Errata - Muller never did the Oresteia, but other things like Philoctetes
and Medeamaterial, a post-Holocaust version set in a rubbish dump - I saw
the latter once, done by the Attic Theatre Co, from Athens, a totally
amazing production that I've never forgotten - an astonishing moment where
Medea killed her children, which was represented by the bursting of a bag
of milk, sounds like nothing here but such was the intensity of the
performances (which were approached through some sadistic avant gard ritual
lasting hours before each performance) that it was one of the more amazing
things I've seen on stage.
Early in the morning here...
Alison
You know, I _like_ his Oedipus - I know it's completely ott, but it has
this energy which for me sweeps it through. The Oresteia is in fact more
restrained, but it has much more this air of bookishness, somehow, when
he's looking for barbaric splendour and horror, and it feels like he's
stretching his arm - and when you think of what's been done to the Oresteia
in the 20C, from Martha Graham through to Heiner Muller, it's a little bit
- um - prissy.
All right, off my soapbox.
Best
A
>I'm minded here too of Hughes's version of the Seneca Oedipus, which too I
>found both wordy and straining for horror, I think one of the paradoxes of
>Hughes was that he was at his best as a poet of restrained violence, indeed,
>his sometimes sensitivity, as the Full Moon that Little Frieda saw, is his
>real virtue, while the slightly Hammer House of Horrors garishness, and too
>the portentous blab, do not serve him well.
>
>Best
>
>Dave
>
>
>David Bircumshaw
>
>Leicester, England
>
>Home Page
>
>A Chide's Alphabet
>
>Painting Without Numbers
>
>www.paintstuff.20m.com/index.htm
>
>http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/index.htm
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Alison Croggon" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2001 7:39 PM
>Subject: Re: Ted Hughes' Alcestis
>
>
>> You know, I've been looking at Hughes' translation of the Oresteia again -
>> they're attacking on the texts, but not that attacking - they're still
>> stuck in the original. Not that radical. And surprisingly wordy.
>>
>> And straining for horror, which at his best he doesn't do, though some of
>> the Chorus stuff is good. The best contemporary adaptation I've seen of
>> the Greeks is Caryl Churchill's Thyestis.
>>
>> Best
>>
>> A
>>
>>
>> >Just to say that I listened to it on the radio tonight.
>> >It was startingly personal from Ted.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >Douglas Clark, Bath, England mailto: [log in to unmask]
>> >Lynx: Poetry from Bath ..........
>http://www.bath.ac.uk/~exxdgdc/lynx.html
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Alison Croggon
>>
>> Home page
>> http://users.bigpond.com/acroggon/
>> Masthead
>> http://au.geocities.com/masthead_2/
>>
Alison Croggon
Home page
http://users.bigpond.com/acroggon/
Masthead
http://au.geocities.com/masthead_2/
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