Book review: Staging Ancient Greek Plays – A Practical Guide

Michael Ewans is conjoint professor of Drama in the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Science at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Among his many publications are translations of the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes and he is active in theatre production. Staging Ancient Greek Plays is primarily aimed at anyone wanting to look further into the culture and theatre traditions that were the basis of some of the theatre's best known plays.

The book considers the original performance conditions of Greek plays and how as theatre makers we might adhere to some of these conventions within modern performance. It explores choice of translation, setting, costumes, masks, acting style, the chorus and staging as well as using analysed textual examples.