The Greek Plays

By Ellen McLaughlin

From The Persians:

"Defeat is impossible

Defeat is unthinkable

We have always been the favorites of fate.

Fortune has cupped us In her golden palms.

It has only been a matter

Of choosing our desire.

Which fruit

To pick from the nodding tree."

This chilling passage is from Ellen McLaughlin's adaptation of The Persians by Aeschylus, the earliest surviving play in Western literature, an elegy for a fallen civilization and a warning to its new conqueror. As Margo Jefferson wrote in the New York Times, "The play is a true classic: we see the present and the future right there, inside the past. And when writers give us a 'new version' (a translation or adaptation) of a classic, they both serve and use it. They serve the playwright's gifts by refusing to simplify. But they can't just imitate. Every age has its own rhythms and drives. The classic must make us feel the new acutely. Ellen McLaughlin serves and uses The Persians with true power and grace." Also included in this volume: Iphigenia and Other Daughters (from Euripides and Sophocles); The Trojan Women (Euripides); Helen (Euripides); and Lysistrata (Aristophanes), all powerfully realized and as relevant today as when they were first performed.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1559362405
• ISBN13: 9781559362405
• Release Date: July 2004
• Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.27 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A Lyrical and Essential Journey

This book of plays by Ellen McLaughlin contains simply the most beautiful, most exciting new takes on these ancient classics to come along in YEARS. The voice is both fresh and resonant with age, gritty and transcendent. Some are better than others, of course (My complete favorite is IPHIGENEIA AND OTHER DAUGHTERS), but each play is more than worth the read, and makes you itch to mount/play them. These plays are also an important resource for young women on their acting journey. I have given it as a gift to several of these actors who are trying to find their own strengths both as women and as artists, and the plays speak vividly to each of them. If you are a serious theatre artist -- whether in the performance profession or in the educational realm -- you should own this book.