School of Drama: Alkestis

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“Have you given much thought to our mortal condition? Probably not. Why would you?”

Alkestis tries hard to be a tragedy: there’s a death, a funeral, and plenty of tears. Comedy, however, keeps getting in the way. Tears are interrupted by laughter, the funeral turns into a drunken party, and the dead are returned to life. The play sets up a system of rules: the rules of mourning, hospitality, death, even drama itself. But, as translator Anne Carson asks, why not just break the rules? How can we, like Euripides, disarm tragedy? How do we snatch life out of the jaws of death?

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