Hellas Message Board

I read a lot of pieces with my teen (musical theatre major). So far Electra, and we're reviewing the script for Metamorphoses, based on Ovid's Metamorphoses. We really thought it was interesting how Shakespeare was inspired by the piece to write Midsummer's Night Dream.

Metamorphoses was the first complete work I read by Ovid and it still remains one of my favourite Classical texts.

At the moment I'm reading Hippolytus by Euripides and Antigone by Sophocles for the Dramatic Women element in my Greek literature course for my degree. I also get to read Lysistrata by Aristophanes (only need to read it in English unfortunately) which will be good fun! I particularly like Greek tragedy, especially performing in productions of the plays. They are incredibly complex works, perhaps more so than most modern plays.

My daughter just finished Antigone, she really enjoyed it.
I agree about the complexity of the works.

Lysistrata was the first play I ever read, when I was ten years old and sneaked my dad's copy under the bed clothes. I've been hooked on Greek dramatists ever since. I like Euripidesabove all others, though certain passages from Aeschylus are astounding, particularly Klutemnestra's 'beacon' speech. I've seen footage of a brilliant Japanese language version of Medea which is incredible and evokes the original staging; it's the closest I've seen to what I understand about Greek drama (I add quickly that I am no expert but an enthusiast).

Some of the 'best bits' of tragedy are in Penguin's Greek Verse: the translation's superb and you can read the original Greek to get a feeling of the rhythm and internal rhymes, contrasting the different parts of the drama's poetic meter. If I had one 'time machine' wish, I would wish to be in the audience for Medea when it was first performed: wow!

It is such a shame they had no way of recording any of the plays for us to see!

I agree, Euripides is my favourite as I find there are so many ways of interepreting each tale. It is true that you can do that with the others, but I feel Euripides may have designed his plays with the different levels in mind.

Yes, that would be something to see! I recently saw a program on the Ovation network about the rebuilding of the Globe theatre, and they talked about how Shakespeare is different when played there. The text, the movement, interplay with the audience, and even the weather, everything lined up exactly as it was played in Shakespeares time. Many theatres will do greek classics outdoors, and try to recreate the setting abit but I'm sure it doesn't change anything. It would be something to see it then, or even recreated perfectly using the same formula as they've done with the Globe. hmmm... I suppose I should go google that, to see if they do in different places. So when someone invents a time machine, be sure to pick me up, I'll pay for the tickets.

There is a school in England, Bradfield College, that has its own open air Greek theater and stages plays there in the original Greek. A Google search will point to their recent productions. When I was in school I saw two plays there and feel that the setting did lend something to the production values and my understanding of how classical theater worked. It certainly makes you very appreciative of modern padded, sprung and upholstered seats!

Bradfield College has one too! I've performed twice on the outdoor Greek theatre at Bryanston, Dorset, England - that is very realistic, even has the altar and entrances in the right positions. It's great! And I agree- we take the conveniences of modern theatre for granted!