Le Théâtre du Soleil's Les Atrides Author(s): Robert Bethune Source: Asian Theatre Journal, Vol. 10, No. 2 (Autumn, 1993), pp. 179-190 Published by: University of Hawai'i Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1124178 . Accessed: 17/10/2011 14:17 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. University of Hawai'i Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Asian Theatre Journal. http://www.jstor.org REPORTS Le Theatredu Soleil'sLes Atrides Robert Bethune It is hubris, hubris unmistakable, hubris of the highest order, yet the gods hurl no thunderbolts, the seas do not rise, and indeed, like the plowman in Brueghel's famous painting of the fall of Icarus, much of the world goes on as it always has, paying little regard to astonishing theatri- cal audacity. Ariane Mnouchkine and her Theatre du Soleil do not merely attempt the Oresteiaof Aeschylus. Unsatisfied with such mundane daring, they add the Iphigeniaat Aulis of Euripides, turning the trilogy into a tetra- logy that plays out over ten hours of performance divided between two days. In essence, Iphigenia and Agamemnonbecome Act One, with The Libation Bearersand The Eumenidesas Act Two, of a play called Les Atrides (The House of Atreus), an enormous, Gulliverian drama at which we Lilli- putians stand aghast.