Greek Theatre for the Third Millennium:
Bringing Iphigenia Home
Greek Ruins at Chersonesos, near Sebastopol
We propose an international production of
Euripides’ Iphigenia among the Taurians, with
a translation provided by the poet and
playwright Tony Harrison. His involvement in
the performance of Greek tragedy since his
Oresteia at the National Theatre in London in
1981 and Epidauros in 1982, and The Trackers
of Oxyrhynchus, his reconstruction of
Sophocles’ fragmentary satyr play Ichneutai,
needs little introduction. It is wonderful news
that he has agreed to write a new text of
Iphigenia among the Taurians and be involved
in the production from beginning to end.
The plan is for performances in both the
Crimea, where the play is set, ideally near or
at the ancient site of Chersonesos (which has
the remains of what must be one of the most
northern
ancient
Greek theatres) and
Brauron in Attica (where Iphigenia is directed
to become priestess of Artemis at the end of
the play). Performances in other venues,
especially in Greece, Cyprus, Britain, and
North America, would also be given.
Artemis at Brauron
The play is the archetypal dramatisation of an
encounter between different ethnic groups on
a faraway coast – the Greek equivalent of
Shakespeare’s The Tempest. The encounter
begins with violence, and the threat of death
to the Greeks who have arrived on foreign
soil, but the conflict is resolved and old
psychological wounds are healed. Moreover,
the ending celebrates the positive aspects of
cultural exchange: Thoas and his Taurians
agree to let the Greeks go in peace, and Greek
religion is enriched by its contact with the
Taurians’ cult of Artemis.
The plot enacts a symbolic meditation on
colonial contact, written when the Athenians
were building communities in the Black Sea; it
both reveals the cultural enrichment that such
contact brings, and perhaps hints at the
darker side in the removal of the statue of
Artemis to the mother country. The planned
productions would allow Taurian Artemis
symbolically to ‘come home’ from Greece in a
performance of great beauty and emotional
power.
ancient Hellenic culture across the planet has
entailed. These will be performances with a
new vision for the third millennium, taking
place in the very ancient places, both Greek
and non-Greek, which were home to Iphigenia
and Artemis’ statue.
Vase-Painting of the fourth century BC
illustrating Euripides’ Iphigenia among the
Taurians
This brilliant play, neglected over the last two
centuries, was one of the most popular
tragedies in the ancient repertoire.
Its
concentration on the encounter between
Greek and non-Greek made it one of the most
important ancient plays throughout the Early
Modern
and
Enlightenment
period,
culminating in Goethe’s adaptation and
Gluck’s seminal opera in the late 18th century.
There could be no better play to celebrate the
global impact of Greek tragedy, its crucial role
in internationalism, and the two-way process
of cultural fertilisation that the spread of
But the time is ripe for a new version of this
drama, which is both very funny and very sad,
a bittersweet story of loyalty and escape from
the crippling psychological load of history. It
acknowledges the suffering caused by wars
and atrocities (all of which the Crimea has
seen in abundance over the centuries), but
offers a more optimistic vision of a world in
which people forgive each other and move on,
in peace, with a newly hybrid culture.
On an individual level, the siblings Iphigenia
and Orestes, horribly abused children of a
dysfunctional family, both find a way forward
to a constructive future through finding each
other and talking through the past.
Iphigenia herself is unique, a brave, intelligent
and resourceful heroine whose wits secure
the Greeks’ escape from death. The chorus, of
Greek women, have some of the most
beautiful odes to perform in Greek tragedy,
with their poetic accounts of sea travel, of
sailing across the Black Sea past its rocky
coasts and islands, and their nostalgic vision
of beautiful cult places and legends of Greece,
including Delphi and Delos.
The archaeologist and historical consultant on
the project is David Braund, Professor of
Ancient History at the University of Exeter,
and international expert on the archaeology
of the Black Sea, especially Georgia and the
Ukraine. He travels regularly to the Crimea, is
a fluent Russian speaker, and has numerous
personal and professional contacts at the
relevant archaeological sites and museums.
The project would require sponsorship.
Production Arrangements
The date which has emerged in discussions as
ideal would be the summer of 2012. This is
the anniversary of the first professional
production of the play in London, directed by
Harley Granville Barker but in the translation
of Gilbert Murray, a staunch internationalist
and Hellenist and future founder of the
League of Nations. But the date is completely
open to discussion.
The advisory team would include Edith Hall,
Professor of Classics and Drama at Royal
Holloway, University of London, who is
currently writing a book contracted to OUP
New York on the performance history of
Iphigenia among the Taurians from classical
Athens to the contemporary world. She is
also Chair of the Gilbert Murray Trust and CoFounder and Co-Director, with Oliver Taplin,
of the Archive of Performances of Greek &
Roman Drama at the University of Oxford.
Bas-Relief of Dancer (5th century BCE)
found at in the Crimea at Nymphaion,
which then belonged to the Athenian
Empire