Euripides in the Ukraine
The “dreamscape” of Euripides’ Iphigenia among the Taurians, set in the peninsula now known as Crimea, explores the interpenetration of reality and illusion. Greek Black Sea colonies were a crucial route by which central Eurasia came into contact with the Mediterranean, standing at the intersection of competing imperial ambitions. Artists have responded to the centrality of dreaming to Euripides’ play: Gluck’s opera Iphigénie en Tauride (1779); its staging by neo-expressionist choreographer Pina Bausch in Wuppertal (1974); the play Rescue Me (A Postmodern Classic with Snacks) by Canadian-Japanese author Michi Barall, first produced in New York (2010); the play Iphigenia and the Furies (on Taurian Land) by Ho Ka Kei, 2019 Toronto Theatre Critics’ Best New Canadian Play; and the immersive performance The Burnt City by Punchdrunk in London (2023–2024). Each reception foregrounds dreams and builds on those that came before, so that the significance of dreams deepens over time.
Frederic Lasserre Building, UBC
Room 102
7 March 2025, 7:30pm
This event is open to the public — all are welcome! No registration needed.
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Claire Catenaccio, Georgetown University
Claire Catenaccio is a scholar of Ancient Greek literature, particularly drama, and its modern reception. As a dramaturg and director, she has worked extensively with contemporary stagings of ancient texts. Her first book explores monody, or solo actor’s song, in the plays of Euripides (Monody in Euripides: Character and the Liberation of Form in Late Greek Tragedy, Cambridge University Press). She has published on dreams in Aeschylus’ Oresteia and Plutarch’s Lives, on singing heroes in Sophocles’ Trachiniae, and on the transformation of the myth of Orpheus in the Broadway musical Hadestown. At Georgetown University, Professor Catenaccio teaches course on the Ancient Greek language, Classical mythology, tragedy and comedy, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, and Shakespeare’s plays set in Ancient Greece and Rome.
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Featured image, top of page: Sanguen Lee in Pina Bausch’s Iphigenie auf Tauris (Semperoper Ballett / Ian Whalen)