The Theater of War: What Ancient Tragedies Can Teach Us Today

By Bryan Doerries

Book Overview

For years theater director Bryan Doerries has been producing ancient Greek tragedies for a wide range of at-risk people in society. His is the personal and deeply passionate story of a life devoted to reclaiming the timeless power of an ancient artistic tradition to comfort the afflicted.

Doerries leads an innovative public health project--Theater of War--that produces ancient dramas for current and returned soldiers, people in recovery from alcohol and substance abuse, tornado and hurricane survivors, and more. Tracing a path that links the personal to the artistic to the social and back again, Doerries shows us how suffering and healing are part of a timeless process in which dialogue and empathy are inextricably linked.

The originality and generosity of Doerries's work is startling, and The Theater of War--wholly unsentimental, but intensely felt and emotionally engaging--is a humane, knowledgeable, and accessible book that will both inspire and enlighten.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0307949729
• ISBN13: 9780307949721
• Release Date: August 2016
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Changes my view of the classics

Going into this book I hadn't read many of the old plays. I had heard of Theater of War when I stumbled on a pandemic Zoom performance of Oedipus (mainly because Oscar Isaac was playing the lead). I was blown away by the performance and the following discussion time and picked up this book to learn more about the Theater of War project. In this book Doerries's main point is that these old drama's don't tell stories that are irrelevant to today, but in fact are telling about this that are happening here and now. Ajax, for example, isn't just raging from anger; he's dealing with PTSD, which not only affected warriors of that time, but even grabbed hold of one of Greece's mightiest and "manliest" figures. He then took this idea and began performing excerpts of these plays to soldiers and their families, with a time of discussion afterwards. I do not do the book justice in this review, so I highly recommend to anyone and everyone to give this a read and I encourage you to find Theater of War's online performances.