Michael Ewans - Euripides Medea: Translation and Theatrical Commentary

Euripides Medea: Translation and Theatrical Commentary — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "Euripides Medea: Translation and Theatrical Commentary" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

1234567...32

Euripides Medea

This book offers a new, accurate and actable translation of one of Euripides most popular plays, together with a commentary which provides insight into the challenges it sets for production and suggestions for how to solve them.

The introduction discusses the social and cultural context of the play and its likely impact on the original audience, the way in which it was originally performed, the challenges which the lead roles present today and Medeas implications for the modern audience. The text of the translation is followed by the Theatrical Commentary section on the issues involved in staging each scene and chorus today, embodying insights gained from a professional production. Notes on the translation, a glossary of names, suggestions for further reading and a chronology of Euripides life and times round out the volume.

The book is intended for use by theatre practitioners who wish to stage or workshop Medea and by students both of drama, theatre and performance and of classical studies.

Michael Ewans is Conjoint Professor of Drama in the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Science at the University of Newcastle, Australia. His 11 books include two volumes each of translations of plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Aristophanes, all with theatrical commentaries.

Michael Ewans has produced an elegant, thoughtful, careful, and moving text of Euripides Medea [and] a splendid analysis of the play that will make it much, much easier for those who wish to create a production of this important and challenging play Ewans discusses the various challenges and how these challenges can be dealt with by contemporary practitioners. Ewans excellent work deserves to be read, considered, and brought to life in theaters everywhere.

Mary-Kay Gamel, University of California Santa Cruz, USA

Cover image: Claudia Bedford as Medea at 1242ff, in Michael Ewans 2021 production.

Jo Roberts. Reproduced with permission

First published 2022

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2022 Michael Ewans

The right of Michael Ewans to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Applications for the right to perform this translation in public should be made to

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Ewans, Michael, 1946 author. | Euripides. Medea. English

(Ewans)

Title: Euripides Medea: translation and theatrical commentary/Michael

Ewans.

Description: Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2022. | Includes bibliographical

references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021037087 (print) | LCCN 2021037088 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Euripides. Medea. | EuripidesDramatic production.

Classification: LCC PA3985 .E93 2022 (print) | LCC PA3985 (ebook) |

DDC 882/.01dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021037087

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021037088

ISBN: 978-1-032-10545-1 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-032-10543-7 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-003-21584-4 (ebk)

DOI: 10.4324/9781003215844

Typeset in Times New Roman

by Apex CoVantage, LLC

Contents

Medea

The backstory

Characters in order of appearance

Medea

The aftermath

Translation notes

Theatrical commentary

1. Medea
   1. The backstory
   2. Characters in order of appearance
   3. Medea
   4. The aftermath
2. Translation notes
3. Theatrical commentary

Guide

Figure

Preface

Like my previous translations of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Aristophanes, this English version of Medea is designed to be both accurate and actable. Like them also, it is followed by a Theatrical Commentary but with an important difference. All but one of my previous productions were performed in a replica of the original Greek theatre shape, with the audience surrounding the action on three sides. But theatres with this configuration are rare (we had to use a bare-space Drama Studio and install raked seating, though for Sophocles Aias and Electra we were able to perform in a natural outdoor amphitheatre). Medea by contrast was performed in a normal modern theatre with an end-on audience, and it was fascinating to investigate through a research production how the play, written for performance in a very different theatre, could be adapted to work effectively in this much smaller performance space. The Theatrical Commentary reflects our findings.

I owe thanks to Graham Ley, Marguerite Johnson, Carl Caulfield and Mary-Kay Gamel for reading and commenting on drafts of this book and above all to the cast and crew of the premiere production, who taught me so much about the play and ways of staging it today.

Michael EwansThe University of Newcastle, Australia

Chronology

Chronology of Euripides life	Chronology of Euripides times
Born c. 48580
456 Death of Aeschylus
455 Enters tragedy contest for the first time
449 Peace of Callias ends hostilities with Persia
443 Pericles becomes Athens leading politician
441 First victory in the competition	441 Samos revolts from the Athenian empire
439/8 Pericles puts down the revolt in Samos
438 Second with four dramas, including Alcestis, his first surviving play	438 Sophocles wins tragedy contest, probably with Antigone
432 Athenian alliance with Corcyra
431 Third with four dramas, including Medea	431 The Peloponnesians invade Attica; start of the Peloponnesian War
c. 430 Children of Heracles	430 Outbreak of the great plague at Athens. Sophocles, Women of Trachis (?)
429 Hippolytus (first version, not performed)	429 Death of Pericles
428 Hippolytus (second version; won first prize)
c. 425 Andromache	425 Cleon becomes Athens' leading politician
Aristophanes, Acharnians (his first surviving comedy)
Sophocles, Oedipus the King (?)
c. 424 Hecuba	424 Aristophanes,

Next page

1234567...32

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «Euripides Medea: Translation and Theatrical Commentary»

Look at similar books to Euripides Medea: Translation and Theatrical Commentary. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.

Almut Fries

Pseudo-Euripides, Rhesus: Edited with Introduction and Commentary

Ioanna Karamanou

Euripides, Alexandros: Introduction, Text and Commentary

Gunther Martin

Euripides, Ion: Edition and Commentary

Milch

CliffsNotes on Euripides Electra & Medea

Euripides

Medea and Other Plays

G. W. Hegel

The Phenomenology of Spirit: Translation with Introduction and Commentary

David Stuttard (editor)

Looking at Medea: essays and a translation of Euripides’ tragedy

Euripides.

Euripides V: The Complete Greek Tragedies, Third Edition

Euripides.

Euripides IV: The Complete Greek Tragedies, Third Edition

Euripides.

Euripides III: The Complete Greek Tragedies, Third Edition

Euripides.

Euripides II: The Complete Greek Tragedies, Third Edition

Euripides.

Euripides I: The Complete Greek Tragedies, Third Edition

Discussion, reviews of the book Euripides Medea: Translation and Theatrical Commentary and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.