‘Hecuba’ and exhibition at Delphi
“I’ve been very loyal to Euripides,» poet and filmmaker Tony Harrison told the press yesterday at the Delphi Center’s Athens office. «But I have used one word which nudges the production toward what I want the audience to think about.» The production is the Royal Shakespeare Company’s performance this Saturday in Delphi of Harrison’s translation of Euripides’ «Hecuba» with Vanessa Redgrave in the title role. And the word is «coalition.» «It was a coalition against the Trojans then,» explained Harrison, «and now it’s what George Bush calls a ‘coalition of the willing’ against Iraq. I wanted the audience to compare the earliest war between the West and East with the most recent one.» But he does not force any one-dimensional interpretation of the play. «Euripides is far too complex to be reduced to a single idea,» said Harrison, adding that the dramatist wants us to think about justice and retribution by making the audience yearn with Hecuba for revenge but balk when it includes the death of two innocent children. Another highlight of the events for this year’s European Cultural Center of Delphi (ECCD) events – celebrating Pericles and Democracy – will be the exhibition «Columns and Pillars,» curated by Takis Mavrotas. The exhibition is dedicated to what «man created to hold up the sky» said Helene Ahrweiler, the ECCD’s president. Works of art by Moralis, Antonakos, Tsoklis, Pavlos, Uecher, Parmakelis, Chryssa, Mytaras, Fassianos, Sorogas, Finotti, Zouni, Bouteas, Psychopedis, Molinaris and Iotoff go on display on July 1. The exhibition is held under the aegis of Prime Minister and Culture Minister Costas Karamanlis.
