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John Barton Directs The Greeks

John Barton Directs The Greeks Twelve years ago the first issue of Theaters predecessor, Yale/Theater asked: Do we need Greek drama? The question was deliberately provocative, but the problem posed was a real one. Our stage finds itself heir to a small, invaluable legacy: the literary remains of the ancient Athenian theater; a few plays which are among the masterpieces of a supremely great drama. We sense the poetic beauty of the texts, we perceive that they confront with great intelligence and sensitivity some of the most basic problems of human existence, and we assume that they form the potential basis for powerful theater. But experience seems to indicate that they are virtually unplayable. Again and again attempts to reconstitute these texts have resulted in the most deadly theater, capable at best of moving an audience to a state of pious boredom, at worse, to disgust. at what seems a travesty of great art. Attempts to stage them generally fall into one of two, equally dismal modes. The first of these, which found its earliest exponents at the beginning of the century in the the work of, among others, Gilbert Murray, and continues today in the efforts of the National Theater of Greece, http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Theater Duke University Press

John Barton Directs The Greeks

Beacham, Richard
Theater , Volume 11 (3) – Jun 1, 1980
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Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
Copyright 1980 by Yale School of Drama/Yale Repertory Theatre
ISSN
0161-0775
eISSN
1527-196X
DOI
10.1215/00440167-11-3-36
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Twelve years ago the first issue of Theaters predecessor, Yale/Theater asked: Do we need Greek drama? The question was deliberately provocative, but the problem posed was a real one. Our stage finds itself heir to a small, invaluable legacy: the literary remains of the ancient Athenian theater; a few plays which are among the masterpieces of a supremely great drama. We sense the poetic beauty of the texts, we perceive that they confront with great intelligence and sensitivity some of the most basic problems of human existence, and we assume that they form the potential basis for powerful theater. But experience seems to indicate that they are virtually unplayable. Again and again attempts to reconstitute these texts have resulted in the most deadly theater, capable at best of moving an audience to a state of pious boredom, at worse, to disgust. at what seems a travesty of great art. Attempts to stage them generally fall into one of two, equally dismal modes. The first of these, which found its earliest exponents at the beginning of the century in the the work of, among others, Gilbert Murray, and continues today in the efforts of the National Theater of Greece,

Journal

Theater – Duke University Press

Published: Jun 1, 1980

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