GREEK TRAGEDY IN THE LECTURE THEATRE: TRANSLATION AND PERFORMANCE

John Davidson
Department of Classics
Victoria University of Wellington, NZ

There is often a tension between the approach which sees a given Greek tragedy as a performance script, and the approach which sees it as a text for literary analysis. This paper asks whether the two approaches should be kept separate or not, and if not, how the academic lecture room might be better exploited to give sometimes reluctant literature students a taste of Greek Tragedy as theatre. The question of what is important or not important in the choice of translations will also be addressed. And an attempt will be made to assess the value of emphasising details of the 'original' performance conditions, as opposed to pointing towards ways of 'liberating' a text and allowing it to generate its own relevance in a modern context. Euripides Medea will be the main illustrative text.

John Davidson
Victoria University of Wellington, NZ