Greek Tragedy and the Digital

Description

Adopting an innovative and theoretical approach, Greek Tragedy and the Digital is an original study of the encounter between Greek tragedy and digital media in contemporary performance. It explores the ways in which key notions and conventions of Greek tragedy, such as the community, the city, the hubris and the mask, have been re-appropriated and challenged by artists through the use of technology in contemporary digital and virtual reality theatre. These technological innovations in performances of Greek tragedy shed new light on contemporary transformations and adaptations of classical myths, while raising fresh questions on how augmented reality works within interactive and immersive environments.
Drawing on cutting-edge productions and current theoretical debates on performance and the digital, this timely collection considers issues such as performativity, liveness, immersion, intermediality, technological fragmentation, the conventions of the chorus and the rhapsody, the theatre as hypermedia and reception theory in relation to Greek tragedy. The volume participates creatively in on-going debates concerning contemporary performance, drama, reception theory and the poetization of technology.
Theatre directors discussed include Krzysztof Varlikovsky, Jan Fabre, Rimini Protokoll, Romeo Castellucci, Katie Mitchell, Georges Lavaudant, Peter Sellars, The Wooster Group, Hans Neuenfels, Labex Arts-H2H, Akram Khan, Urland & Crew, Medea Electronique, Robert Wilson, Omar Abu Saada, Michael Cacoyannis, Klaus Obermaier, Guy Cassiers, Luca di Fusco, Ivo Van Hove and Avra Sidiropoulou.
This is an incisive, interdisciplinary study that serves as a practice model for conceptualizing the ways in which Greek tragedy encounters digital culture in contemporary performance.

George Rodosthenous is Associate Professor in Theatre Directing at the School of Performance and Cultural Industries of the University of Leeds, UK.
Angeliki Poulou is Assistant Professor at the Department of Digital Arts and Cinema National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece.

List of Illustrations
Notes on Contributors
Introduction, George Rodosthenous (University of Leeds, UK) and Angeliki Poulou (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece) THE PRESENCE OF THE DIGITAL IN GREEK TRAGEDY: DEVELOPMENTS AND ENCOUNTERS WITH TECHNOLOGY 1. From the Ekkyklema to Ivo Van Hove: The Technology of Presence in Multimedia Theatre and the Presence of the Digital in Performance, George Sampatakakis (University of Patras, Greece) 2. The Dramaturgy of Digital Technology and the Greek Tragedy: A Rhizomatic Encounter, Angeliki Poulou (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece) 3. Digitizing the Canon: Mediated Lives and Purloined Realities in Jay Scheib’s The Medea, Wooster Group’s To You, the Birdie! and Persona Theatre Company’s Phaedra I-., Avra Sidiropoulou (Open University of Cyprus, Cyprus) THE CHORUS AND THE DIGITAL: RE-DISCOVERING THE POLITICS 4. ‘Inventing’ the Ancient Tragic Chorus: Communality and the Digital in the 1999 Oresteias by Katie Mitchell (NT, London) and Georges Lavaudant (Odéon, Paris), Estelle Baudou (University of Oxford, UK) 5. Augmented Vocal Chorus: From Ancient Drama to the New Mythologies of the Actor, Chloé Larmet and Ana Wegner (ArTeC – Labex, University Paris 8, France)6. Tragedy and the Digital Environment: Ancient Desiring Machines, Choruses and Oedipus, Sebastian Kirsch (New York University, USA)AVATARS, MASKS AND CYBORGS: AUGMENTING THE REALITY 7. Digital Mask for Ancient Greek Drama: Artificiality, Constraint and Metamorphosis, Erica Magris and Giulia Filacanapa (ArTeC – Labex, University Paris 8, France) 8. Cassandra in PythiaDelphine21: Oracles, Cyborgs and the Tragedy of Cassandra and Temporalities Within the Digital, Julie Wilson-Bokowiec (University of Huddersfield, UK) 9. Colonial Convulsions: Akram Khan’s Xen(os) and the Digital Prometheus, Mario Telo, (University of California, Berkeley, USA) POSTLUDE10. The Digital in Ruins: Greek Tragedy and the Postdigital, David Berry (University of Sussex, UK)11. The Complete Eradication of the Live Actor from the Tragic Stage: Pre- and Post-Human(-ist) Confluences in Contemporary Productions of Greek Tragedy, Paul Monaghan (Nipissing University, Canada)IN MEMORIAM MICHALIS CACOYANNIS12. Technological Triumph and Greek Tragedy: Digitizing Michalis Cacoyannis’ Trojan Trilogy, Marianne McDonald (UCSD, USA) Index

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