Modern Greek Theatre: A Quest for Hellenism. By Stratos Constantinidis. Jefferson, NC, and London: McFarland & Company, 2001; pp. 197. $34.95 paper.

Abstract

For those of us who write about modern Greek theatre the major problem is not to prove its value but to find ways to let others know about it, which primarily requires overcoming the language barrier. Since most of the plays written in Greek are never translated into English or any other “major” language that would attract widespread critical attention, most often we are forced to write for two audiences: the local specialist and the non-Greek generalist. For the first, we tend to narrow down the focus to the point where the generalist who lacks the background necessary to engage with unknown texts is lost. When we write for the generalist, we open up the lens too much to appeal to the local specialist. This dilemma characterizes Stratos Constantinidis’s Modern Greek Theatre: A Quest for Hellenism, a study that tries to balance the author’s scholarly ambitions on the one hand (to write a new account of modern Greek theatre) and the demands of his readers on the other for something more general that does not cram in names, dates, and titles.