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  • The Persians
    Cover image: leaf of a manuscript of the Assemblies of Hariri

    The Persians

    Aeschylus, adapted by Robert Auletta
    Trade Edition$15.95
    ePlay$15.00 + $10.00 per additional user
    Performance Rights

    Note

    This title may also be purchased in the following bundle at 20% off the regular price: GREEK MASTER CLASS

    Play Description

    The first surviving play in the history of Western drama, THE PERSIANS represents a courageous act on the part of its author. The subject of Aeschylus’s play was, in part, the conquering of the Persians by the Greeks, but he presented that event to his Greek audience not from their point of view, but from that of the defeated Persians. In this modern version of the play, Robert Auletta shifts the action of the play from Persia to the Iraq of the first Gulf War, and like Aeschylus, asks Americans to question and challenge their views of the enemy.

    Production Info

    Cast: 6 total (1 female, 5 male)
    Full Length Drama (about 125 minutes)
    Minimal Set Requirements
    Period Costumes
    Categories: The Plays, Classics Tags: Greek
    • Reviews
    • About the Author(s)
    • About the Book
    • Special Notes

    Press Quotes

    “In Aeschylus’ contrarian tragedy THE PERSIANS, the titular enemies of the author’s native Greece are to be pitied more than censured after their bloody defeat at Greek hands … Robert Auletta’s slickly poetic adaptation moves the action to the Gulf War, deftly shoehorning bloodcurdling descriptions of modern weaponry into the Persian laments and exchanging references to the Greeks for references to the United States. The chorus speaks of ‘velocity bows and razor swords that can laser the heart out of a man’s chest,’ and much of its dialogue is a litany of exotic ordnance from recent wars in the Middle East. ‘Have we taken too much?’ asks the deposed Queen Atossa … as she contemplates what her country has done to deserve its fate. ‘Have we gone beyond some unknown but sacred line?’ She and her compatriots express remorse for their wrongs, in the process describing our own current state of affairs (‘Is the power of what we own about to destroy us?’) and emphasizing how much we might have in common with our enemies … THE PERSIANS’ best moments are also its most horrifying, including an eloquent, metered blow-by-blow account of the effects of a 5,000-pound bomb on the human body. The bait-and-switch approach to classic political theater is a risky one, sometimes sacrificing subtlety in service of a dated statement, but Auletta mostly pulls it off, forcing sympathy with the rankest of villains …” —Sam Thielman, Washington City Paper

    Author(s)

    • Aeschylus

      Known as "The Father of Tragedy," Aeschylus was born circa 525 BCE in Eleusis, northwest of Athens. As a youth, he worked in a vineyard and fought in The Persian Wars. He wrote his first play around the age of 26. Of the estimated 70 to 90 plays he wrote, seven have survived: THE PERSIANS, SEVEN AGAINST THEBES, THE SUPPLIANTS, THE ORESTEIA trilogy, consisting of AGAMEMNON, THE LIBATION BEARERS, and THE EUMENIDES, and PROMETHEUS BOUND, whose authorship is disputed. All of Aeschylus's extant tragedies won first prize at the Dionysia, the annual dramatic contest held in Athens. He is believed to have died circa 455 BCE.

    • Robert Auletta

      Robert Auletta's plays have been produced at many theaters, including The Yale Repertory Theater, Joseph Papp's Public Theater, The American Repertory Theater, The Production Company, PS 122, Café La Mama, and the Westbank Downstairs Theater Bar, where many of his one acts were first performed. His play AMAZONS helped open The Market Theater in Cambridge, MA in 2000. Previous to that, his modern versions of Aeschylus's THE ORESTEIA and Molière's TARTUFFE, both directed by the French/Swiss director Francois Rochaix, were produced in the same city by the American Repertory Theater during their 1995/96 season. Two of his one acts, STOPS/VIRGINS, were awarded a Village Voice Obie for distinguished playwriting in 1983. His modern version of Sophocles' AJAX, directed by Peter Sellars in 1986, was performed in America at both the Kennedy Center and the La Jolla Playhouse, and to great acclaim in many theaters in Europe. It also received The Hollywood Drama-Logue Critics Award, and was filmed by Dutch television It has subsequently been shown at various film festivals in Greece. His Gulf War version of Aeschylus' THE PERSIANS, directed by Peter Sellars in 1993, received both controversy and acclaim in many productions both in America and abroad; causing a heated reaction at Los Angeles' Mark Taper Forum. It was produced again in 2005 by the Scena Theater in Washington, D.C., with an entirely different reaction from the audience. It was first published by Sun and Moon Press and recently reprinted by Broadway Play Publishing Inc. They also printed a collection of his plays, and later his version of Georg Büchner's DANTON'S DEATH, directed by Robert Wilson at the Alley Theater in Houston TX, and later at the Berliner Ensemble. He has received two National Endowment for the Arts Grants, a New York State Foundation Grant, and has been awarded residencies in various art colonies, including The MacDowell Colony, Ledig House, The Millay Colony, and Hawthornden Castle in Scotland. He taught at the Yale School of Drama for five years on various occasions, for thirteen summers at The Harvard Expository Writing Program, and continues to teach at The School of Visual Arts in New York City, and recently at the Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute. Since 2008 his short play RABBITS, which is published in PLAYS BY ROBERT AULETTA, has been enjoying another life as a twenty-minute film starring Jessica Hecht and Christopher McCann. For over seven years it has been seen all over the world, including in Russia and China, where it has played on occasion to over 100,000 viewers a week.

    Book Information

    Publisher BPPI
    Publication Date 8/1/2006
    Pages 80
    ISBN 9780881453058

    Special Notes

    If original stage producers credits appear in bold below, all licensees are required to include them in the following form on the title page in all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play and in all advertising in which the full cast appears in size of type not less than ten percent (10%) of the size of the title of the Play:

    Originally produced at The Salzburg Festival, Austria

    In addition, the following must appear within all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play:

    The Persians is produced
    by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC
    www.broadwayplaypublishing.com

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