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There is a great theatrical need for readable and
performable drama for students, scholars and
theatergoers. The standard translations of the
classics, first read in Classics 101, were derived
from great Victorian and Edwardian scholars, who
represented a very different audience and language
from post-Vietnam America. Their scholarship was vast
and may have intimidated subsequent scholars, some of
whom were eager to present American styles. But they
were uncertain how to disassemble the Homeric but
ponderous literary forms that were beginning to
alienate modern readers.
 Translators concerned with the theatre reacted to the
traditional sonorous renderings of Aeschylus and
Sophocles with enthusiastic updatings, that frequently
located gods and heroes in the Okefenokee swamps, a
bar, or an inner city ghetto. This patronizing
innovation of arbitrarily updating for modern
audiences reduced the soaring greatness of the Greek
drama. Fewer and fewer people were moved by the works
that had thrilled western man, from the 5th century
B.C., until 21st century 'easy access'. Since it is
much more demanding to attend a theater performance
than to read the book, theater must make greater
efforts to reach audiences already disillusioned with
the classics.
Today, by its very nature, there is an elitism
inherent in the classics, since the normal venues are
the classroom and theater. This will expose the
privileged class to the great ethical, intellectual
and cultural issues of the classics, but not make them
readily available to the vast majority of highly
intelligent, but not so well educated American
audiences. The classics should never be exclusionary.
They can light creative fires in anyone. They should
be available to everyone who can appreciate the scope
of their grandeur, passion, nobility, arrogance,
stubbornness and pettiness.
Unlike in ages past, today a book or theater
performance must compete with an almost endless menu
of diversions. However potent the material, it reaches
a smaller audience than the New York Yankees, or
Batman movies. But the Yankees and Batman may not
endure the test of time as well as Aeschylus and
Sophocles. The Greek drama is not a low cognitive
activity, easily grasped. It is a profound experience
that can potentially dazzle anyone with the wonder and
brilliance of the human mind, as portrayed in the
earliest and greatest expression of dramatic
literature. Yet the drama requires effort and
involvement from the reader or theatergoer, so they
can glean the rich rewards from the extremes of comedy
and tragedy.
Students who read classical drama shouldn't have to
trudge through the chores of stilted or
deconstructured language in order to appreciate the
grand issues and wonderful stories. The elements
should be harmonious. Greek is one of the great
languages of heroic poetry, as is English, so it is
unacceptable for English translations to inhibit the
use of imagination, and curtail the feeling of
pleasure derived from immortal plays. First and
foremost, a play must be readable. If someone can't
enjoy reading Aristophanes, they certainly won't go to
see his plays performed. This premise defines the need
for accessible texts, that maintain their integrity.
The 'classics are heavy' syndrome is inaccurate. We
simply require an exciting text to shatter that
misconception.
Today, instructors of the classics are as well
prepared for their students, as well educated in
general and as dynamic as teachers past. Yet they are
more hindered by their archaic material, which is
often difficult for their students to master. However
dedicated the instructor, commitment cannot overcome
the burden of language that renders a classic
uninteresting or unappealing to an intelligent
student. Students should be well-educated in the
humanities. Yet the classics seem to be a declining
factor in contemporary education, at a time when our
society has great need of consideration of the moral
issues that the classics present.
Our classics classrooms should be crowded with
students, eager to intellectually grapple with the
eternal problems that confront us. Instead,
diminishing enrollments jeopardize the widespread
dissemination of classical learning. We can't
condescend to bright minds with plays whose dialect
and idiobabble confuse or demean great literature.
That is as destructive as stultifying versification.
We must clarify the language of translation so these
wondrous works will thrill and delight readers.
Instructors shouldn't be perceived as curators of
dreary literary relics. They should be appreciated as
purveyors of tools from the exciting past, that relate
to the present and could help us better deal with the
future.
Current performance styles create a confusing arena
for the classical drama. College drama departments
generally encourage students to approach the Greek
classics in one of two basic formats: A museum-like
reproduction, with turgid production elements, totally
out of touch with the theatergoers, such as unison
chanting choruses, rigid prose, stylized movement, and
droning poetic recitation; or alternatively, arbitrary
updating, with complete removal of the grandiose
ethics and passions, rejection of the moral debate
which is the substance of the Greek drama, and the
critical fault of making every character socially
equal, until class and moral distinctions blend into
an amorphous mass of confused theatrical values,
expressed as 'you guys'.
Drama became the exclusive province of the university
as the training ground for professional theater in the
1970's. This was a by-product of the emergence of
regional theaters, affiliated with universities. The
nature of this custodianship of theater is still
evolving. The need is great for theater departments to
include the classics departments as collaborators or
consultants in play production, since theater
professors are neither historians or cultural
scholars. This would facilitate exploring the
complexities of Greek drama and result in more
meaningful performances. This may require diplomatic
and conflict resolution skills, since theater
departments frequently treat the Greek classics like
any other period, while their major concern is with
the Elizabethans and moderns. This is a natural
occurrence, since these periods are of more current
interest to students, due to easier access in reading
and the ready availability of numerous theater
productions. Thus the unique differences between the
Greek drama, which was a state-approved, social,
religious, political and dramatic spectacle, perhaps
historically closer in significance to a combination
of a church mass and an election rally, are not
treated differently than a Broadway musical, or a
National Endowment for the Arts funded production in
the not-for-profit theater.
The lack of theater commitment to the unique integrity
of the Greek drama authorizes directors to deconstruct
the classics and rebuild them, however they choose.
Although this may sometimes allow interesting flights
of fancy in individual creative expression, other
values are neglected. Audiences quickly weary of
Lysistrata protesting panty raids in a college
dormitory, or Agamemnon as a Mafia Boss, strutting
around a bar, buying drinks for the house to celebrate
his victory over Troy.
It is necessary to reignite the interest of readers
and theatergoers to the value of the classics, lest
they be lost to future audiences. The Greek drama
potentially offers an emotional rollercoaster ride,
first rate entertainment, eternal human values and the
richest body of extant ancient literature. This is a
heady combination that must harness all the component
elements of the plays, in order to reach and fulfill
the audiences of today, as well as tomorrow. All we
have to do is spur a neo-renaissance in the classics.
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