Radical Theatre: Greek Tragedy in the Modern World

175 Pages·2003·9.325 MB·English

by  Rush Rehm

Radical Theatre
CLASSICAL INTER/FACES
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RADICAL T H E A T RE
Greek Tragedy and the
Modern World
Rush Rehm
B L O O MS B U RY
LONDON • NEW DELHI • NEW YORK • SYDNEY
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Frist published in 2003 by Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd
© Rush Rehm 2003
Rush Rehm has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
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accepted by Bloomsbury or the author.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: PB: 978-0-7156-2916-1
ePDF: 978-1-4725-0233-9
ePUB: 978-1-4725-0234-6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Contents
A Note to the Reader 7
Introduction: Timely Thoughts 9
1. Theatre, Artifice, Environment 21
2. Tragedy and Fear 40
3. The Fate of Agency, the Agency of Fate 65
4. Tragedy and Ideology 87
5. Tragedy and Time 119
Epilogue: Progress and Survival 140
Notes 143
Bibliography 163
Index 171
5
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A Note to the Reader
When referring to the tragedies, I have used the OCT editions:
Aeschylus, ed. Denys Page (Oxford 1972)
Sophocles, eds H. Lloyd-Jones and N.G. Wilson (Oxford 1990)
Euripides, ed. J. Diggle, vol. I repr. with corr. (Oxford 1989); vol. II
repr. with corr. (Oxford 1986); vol. Ill (Oxford 1994).
Translations are my own, unless otherwise noted.
Abbreviations for Greek authors and texts follow Liddell-Scott-
Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, and for scholarly journals, UAnnee
Philologique (founded by J. Marouzeau, Paris) and the American
Journal of Archaeology. In the English spelling of Greek words, I
follow common usage, but I have tried to respect original spelling in
quotations. The references in the notes limited to author, year, and
page number are keyed to the entries in the Bibliography, where full
publication information can be found. Portions of Chapter 1 appear
in expanded form in The Play of Space: Spatial Transformation in
Greek Tragedy (Princeton 2002), and a section of Chapter 2 appears
in 'Supplices, the Satyr-Play - Charles Mee's Big Love9, American
Journal of Philology 123 (2002) 111-18.1 am grateful to the publish­
ers for permission to incorporate those passages here.
I would like to thank Ron Davies for his technical help with the
ms; Herman Altena, Edith Hall and Richard Beacham for responding
to specific queries with speed and grace; series editors Paul Cartledge
and Susanna Morton Braund for their astute editorial comments,
which have improved the book greatly; and Andrea Nightingale for
making it all better. jHasta la victoria!
7
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Introduction
Timely Thoughts
I do not know what meaning classical scholarship may have for
our time except in being 'unseasonable' - that is, contrary to our
time, and yet with an influence on it for the benefit, it may be
hoped, of a future time.
Friedrich Nietzsche1
This book aims to recapture the radical nature of Greek tragedy, and
to suggest how the contemporary theatre might engage with the
world's oldest dramatic form. I use the term 'radical' with its etym­
ology in mind - from the Latin radix, 'root', suggesting that Attic
tragedy provides a foundation or source for later theatrical activity,
and as such can offer sustenance for contemporary performance. But
'radical' also points to something politically dangerous, capable of
challenging and undermining accepted practice. Approaching Greek
tragedy as a radical source may help us remember what we have
forgotten about the theatre, and also point toward some timely
innovations.
Let us begin with the fundamental philosophical move, as Socrates
might advise, asking the 'what is it?' question of theatre and perform­
ance. Contemporary responses to that question have displaced the
first term with the second, and the results constitute the burgeoning
field of performance studies. A short seven years ago, in her introduc­
tion to Performance and Cultural Politics, Elin Diamond noted that
'performance discourse, and its new theoretical partner "performativ-
ity", are dominating critical discussion almost to the point of
stupefaction'.2 The 'almost' in her judgement seems pre-Noachic,
given the flood of studies after hers in which performance provides
the subject or the interpretive frame, or both.
Through the sometimes murky waters of this theoretical current
one glimpses a distinction between 'performativity' and 'perform-
9