A Tragic Romp?

A Tragic Romp? MARY-KAY GAMEL M ore productions of ancient Athenian drama are being staged now around theworld than at any time inhistory. Even so, the full range of extant plays is not being explored. Antigone, Oedipus the King, Medea, Bac chae, Trojan Women, Lysistrata appear again and again; Seven Against Thebes, Oedipus at Colonus, Iphigenia among the Taurians, Women at the Thesmophoria very rarely. Particular historical moments occasionally spark productions of lesser-known plays; since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, for example, there have been a number of pro ductions of Aeschylus' Persians and Euripides' Helen (often making the link between Helen missing fromTroy and Sad dam Hussein's missing weapons of mass destruction). Pro ductions such as these can push too hard for "relevance" and become agitprop, but they are often livelier than those of regional theaters which dutifully offer their subscribers a Greek play as part of a mixture of modern and "classic" shows. A look at the online Archive for the Performance of Greek and Roman Drama shows that Euripides' Orestes has been one of the least performed Athenian tragedies (http://www. apgrd.ox.ac.uk/index.htm). Yet in antiquity itwas one of the best-known and most admired plays, repeatedly per formed, copied, and circulated.1 Itwas inOrestes that the actor Hegelochus infamously mispronounced the word "calm" in line 279 ("From thewaves I see calm once again") so that it sounded like "weasel," which the comic play wrights parodied endlessly. There are more quotations from Orestes by Greek and Latin authors than from any other ARION 18.1 SPRING/SUMMERZOIO izo a tragic romp? Greek drama, and the only remaining fragment of a musical score is from this play. The last few years have seen more frequent stagings of this play: Charles Mee's version has been produced a number of times since itsdebut in 1992; Kathryn Bosher staged Arrow smith's translation in Toronto in 1994; the Utah Classical Greek Theater Festival did the Peck-Nisetich translation in 1996; Helen Edmundson's version was staged inLondon in 2006; in 2009 an adaptation by Cambiare Productions was staged inAustin, Texas; and Classic Stage Company inNew York offered An Oresteia, which featured Aeschylus' Aga memnon, Sophocles' Elektra, and Orestes, each translated byAnne Carson. In spring 2010, two productions of Orestes running simultaneously on the east and west coasts of the US offered a chance to think about this play both in itsorig inal context and now. Orestes, first staged in 408 bce, is based on the well known story of the son who avenges his father Agamem non's murder by killing his mother Klytemnestra. It is very different from earlier versions, and a survey of these ver sions demonstrates how much freedom ancient playwrights had in using mythic material. InAeschylus' Oresteia trilogy (458), the protagonist's matricide leads to the end of pri vate revenge and the establishment of justice and law?de picted as a huge step forward in human history and a sign of Athens' superiority as a state. In two of his earlier Orestes plays, Euripides had offered a much less positive view. In Elektra (413?), the neurotic protagonist, obsessed with Klytemnestra's wealth and sex life, drives her reluc tant brother to join in killing her. Then they are over whelmed with remorse, made worse when their uncles Kastor and Polydeukes appear as dei ex machina and tell '"Orestes:A Tragic Romp, translated/adapted byAnneWashburn, directed by Aaron Posner; Folger Theatre, Washington DC, 27 Jan-7 Mar. 2010. Orestes, translated byMarianne McDonald and J.Michael Wal ton, directed by Douglas Lay; The Theatre, Inc., San Diego, 20 Feb.-2i Mar. 2010. Mary-Kay Gamel 121 them Apollo was wrong to command themurder. In Iphi genia among the Taurians (412?), the Furies remain en raged that theAthenians have acquitted Orestes, and make him go through stillmore trials. The script of Orestes is remarkable, indeed unique among Greek dramas. The plot, with its swings of action, character, mood, and tone, was apparently Euripides' invention and utterly violates Aristotle's prescriptions for tragedy. The cen tral characters too are complex, self-contradictory individu als who can be interpreted in differentways. Only...

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