Greek tragedy is currently being performed more frequently than at any time since classical antiquity. This book is the first to address the fundamental question, why has there been so much Greek tragedy in the theatres, opera houses, and cinemas of the last three decades? A detailed chronological appendix of production information and lavish illustrations supplement the fourteen essays by an interdisciplinary team of specialists from the worlds of classics, theatre studies, and the professional theatre. They relate the recent appeal of Greek tragedy to social trends, political developments, aesthetic and performative developments, and the intellectual currents of the last three decades, especially multiculturalism, post-colonialism, feminism, post-structuralism, revisions of psychoanalytical models, and secularization.

Greek tragedy is currently being performed more frequently than at any time since classical antiquity. This lavishly illustrated book is the first attempt fully to document and explain its revival. It assembles fourteen essays by specialists from classics, theater studies, and the professional theater, who relate the recent production history of Greek tragedy to social and academic trends.

...a major contribution to the year's work