"felt very strongly that the play was not just a farce, but included a serious side, specifically represented by the character of Aegeon, who has lost his family and is about to lose his life. In several productions Jones had seen, Aegeon was completely forgotten between the first and last scenes, and determined to avoid this, and hence give the production a more serious air, Jones had Aegeon wandering around Ephesus throughout the episode. This production used editing and special effects to have each set of twins played by the same actors. However, this was not especially well received by"
"Rhesus (play) Rhesus (, ""Rhēsos"") is an Athenian tragedy that belongs to the transmitted plays of Euripides. Its authorship has been disputed since antiquity, and the issue has invested modern scholarship since the 17th century when the play's authenticity was challenged, first by Joseph Scaliger and subsequently by others, partly on aesthetic grounds and partly on peculiarities in the play's vocabulary, style and technique. The conventional attribution to Euripides remains controversial. ""Rhesus"" takes place during the Trojan War, on the night when Odysseus and Diomedes sneak into the Trojan camp. The same event is narrated in book 10 of Homer's"
"escape plan attempted in ""Thesmophoriazusae"" as well. Wall painting at House of the Citharist, Pompeii (pre-79 AD.) Roman relief carving around stone column discovered in Fittleworth, West Sussex (1st century AD.) Iphigenia in Tauris Iphigenia in Tauris (, ""Iphigeneia en Taurois"") is a drama by the playwright Euripides, written between 414 BC and 412 BC. It has much in common with another of Euripides's plays, ""Helen"", as well as the lost play ""Andromeda"", and is often described as a romance, a melodrama, a tragi-comedy or an escape play. Although the play is generally known in English as ""Iphigenia in Tauris"","
"of reconciliation and affection. (The rest of this incomplete tragedy is missing.) Phoenissae (Seneca) Phoenissae (Phoenician women) is a ""fabula crepidata"" (Roman tragedy with Greek subject) written by Lucius Annaeus Seneca; with only c. 664 lines of verse it is his shortest play. It is an incomplete text in two parts. It is situated in Thebes in Boeotia, the city founded by Cadmus, who came from Sidon, in Phoenicia. When Oedipus discovered his crime, he blinded himself; and went into exile with his daughter Antigone, who offered herself as guide. In the meantime his sons Eteocles and Polynices engage in"
"The Persians The Persians (, ""Persai"", Latinised as ""Persae"") is an ancient Greek tragedy written during the Classical period of Ancient Greece by the Greek tragedian Aeschylus. It is the second and only surviving part of a now otherwise lost trilogy that won the first prize at the dramatic competitions in Athens' City Dionysia festival in 472 BCE, with Pericles serving as ""choregos"". The first play in the trilogy, called ""Phineus"", presumably dealt with Jason and the Argonauts' rescue of King Phineus from the torture that the monstrous harpies inflicted at the behest of Zeus. The subject of the third"
"may have included ""Eriphyle"", ""Epigoni"", in which Alcmaeon kills Eriphyle, and ""Alcmaeon"", which may have involved the sequel to the killing, including the pursuit of Alcmaeon by the Erinyes, his eventual purification, and subsequent death. Amphiaraus (play) Amphiaraus (, ""Amphiaraos"") is a lost Greek play by the Athenian poet Sophocles. It is believed to have been a satyr play, although it is not clear which incident pertaining to the title character was the subject of the play, nor even which incident would lend itself to satyr play treatment. One fragment of the play is known to be extant, and was"
"Iphigenia in Tauris Iphigenia in Tauris (, ""Iphigeneia en Taurois"") is a drama by the playwright Euripides, written between 414 BC and 412 BC. It has much in common with another of Euripides's plays, ""Helen"", as well as the lost play ""Andromeda"", and is often described as a romance, a melodrama, a tragi-comedy or an escape play. Although the play is generally known in English as ""Iphigenia in Tauris"", this is, strictly speaking, the Latin title of the play (corresponding to the Greek Ἰφιγένεια ἐν Ταύροις), the meaning of which is Iphigenia among the Taurians. There is no such place"
"Achaeus of Eretria Achaeus of Eretria (; born 484 BC in Euboea) was a Greek playwright author of tragedies and satyr plays, variously said to have written 24, 30, or 44 plays, of which 19 titles are known: ""Adrastus"", ""Aethon"", ""Alcmeon"", ""Alphesiboea"", ""Athla"", ""Azanes"", ""Cycnus"", ""Eumenides"", ""Hephaestus"", ""Iris"", ""Linus"", ""Moirai"" (Fates), ""Momus"", ""Oedipus"", ""Omphale"", ""Philoctetes"", ""Phrixus"", ""Pirithous"", and ""Theseus"". Achaeus of Eretria was regarded in antiquity as being the 2nd greatest writer of satyr plays, after Aeschylus. Achaeus' first play was produced in 447 and won a prize. A quote in Aristophanes' ""The Frogs"" suggests he was dead by 405."
