The first surviving play in the history of western drama, THE PERSIANS represents a courageous act on the part of its author. The subject of Aeschylus's play was, in part, the conquering of the Persians by the Greeks, but he presented that event to his Greek audience not from their point of view, but from that of the defeated Persians. In this modern version of the play, Robert Auletta shifts the action of the play from Persia to the Iraq of the first Gulf War, and like Aeschylus, asks Americans to question and challenge their views of the enemy. "In Aeschylus' contrarian tragedy THE...

Set during the French Revolution's Reign of Terror, the play takes place from March 24 to April 4, 1794, when Maximilien Robespierre was in charge of the Committee of Public Safety that, along with the Revolutionary Tribunal, condemned people to the guillotine. Guillotine victims ranged from those who were seen as too radical to those who were viewed as royalist sympathizers and even simply moderates like Danton. "Robert Auletta's adaptation of DANTON'S DEATH streamlined Buchner's epic romantic drama revolving around the passive, existential figure of Danton, a man who wishes to die in order...

This collection includes three full-length plays: AGAMEMNON, THE LIBATION BEARERS, and THE EUMENIDIES, collectively known as THE ORESTEIA. In AGAMEMNON, the title character, having sacrificed his daughter, Iphigenia, to win the battle of Troy, returns to Argos. His wife, Clytaemnestra, murders him while her lover, Aegisthus, who will soon assume the throne, looks on. In THE LIBATION BEARERS Agamemnon's daughter Electra mourns her father's death. Her brother, Orestes, returns to Argos to kill their mother and stepfather, now king, and avenge their father's death. In THE EUMENIDIES Orestes,...