Attic Theater

TO UNDERSTAND Greek tragic drama, it is necessary to understand tragic poetry, not individual Greek words. The total composition of words gives intensity of thought and feeling to the work. This emotion is impossible to translate into any other language and is better communicated in the poet's native tongue. On these grounds, the Loeb Ex can justify its current production of Euripedes' Helen, performed in Attic Greek for a predominantly non-Greek speaking audience.

Euripedes' Helen is a fairy tale built on the story of the bard Steischorus. He claimed that not Helen, but Helen's wraith, had gone to Troy, while she herself remained in Egypt until her ship-wrecked husband Menelaus, King of Sparta, finally arrived and found her there 15 years later.

Producer-director Nick Harris's production is not intended to be a carbon copy of the Athenian Helen, originally presented in 412 B.C. the 1692-line original, which would have lasted about three hours without intermissions, has been cut by approximately two-thirds. These cuttings are skillful--the portions that contain the most action and intensity of feeling have been retained, as have (with minor deletions) the long soliloquies.

In Attic times, men would have performed both men's and women's roles. Because of the oppression of women in ancient Greece and the misogyny apparent in Euripedes's writings, it is only poetic justice that several female actresses should excell in this production. Julia Gilbert, as Helen, conveys the beauty of the language as well as the comic, romantic and semi-tragic sides of her personality. The cast as a whole--and particularly Gilbert and Ann Bailen, as the portress--pay careful attention to the Greek meters and rhythm, which speed up or slow down, depending on the feeling the poet wishes to express. The cast manages to convey the plot to the non-Greek audience, and more often than not we are moved by Helen and her plight.

Masks, used in Attic productions to destroy any facial play, are not used in the Loeb's version. But the added screen of foreign language between us and the actors and actresses could have been removed to an even greater extent, had the cast made more use of facial play.

Many very Greek things are maintained in this play. Instrumental music is supplied by a single flutist, Vivian Ducat, as was done in Athens. There are no set changes and scenery is kept to a minimum. Most importantly, the language is maintained so that when we hear a rush of flowing Greek words, we know instinctively what they mean in a way that could not be reproduced by any other words.