"with tendencies to obscurity. Athenaeus also claimed that Euripides took a line from Achaeus, while Aristophanes quotes him twice, in ""The Frogs"" and ""The Wasps"". Achaeus of Eretria Achaeus of Eretria (; born 484 BC in Euboea) was a Greek playwright author of tragedies and satyr plays, variously said to have written 24, 30, or 44 plays, of which 19 titles are known: ""Adrastus"", ""Aethon"", ""Alcmeon"", ""Alphesiboea"", ""Athla"", ""Azanes"", ""Cycnus"", ""Eumenides"", ""Hephaestus"", ""Iris"", ""Linus"", ""Moirai"" (Fates), ""Momus"", ""Oedipus"", ""Omphale"", ""Philoctetes"", ""Phrixus"", ""Pirithous"", and ""Theseus"". Achaeus of Eretria was regarded in antiquity as being the 2nd greatest writer of satyr plays,"
"of more woe / Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."" ""Romeo and Juliet"" borrows from a tradition of tragic love stories dating back to antiquity. One of these is Pyramus and Thisbe, from Ovid's ""Metamorphoses"", which contains parallels to Shakespeare's story: the lovers' parents despise each other, and Pyramus falsely believes his lover Thisbe is dead. The ""Ephesiaca"" of Xenophon of Ephesus, written in the 3rd century, also contains several similarities to the play, including the separation of the lovers, and a potion that induces a deathlike sleep. One of the earliest references to the names ""Montague"" and ""Capulet"""
"Phaedra. The second aspect is what the play refers to as sophrosyne, which is represented by Artemis and personified by Hippolytus. Sophrosyne can be defined in part as being chaste, pure, clear-headed and untainted by sexual desire. Hippolytus (play) Hippolytus (, ""Hippolytos"") is an Ancient Greek tragedy by Euripides, based on the myth of Hippolytus, son of Theseus. The play was first produced for the City Dionysia of Athens in 428 BC and won first prize as part of a trilogy. Euripides first treated the myth in a previous play, ""Hippolytos Kalyptomenos"" ( – ""Hippolytus Veiled""), which is now lost;"
"Epigoni (play) The Epigoni (, ""Epigonoi"", ""progeny"") is an ancient Greek tragedy written by the Greek playwright Sophocles in the 5th century BC and based on Greek mythology. According to myth, Polynices and six allies (the seven against Thebes) attacked Thebes because Polynices' brother, Eteocles, refused to give up the throne as promised. All but one (Adrastus) of the seven would-be conquerors were killed. Their children swore vengeance and attacked Thebes. This was called the war of the Epigonoi (""the offspring, the next generation""); the story had been told, before Sophocles, in the lost epic ""Epigonoi"". These Epigonoi defeated and"
"with the execution of Christians by damnatio ad bestias. Julius Caesar (play) The Tragedy of Julius Caesar (First Folio title: The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar) is a history play and tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1599. It is one of several plays written by Shakespeare based on true events from Roman history, which also include ""Coriolanus"" and ""Antony and Cleopatra"". Although the play is named ""Julius Caesar"", Brutus speaks more than four times as many lines as the title character; and the central psychological drama of the play focuses on Brutus' struggle between the conflicting"
"it returned to the Finborough Theatre. Harrison's play is partially based on the events surrounding the discovery of the ancient papyrus found at Oxyrhynchus containing fragments of ""Ichneutae"", a satyr play by the fifth-century Athenian dramatist Sophocles, which was found in fragments at Oxyrhynchus, an Egyptian city where an archaeological site was discovered considered one of the most important ever found. The papyrus fragments containing the ancient play were found by Oxford dons Grenfell and Hunt. Harrison then takes some of the events surrounding their discovery and weaves a play involving the two British archaeologists in a modern version of"
