Poetry and History in Modern Greek Performances of Ancient Drama: Some Observations

In Greece, for the better part of the twentieth century, the perception of tragic language as sublime Poetry with a ‘classical’, i.e. timeless and universal scope, nurtured its counterpoint to History, marginalizing (or even excluding) the idea of using the tragic texts in the service of a direct dialogue with the present. As a Greek theatre critic put it, ‘it is the poetic element that makes ancient drama contemporary down the ages. So, when this synchrony forms part of the nature of Greek tragedy, I question how necessary it is to fix the living play in time by swathing it in the historical shroud of modernization’. Thus the prioritization of Poetry discouraged the political reflection that the plays could cultivate, with the exception of performances referring to ‘national’ (or collective) triumphs and lamentations, avoiding more difficult political vibrations.