thesis topic and the previous scholarship on this subject. Chapter two gives a brief introduction to Plutarch and his interest in Plato. It examines how Plutarch cites Plato in Platonic Questions I-X (Moralia 999C-101 IF). Chapter three discusses what is known about the text of Empedocles' work and Plutarch's interest in that work. It examines the Empedoclean quotations found in Plutarch's Moralia. Chapter four discusses whether it is possible to reconstruct Plutarch's Eis Empedoklea. Chapter five is a brief summary which brings together the material from the previous chapters.
Film of the "Ode to Man" chorus from Sophocles' Antigone, made in collaboration with Barefaced Gr... more Film of the "Ode to Man" chorus from Sophocles' Antigone, made in collaboration with Barefaced Greek.
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