Greek Tragedy and the Digital

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 explores the ways in which key notions and conventions of Greek tragedy, such as the community, the city, the hubris and the mask, have been re-appropriated and challenged by artists through the use of technology in contemporary digital and virtual reality theatre. These technological innovations in performances of Greek tragedy shed new light on contemporary transformations and adaptations of classical myths, while raising fresh questions on how augmented reality works within interactive and immersive environments.

Drawing on cutting-edge productions and current theoretical debates on performance and the digital, this timely collection considers issues such as performativity, liveness, immersion, intermediality, technological fragmentation, the conventions of the chorus and the rhapsody, the theatre as hypermedia and reception theory in relation to Greek tragedy. The volume participates creatively in on-going debates concerning contemporary performance, drama, reception theory and the poetization of technology.

Theatre directors discussed include Krzysztof Varlikovsky, Jan Fabre, Rimini Protokoll, Romeo Castellucci, Katie Mitchell, Georges Lavaudant, Peter Sellars, The Wooster Group, Hans Neuenfels, Labex Arts-H2H, Akram Khan, Urland & Crew, Medea Electronique, Robert Wilson, Omar Abu Saada, Michael Cacoyannis, Klaus Obermaier, Guy Cassiers, Luca di Fusco, Ivo Van Hove and Avra Sidiropoulou.

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.