"Oedipus at Colonus Oedipus at Colonus (also Oedipus Coloneus, , ""Oidipous epi Kolōnōi"") is one of the three Theban plays of the Athenian tragedian Sophocles. It was written shortly before Sophocles' death in 406 BC and produced by his grandson (also called Sophocles) at the Festival of Dionysus in 401 BC. In the timeline of the plays, the events of ""Oedipus at Colonus"" occur after ""Oedipus Rex"" and before ""Antigone""; however, it was the last of Sophocles' three Theban plays to be written. The play describes the end of Oedipus' tragic life. Legends differ as to the site of Oedipus'"
"two giants of Athenian tragedy: Aeschylus and Euripides. When it was performed for the first time at the Lenaia Festival in 405 BC, just one year after the death of Euripides, the Athenians awarded it first prize. It was the only Greek play that was ever given an encore performance, which took place two months later at the City Dionysia. Even today, ""The Frogs"" still appeals to modern audiences. A commercially successful modern musical adaptation of it was performed on Broadway in 2004. The third dramatic genre was the satyr play. Although the genre was popular, only one complete example"
"Phoenissae (Seneca) Phoenissae (Phoenician women) is a ""fabula crepidata"" (Roman tragedy with Greek subject) written by Lucius Annaeus Seneca; with only c. 664 lines of verse it is his shortest play. It is an incomplete text in two parts. It is situated in Thebes in Boeotia, the city founded by Cadmus, who came from Sidon, in Phoenicia. When Oedipus discovered his crime, he blinded himself; and went into exile with his daughter Antigone, who offered herself as guide. In the meantime his sons Eteocles and Polynices engage in war, the treaty binding them to reign alternately being violated. Antigone, the"
"any playwright still extant (save a few missing lines in several spots) is the ""Oresteia"" (458 BC), although the satyr play that originally followed it, ""Proteus"", is lost except for some fragments. The trilogy consists of ""Agamemnon"", ""The Libation Bearers"" (""Choephoroi""), and ""The Eumenides"". Together, these plays tell the bloody story of the family of Agamemnon, King of Argos. Aeschylus begins in Greece describing the return of King Agamemnon from his victory in the Trojan War, from the perspective of the towns people (the Chorus) and his wife, Clytemnestra. However, dark foreshadowings build to the death of the king at"
"Oedipus (Euripides) Oedipus ( or ; , ""Oidípous"") is a play by the 5th-century BCE Athenian dramatist Euripides. The play is now lost except for some fragments. What survives of the play covers similar ground as Sophocles' acclaimed ""Oedipus Rex"", but scholars and historians have found there are significant differences. In ""Oedipus Rex"", the title character blinds himself upon learning his true parentage, accidentally killing his father and marrying his mother Jocasta. In Euripides' play, however, it appears Oedipus is blinded by a servant of his father Laius, Oedipus' predecessor as king of Thebes. Furthermore, Euripides' play implies Oedipus was"
"part, but it may merely reflect the theatrical fashion of the day. Shakespeare collaborated on two further surviving plays, ""Henry VIII"" and ""The Two Noble Kinsmen"", probably with John Fletcher. It is not clear for which companies Shakespeare wrote his early plays. The title page of the 1594 edition of ""Titus Andronicus"" reveals that the play had been acted by three different troupes. After the plagues of 1592–3, Shakespeare's plays were performed by his own company at The Theatre and the Curtain in Shoreditch, north of the Thames. Londoners flocked there to see the first part of ""Henry IV"", Leonard"
