Reviews

Unlike Lattimore's renowned translation of the Oresteia , this one is ``for the theater.'' To that end, it offers both an unabridged translation (137 pages) and an ``acting version'' (74 pages) that is based on the longer text but trimmed by director Nicholas Rudall for a production at Chicago's Court Theater. The longer text cannot compete with Lattimore's skilled rendering of interlocking Aeschylean imagery, and though its simpler phrasing is indeed better suited to the modern stage, it is in need of some serious pruning of its own. Rudall has shown the way with his abridged Oresteia , which was apparently performed with great success.-- Stephen Scully, Boston Univ.