Why are ancient plays still so popular on the contemporary stage? What are the challenges facing directors, translators, designers and actors when staging these plays for contemporary audiences? Why do so many theatre-makers use ancient plays to respond to political issues in the contemporary world? What can the reception of a play by latter cultures teach us about the play itself?
This course looks at contemporary productions of ancient plays. It examines what methods and approaches might be appropriate for studying these productions and where Classical Reception intersects with other disciplines, such as theatre studies, translation theory and cultural history.
It looks at the unique elements of ancient drama, in particularly the chorus, and how a range of theatre directors have responded to the challenge of putting the chorus on stage in modern productions.
The course draws on the rich archive of the Cambridge Greek plays and the unique perspective of the course leader, as a working director. Interviews with actors, directors and translators, films of contemporary productions, rehearsal diaries and back stage footage all bring this course to life. Participants will gain a greater understanding of the process by which plays are adapted for modern audiences and consider how they themselves might choose to bring an ancient play to life on stage.
The course will consider the generic difference between staging ancient tragedy and ancient comedy for a modern audience. What are the unique challenges of adapting satire, or verbal comedy? How do you make a two-thousand year old joke funny?
The course will use Prometheus (Aeschylus) and Antigone (Sophocles) as its core tragic texts, and The Frogs and Lysistrata (Aristophanes) as its core comic texts, but will refer to a wide range of ancient plays and modern productions in the breadth of discussion.