"but the production of some unknown author. There are some fragments also extant from the unknown plays of Ephippus. Ephippus of Athens Ephippus of Athens () was an Ancient Greek comic poet of the middle comedy. We learn this from the testimonies of Suidas and Antiochus of Alexandria, and from the allusions in his fragments to Plato, and the Academic philosophers, and to Alexander of Pherae and his contemporaries, Dionysius the Elder, Cotys, Theodorus, and others. The following twelve titles of his plays are the known to us: ""Artemis"", ""Bousiris"", ""Gêruonês"" (""The Geryons""), ""Empolê"" (""Merchandise""), ""Ephêboi"" (""Adolescents""), ""Kirkê"" (""Circe""), ""Kudôn"","
"Play of Daniel The Play of Daniel, or ""Ludus Danielis"", is either of two medieval Latin liturgical dramas based on the biblical Book of Daniel, one of which is accompanied by monophonic music. Two medieval plays of Daniel survive. The first is one of the plays in the ""Fleury Playbook"", a 13th-century manuscript containing ten liturgical dramas; the text is by Hilarius, and no music accompanies it. The play itself dates from c. 1140. The second is a 13th-century drama with monophonic music, written about 1227 to 1234 by students at the school of Beauvais Cathedral, located in northern France."
"for dramatists in the early 17th century and Shakespeare may have been inspired by contemporary plays. Thomas Heywood's two-part play ""The Iron Age"" also depicts the Trojan war and the story of Troilus and Cressida, but it is not certain whether his or Shakespeare's play was written first. In addition, Thomas Dekker and Henry Chettle wrote a play called ""Troilus and Cressida"" at around the same time as Shakespeare, but this play survives only as a fragmentary plot outline. The play is believed to have been written around 1602, shortly after the completion of ""Hamlet"". It was published in quarto"
"N-Town Plays The N-Town Plays (also called the Hegge Cycle and the Ludus Coventriae cycle) are a cycle of 42 medieval Mystery plays from between 1450 and 1500. The manuscript is now housed in the British Library, London (BL MS Cotton Vespasian D.8). As its name might suggest, though, it was once the property of the 17th-century antiquarian Sir Robert Bruce Cotton and was housed in his large library. Cotton's librarian, Richard James, quickly examined the manuscript and erroneously assumed that it contained the Biblical plays performed in Coventry during the 15th and 16th centuries, thus naming them the Ludus"
"A Midsummer Night's Dream A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy written by William Shakespeare in 1595/96. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of Theseus, the Duke of Athens, to Hippolyta, the former queen of the Amazons. These include the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of six amateur actors (the mechanicals) who are controlled and manipulated by the fairies who inhabit the forest in which most of the play is set. The play is one of Shakespeare's most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across the world. The play consists of four"
"fully cemented when he chooses a hidden part of the sacred grove as his final resting place, which even his daughters can't know. Chrysanthos Mentis Bostantzoglou makes a parody of this tragedy in his comedy ""Medea"" (1993). Oedipus at Colonus Oedipus at Colonus (also Oedipus Coloneus, , ""Oidipous epi Kolōnōi"") is one of the three Theban plays of the Athenian tragedian Sophocles. It was written shortly before Sophocles' death in 406 BC and produced by his grandson (also called Sophocles) at the Festival of Dionysus in 401 BC. In the timeline of the plays, the events of ""Oedipus at Colonus"""
"together for Ephesus. Habrocomes and Anthia make sacrifices to Artemis, raise tombs for their deceased parents, and pass the remainder of their days in Ephesus with Leucon, Rhode, Hippothoos, and Clisthenes. Ephesian Tale The Ephesian Tale of Anthia and Habrocomes ( or Τὰ κατὰ Ἀνθίαν καὶ Ἁβροκόμην) by Xenophon of Ephesus is an Ancient Greek novel written in the mid-2nd century AD. Translator Graham Anderson sees the ""Ephesiaca"" as ""a specimen of penny dreadful literature in antiquity."" Moses Hadas, an earlier translator, takes a slightly different view: ""If ""An Ephesian Tale"" is an absorbing tale of love and improbable adventure,"
