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Foley (H.P.) Reimagining Greek Tragedy on the American Stage . (Sather Classical Lectures 70.) Pp. xvi + 375, ills. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London : University of California Press , 2012. Cased, £65, US$95. ISBN: 978-0-520-27244-6 .
Reviews
US RECEPTION OF GREEK TRAGEDY
Studying the reception of Greek tragedy in the USA is a daunting task. The vast size of the country and the large number of theatres as well as performances put on by educational institutions offer a considerable challenge. This is of course not the first time that the topic has been tackled, but in the past only sections of the American reception of Greek drama have been examined, for instance K. Wetmore's Black Dionysus: Greek Tragedy and African American Theatre (2003), or the contributions by F. and others in Dionysus Since 69 (E. Hall, F. Macintosh & A. Wrigley [edd.] [2004]), or F.'s 'The Millennium Project: Agamemnon in the United States' (in F. Macintosh, P. Michelakis, E. Hall & O. Taplin [edd.], Agamemnon in Performance 458 bc to ad 2004 [2005], pp. 307-32).
With the present volume F. confirms her reputation as one of the foremost scholars working on the reception of Greek tragedy. She has expanded the scope of her Sather lectures given in 2007-8. The result is a book dense with factual information and incisive analysis. It is impossible to do justice within a short review to the scope and depth of the research that underlies this fascinating account and analysis of the performance, influence and adaptations of Greek tragedy in the United States from the nineteenth century to the present. F. has succeeded admirably in the formidable task of presenting the huge amount of material in a coherent form. She indicates that she regards her work as only a beginning: 'My goal is to leave behind a set of questions and projects for future exploration' (p. xiv).
Because of their overwhelming number, she...