Between Texts and Contexts

Abstract

In the first decades of the last century, while the holy cause of ancient tragedy’s ‘revival’ was becoming established in Greece, there were some, among them Grigorios Xenopoulos, who claimed that the ancient plays could not be theatrically interesting to a contemporary audience unless they were submitted to textual and performative adaptation. Their challenge to tragedy’s ‘revival’ originated from different modern perspectives, mapping out diverse and even conflicting versions of modern Greek theatrical modernity. Despite their differences, they all emphasized the importance of contemporary theatre as opposed to ancient drama, and pointed out theatrical and cultural gaps between the ancient past and the modern present at a time when most Greek intellectuals and artists were zealously confirming continuities. However, their agenda has been totally overlooked thereafter in the practice of performing tragedy in Greece. This chapter presents and discusses the various texts and contexts of this neglected modern Greek battle between Moderns and Ancients.