"Euripides in tragedy; Aristophanes in comedy). From Euripides, the ""Hippolytus"" and ""The Bacchae"" (together with ""The Frogs"" of Aristophanes; first edition, 1902); the ""Medea"", ""Trojan Women"", and ""Electra"" (1905–1907); ""Iphigenia in Tauris"" (1910); ""The Rhesus"" (1913) were presented at the Court Theatre, in London. In the United States Granville Barker and his wife Lillah McCarthy gave outdoor performances of ""The Trojan Women"" and ""Iphigenia in Tauris"" at various colleges (1915). The translation of ""Œdipus Rex"" was a commission from W. B. Yeats. Until 1912 this could not have been staged for a British audience. Murray was drawn into the public"
"Ephippus of Athens Ephippus of Athens () was an Ancient Greek comic poet of the middle comedy. We learn this from the testimonies of Suidas and Antiochus of Alexandria, and from the allusions in his fragments to Plato, and the Academic philosophers, and to Alexander of Pherae and his contemporaries, Dionysius the Elder, Cotys, Theodorus, and others. The following twelve titles of his plays are the known to us: ""Artemis"", ""Bousiris"", ""Gêruonês"" (""The Geryons""), ""Empolê"" (""Merchandise""), ""Ephêboi"" (""Adolescents""), ""Kirkê"" (""Circe""), ""Kudôn"", ""Nauagos"" (""Shipwrecked""), ""Obeliaphoroi ê Homoioi"", ""Peltastês"", ""Sapphô"", and ""Philura."" An epigram which Eustathius ascribes to Ephippus is not his,"
"The Suppliants (Euripides) The Suppliants (, ""Hiketides""; Latin ""Supplices""), also called The Suppliant Maidens, or The Suppliant Women, first performed in 423 BC, is an ancient Greek play by Euripides. After Oedipus leaves Thebes, his sons fight for control of it. Polyneices lays siege to Thebes against his brother Eteocles. Polyneices has married the daughter of Adrastus, King of Argos. And so Polyneices has on his side the Argive army, leaders of which help form the Seven Against Thebes. The invaders lose the battle, and Polyneices and Eteocles both die. Creon takes power in Thebes and decrees the invaders are"
"Julius Caesar (play) The Tragedy of Julius Caesar (First Folio title: The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar) is a history play and tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1599. It is one of several plays written by Shakespeare based on true events from Roman history, which also include ""Coriolanus"" and ""Antony and Cleopatra"". Although the play is named ""Julius Caesar"", Brutus speaks more than four times as many lines as the title character; and the central psychological drama of the play focuses on Brutus' struggle between the conflicting demands of honour, patriotism, and friendship. ""Triumvirs after Caesar's"
"inappropriate as a description, as the scene changes are often very fluid, almost montage-like. The large number of scenes is necessary because the action frequently switches between Alexandria, Italy, Messina in Sicily, Syria, Athens, and other parts of Egypt and the Roman Republic. The play contains thirty-four speaking characters, fairly typical for a Shakespeare play on such an epic scale. Many critics have noted the strong influence of Virgil's first-century Roman epic poem, the ""Aeneid"", on Shakespeare's ""Antony and Cleopatra"". Such influence should be expected, given the prevalence of allusions to Virgil in the Renaissance culture in which Shakespeare was"
"Miles Gloriosus (play) Miles Gloriosus is a comedic play written by Titus Maccius Plautus (c. 254–184 B.C.). The title can be translated as ""The Swaggering Soldier"" or ""Vainglorious Soldier"". His source for ""Miles Gloriosus"" was a Greek play, now lost, called ""Alazon"" or ""The Braggart"". Although the characters in ""Miles Gloriosus"" speak Latin, they are Greeks and largely have Greek names, clothing, and customs. The action takes place in Ephesus, a Greek city on the coast of Asia Minor, famous for its Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The play commences with the entrance"