Back in November I noted two adaptations of Racine's Phedre on the contemporary stage. Now, I can add a dance adaptation of Racine's Andromaque, on stage in Albuquerque, put on by a Thai company:
In a hall in the palace of Pyrrhus is a non-stop tear-through of Racine’s Andromaque through the lens of contemporary International politics and culture. In the aftermath of the Trojan War, Orestes is in love with his ex-girlfriend Hermione who is in love with and engaged to be married to Pyrrhus who is in love with his captive Andromache who is still in love with her husband Hector who died when his head got smashed in and his body was dragged around a burning city last year. With fake blood and some oblique references to Montgomery Clift.
Also, an adaptation (by Frank McGuinness) of Phedre will be showing in April at the Donmar Warehouse in London (eagerly awaited by Alistair Macaulay). Scottish poet Edwin Morgan (and author of a hot-off-the-press rendering of Gilgamesh for the stage) recently translated the same play into a "Glaswegian-based Scots." Oh, also noted: a reminiscence of a 1986 production of Berenice in Paris.
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