In the Theatre of Dionysos: Democracy and Tragedy in Ancient Athens

by Richard C. Sewell

Overview

Ancient Athens was unique in its politics, extraordinary in its religion and fanatic about its poetry. Yet its creativity peaked in a time of prolonged, avoidable and catastrophic war; the brilliance of Greek tragedy blazed while the people who made it were bringing ruinous defeat upon themselves.

This book describes the parallel lives of Athenian democracy and Athenian tragedy—how and why they concurrently arose, blossomed and died, shaped especially by a fatal Athenian penchant for war. The author, an actor visiting the Theater of Dionysos at Athens (where the Greek tragedies premiered), considers what hints time has left us of the life and death of Greek tragedy and of the three tragedians (Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides) some few of whose plays survive. He demonstrates how drama emerged from a fusion of four unique elements in Greek culture: bardic poetry; open sporting competition; uncodified religion; and exploratory philosophy. With glimpses of the authors, backers, performers and audiences who collectively created that astounding body of work, the book imagines the evolution of the tragic genre from a practitioner's viewpoint.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786429936
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Publication date:	07/27/2007
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	216
Sales rank:	691,633
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

The late Richard C. Sewell, AEA, was a founding director of The Theater at Monmouth in 1970, directed and acted there until 1993. He taught directing and theater history for the Colby College Theater and Dance department from 1974 to 2001. He lived in Maine, writing and directing. His plays had recent productions in New York, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction: An Amateur Time-Travel Memoir     

I. In the Theater of Dionysos
An Actor at Play with the Past—Athens, 2005     
Three or More Greeces     
A Braid of Three Strands     
Arion     
A Thespian’s Dionysia     

II. Aeschylus and War News
Arms and the Man and the News     
... and the New     
How This Theater Worked—the Early Years     

III. First Plays and Other Newness
Philosopher as Playwright     
Suppliants, Persians and Seven     

IV. Prometheus, Then Orestes
Forethought     
The Cry on the House of Atreus     
A Son Comes Home     
The Gods Come to Athens     
Afterthoughts     

V. Sophocles and Euripides—Worse War News
An Unpleasant Few Minutes     
Theater Life after Aeschylus     
Of Ajax and of Heracles’ Wife     
A One against a Many     
Problematics     
Two Electras, Sophocles’ and Euripides’     

VI. Then and Now
A Twinge     
Hubris in a Theater of War     
The Art of Old Age     
Charon’s Steps     
Then Afterthought Said     

Bibliography     
Index     

Editorial Reviews

Reading [this book] is like sitting down to a leisurely, open-ended chat—probably over a glass or two of scotch—with one of those passionate, marvelously well-informed, creative and freewheeling thinkers who manages also to be charming. There are insights here that I can’t wait to put to use in my next directing project, and enthusiasm here that rejuvenates the reader for the daily business of living a good life and/or doing good theatre.”—Shepard Sobel, Artistic Director, The Pearl Theatre Company, Inc.

From the Publisher