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 challenges Greek tragedy conventions through the contemporary arsenal of sound masks, avatars, live code poetry, new media art and digital cognitive experimentations. These technological innovations in performances of Greek tragedy shed new light on contemporary transformations and adaptations of classical myths, while raising emerging questions about how augmented reality works within interactive and immersive environments.
Drawing on cutting-edge productions and theoretical debates on performance and the digital, this collection considers issues including performativity, liveness, immersion, intermediality, aesthetics, technological fragmentation, conventions of the chorus, theatre as hypermedia and reception theory in relation to Greek tragedy.
Case studies include Kzryztof Warlikowski, Jan Fabre, Romeo Castellucci, Katie Mitchell, Georges Lavaudant, The Wooster Group, Labex Arts-H2H, Akram Khan, Urland & Crew, Medea Electronique, Robert Wilson, Klaus Obermaier, Guy Cassiers, Luca di Fusco, Ivo Van Hove, Avra Sidiropoulou and Jay Scheib. 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.
List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors INTRODUCTION George Rodosthenous (University of Leeds, UK) and Angeliki Poulou (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece) PRELUDE The Digital in Ruins: Greek Tragedy and the Postdigital David M. Berry (University of Sussex, UK) 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 Giulia Filacanapa and Erica Magris (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) POSTLUDE Pre- and Post-Human(-ist) Confluences in Contemporary Productions of Greek Tragedy: The Complete Eradication of the Live Actor from the Tragic Stage Paul Monaghan (Nissiping University, Canada) IN MEMORIAM MICHALIS CACOYANNIS Technological Triumph and Greek Tragedy: Digitizing Michalis Cacoyannis’ Trojan Trilogy Marianne McDonald (UCSD, USA) Index
George Rodosthenous is Professor 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.
Reviews for Greek Tragedy and the Digital
This is a rich volume that I would recommend to scholars of the ancient Mediterranean and theatre studies, as well as artists outside the academy ... For digital artists, theatre-makers, theatre scholars, Classicists, and anyone who inhabits multiple worlds at once, this volume is proof that tragedy and the digital have much to say to and through one another. -- Emma Pauly * The Classical Review *
