Reviews for Thebans

The average rating for Thebans based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-01-02 00:00:00 Nick Mckenzie In general I've enjoyed the Liz Lochhead plays I've read so far, and I think she does a really interesting job as an adapter here. Because unlike many instances of adaptation, where an adapter works from a single source text, Lochhead here presents the major incidents of an entire myth cycle in one play--condensing Sophocles' Theban cycle, Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes, and Euripides' Phoenician Women into a single play. This is, perhaps ironically, very Greek of Lochhead because the Athenians wouldn't have the modern mindset of seeing each of these plays as a unique work-in-and-of-itself, but they would have understood virtually all tragedies from their time as variations on a set of pre-existing myths. For instance, each of the three major Greek tragedians gives us an Elektra play, which are all different and emphasize elements of the story according to the preferences and temperament of the specific playwright. What Lochhead does in Thebans is another reworking of a general myth structure, a re-telling of a set of stories about one family, not a specific re-presentation/re-working of a "master's" play.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-11-11 00:00:00 Eric Lammerts 4.5 really. Man I love these stories.