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by Lucius Annaeus Seneca translation by Caryl Churchill Directed by JoAnne Akalaitis September 20 – October 21, 2007
Two of the most exciting and innovative female artists of our time join forces to examine power and brutality. The Roman playwright Seneca's monumental tragedy, Thyestes, is an ancient tale of feuding brothers doomed by arrogance, power, and an unbridled drive for revenge. Court's production pairs two titans of contemporary theater, translator Caryl Churchill and director JoAnne Akalaitis. The play chronicles a key chapter in the House of Atreus, a foundation of Greek drama and a precursor to the Trojan War saga. Atreus and his brother Thyestes are two kings meant to share the throne but who struggle for absolute power in a tragic game of one-upmanship. Akalaitis takes inspiration for Court's production not only from classic Greek drama, but from Seneca's own life in Nero's Rome, a period she calls "the most perverse era of theatre that I know about." In a year when the world shudders yet again at the violence spawned by man's rage, audiences will understand why Seneca's enthralling tale inspired the greatest playwrights of every age, particularly Shakespeare. Sponsored by: The University of Chicago Additional support provided by:
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