Transformations of Ancient Greek Drama in Modern Greek Drama
for the period 1974-2009
Acronym: META.DRA. 1974-2009 - META-DRA. 1974-2009
Ancient-myth plays, i.e. those that draw thematic and dramatic elements from ancient Greek drama, cover a fairly large part of modern Greek drama, which often has significant qualitative results and can be effectively compared – on an educational and academic level – with the original ancient drama production. The delimitation of the reference period, 1974-2009, was based on the fact that the post-junta years and the decades on the cusp of the 20th and 21st centuries were marked by fundamental changes in the political and social stage, which were accompanied by corresponding significant rearrangements in the field of theatre writing and acting, which have influenced the theatrical landscape until today.
In the first phase of the research, the modern Greek plays that “communicate” with surviving plays of ancient Greek drama production and are chronologically dated from 1974 until the end of 2009, were identified, collected and classified – according to their date of production/edition, subject and genre. Excluded from the field of research were those ancient-themed plays whose thematic material derives from Greek mythological tradition but does not constitute the thematic core in any of the surviving ancient Greek dramas, as well as all those ancient-themed plays which derive their thematic material from ancient Greek history, philosophy and literature, without any specific connection with ancient extant dramas.
In the second phase, the emphasis was placed on the dramatic analysis and evaluation of the recorded plays; the thematic, morphological, structural, semantic convergences and divergences between the underlying ancient plays (hypotexts) and the modern Greek plays (hypertexts); the investigation of the modern Greek ancient-myth plays in terms of publications, critical reviews and performances; the search for the aesthetic (mutual) effects in relation to the Greek and foreign performances of ancient dramas in Greece, but also in relation to the international ancient-myth dramaturgy; the emergence of the different aesthetic and ideological responses proposed by these plays in the socio-political context of the last three decades of the 20th century.
Scientific Supervisor: Aikaterini (Kaiti) Diamantakou
Research Associate: Sophia Alexiadou, PhD candidate, Department of Theatre Studies, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
