Scapegoat Carnivale's Tragic Trilogy: Euripides's Medea, Euripides's Bacchae, and Sophocles's Oedipus Tyrannus ed. by Lynn Kozak (review)

Reviewed by: Scapegoat Carnivale's Tragic Trilogy: Euripides's Medea, Euripides's Bacchae, and Sophocles's Oedipus Tyrannus ed. by Lynn Kozak Kathryn Mattison Scapegoat Carnivale's Tragic Trilogy: Euripides's Medea, Euripides's Bacchae, and Sophocles's Oedipus Tyrannus. Edited by Lynn Kozak. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. 2023. Pp. 320. This volume presents new translations of Medea, Bacchae, and Oedipus Tyrannus that were used in performance by Montreal theatre company Scapegoat Carnivale (henceforth SC) between 2010 and 2017. Alongside these excellent new versions we find general introductions to the volume and to Greek tragedy; an introduction to each play that makes reference to staging and the local and international performance context; and a short chapter after each play that introduces important contextual and interpretive elements for those new to tragedy. Overall, the volume has a great deal to offer to students, general audiences, and practitioners who may be considering staging a Greek tragedy. It is engaging and presents the performance possibilities of tragedy in a way that feels fresh and exciting. In the interest of concision, I will address the introductions, the translations, and the contributors' discussions as groups and in that order. In their "Introduction," Erin Hurley and Lynn Kozak explain the overall context of the three plays' production as part of a series called Brave New Looks, in which the ancient material is seen anew through new translations and by new audience members, given the rarity of Greek tragedy in Montreal's anglophone theatre scene. In contrast, they outline the francophone performance tradition of Greek tragedy in Montreal, which Kozak returns to in each of their introductions to the individual plays. The consistent emphasis on the lack of anglophone performances in Canada helps to highlight how little exposure such audiences have to Greek tragedy and is a good reminder that this is one way classics could extend beyond university campuses to engage with the public. Hallie Marshall ("Greek Tragedy in Fifth-Century Athens") takes readers through the Festival of Dionysus, music, genre, politics, performance, and the development of physical theatrical structure. She offers an excellent overview of many aspects of the ancient performance context and also provides references for further reading in the endnotes. The chapter concludes with an evocative speculative description of the sounds, sights, and smells an audience member at the Theatre of Dionysus might have experienced. By ending with an emphasis on the performance context of the festival rather than the texts, Marshall prepares readers to immerse themselves in the world of SC's performances. Immersing the reader is exactly what Kozak achieves in their introduction to each play, by evoking many visual and aural elements while also outlining how the performances were conceptualized and developed. For all three plays, they describe how SC approached the production in terms of staging and setting, providing some contemporary performance context both within Montreal and internationally. Each production drew from a different place and time for aesthetic inspiration: for Medea, SC used the Greek-Turkish population exchange of 1923 as a reference point, with modern Greek pronunciation of names, a bouzouki band, and costumes reflecting the period. The Bacchae was set during The Second Great Awakening in eighteenth- to nineteenth-century America, when religion could inspire "awe and terrible ecstasy" (107), leaning into the deep religious themes of the play. Oedipus Tyrannus was a staged reading rather than a full-scale production due to a lack of funding, but still seems like a visually impressive [End Page 162] production with three different choruses. In these brief introductions, Kozak made me want to experience the plays for myself. They describe intense tableaux of the chorus after Medea's act of murder; two choruses singing in a hymnal mode around a raked stage representing Mount Cithaeron in the Bacchae; and different local choirs positioned around the actors of Oedipus Tyrannus. The plays I know so well were leaping off the page in unexpected and stimulating ways. The plays themselves are Joseph Shragge's adaptations from literal translations (Medea and Bacchae by Andreas Apergis, Oedipus Tyrannus by Lynn Kozak). They are not only enjoyably...

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