Tantalus: The Greek Epic Cycle Retold in Ten Plays

(Paperback, 2nd edition)

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When theatre began, two and a half millenia ago in ancient Greece, it drew from a well of even older myths, the Great Epic Cycle. These stories and characters from the beginning of our imagination inspired John Barton to write the great cycle of human life, Tantalus, an epic theatre myth for the new millenium, and one of the most ambitious theatrical ventures of our times produced by the RSC and The Denver Center for the Performing Arts, directed by Sir Peter and Edward Hall. (UK tour Jan-May 2001)

Author Bio

John Barton is a writer and director who, with Peter Hall, co-founded the Royal Shakespeare Company, where Barton was an active director for over forty years. His landmark productions included Twelfth Night with Judi Dench as Viola, and a sequence of Shakespeare's History Plays (with Peter Hall). A prolific writer and adaptor, he has spent over 30 years developing Tantalus, which is an extension of his earlier work, The Greeks (1980). He has adapted some twenty other texts for the theatre and has also had published The First Stage, The Hollow Crown, The Wars of the Roses, The Greeks, La Ronde, The Rover and the legendary Playing Shakespeare (also a television series).