Six Classical Greek Comedies: Birds; Frogs; Women in Power; the Woman from Samos; Cyclops and Alkestis

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The comedies of the Athenian theatre not only lie at the root of Western drama, they also offer a unique insight into everyday life in Ancient Greece. This selection of six wide-ranging plays includes the comic fantasies of Aristophanes, which combine the ridiculous with serious satirical comment ("Birds", "Frogs", "Women in Power"); Menander's "The Woman from Samos", a recognisable forebear of today's situation comedy; Euripides' ribald satyr play, "Cyclops", the only survivng example of its genre, and his "Alkestis", a complex romance which gave a new face to comedy. The volume is edited and introduced by J. Michael Walton, Professor of Drama at the University of Hull, and founder and director of the Performance Translation Centre at the University of Hull.

Author Bio

J. Michael Walton has translated plays by Sophocles, Euripedes and Menander and published a number of books on Greek theatre, including "Greek Theatre Practice", "The Greek Sense of Theatre: Tragedy R eviewed", "Living Greek Theatre: A Handbook of Classical Performance and Modern Production" and "Men ander and the Making of Comedy"'