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Aeschylean Tragedy Through the Eyes of Eva Palmer-Sikelianou

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Aeschylean Tragedy Through the Eyes of Eva Palmer-Sikelianou "The World's a Circular Stage": Aeschylean Tragedy through the Eyes of Eva Palmer- Sikelianou Author(s): Gonda van Steen Reviewed work(s): Source: International Journal of the Classical Tradition, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Winter, 2002), pp. 375- 393 Published by: Springer Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30224223 . Accessed: 14/11/2011 11:35 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]. Springer is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to International Journal of the Classical Tradition. http://www.jstor.org "The World's a Circular Stage": AeschyleanTragedy through the Eyes of Eva Palmer-Sikelianou GONDAVAN STEEN At the first Delphic Festival of 1927, Eva Palmer-Sikelianoupresented a pioneering out- door production of Aeschylus' PrometheusBound. Three years later, she staged repeat performances of the Prometheusand added a new production of Aeschylus' Suppliant Women.At first sight, it appears as if, at both festivals, Palmer-Sikelianoupaid minimal attention to stage-design, whereas she took care personally of nearly all other production aspects. This study, however, based on the preserved photographicevidence, shows that Palmer-Sikelianou'sphilosophical conception of the "sacred"space of the ancient theater at Delphi, i.e., its near-circularorchestra and its open-view setting within the surround- ing mountains,inspired her choice of an elementalstage-design. Influencedby Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy,she stressed circular and centripetal movements, as her choreography demonstrates.On a larger plan, the Delphic orchestrawas, for her, part of the ur-form of the dynamic circle, shaped here by Delphi's naturallandscape, which rendered additional sets superfluous. I turned to reading translationsof Greek plays ... and ... the criticalstud- ies of scholars concerning the Greek Theatre.These last seemed rarely to be in agreementwith each other, and never with the impression I got from the actual plays themselves. I did not feel that I knew anything about produc- ing Greek plays, but I did believe, later on, from reading, and from many performances which I had seen in various places, that no one else did either. The written work which interested me most in this regard was Nietzsche's Birthof Tragedy,but even with this I agreed only in part.' As a guide on my way, or rather at first as a torment, I held for years to two short sentences: one from The Republicof Plato, and one from Aristotle's Poetics:"The tragic chorus is the union of poetry, music and gymnastics," and "the tragic chorus expresses in movement the character,the sufferings 1 According to JohnAnton, a personal friend of Palmer and editor of her autobiography,the original manuscriptleaves the readerwithout any informationabout the translationPalmer used or the edition from which she quoted (171 n. 1). Anton supports, however, that Palmer did consult an English translation of the German original. All subsequent references to Palmer'sAutobiography are to Anton's edition and appear parentheticallyin the text. Gonda Van Steen, Department of Classics, University of Arizona, P.O. Box 210105, Learning Services Bldg., Room 2003,Tucson, AZ 85721-0105,USA. InternationalJournal of theClassical Tradition, Vol. 8, No. 3, Winter2002, pp. 375-393. 376 InternationalJournal of theClassical Tradition / Winter2002 and the actions of the actors."2I think that now I am just beginning to see what they meant ... (Eva Palmer-Sikelianou, Autobiography,106) This study may shed new light on Eva Palmer's conception of space and move- ment in Aeschylean tragedy based on the visual materials that are currently held in the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections of the Princeton University Library.3I argue that, in the outdoor setting of the ancient theater at Delphi, Palmer's choreographyinnovated in ways that went beyond the-much-discussed--copying of ancient vases and reliefs. A new look at the visual evidence reveals that Palmer's stage-design and choreography expressed her philosophical thinking about the ideal architecturalform of the circle, of the classical Greek theater orchestra, and of the chorus moving in this performancespace. Antones Glytzoures analyzed in great detail Palmer's interpretationand reconstructionof the ancient Greek dance and movement in both Aeschylus' PrometheusBound and SuppliantWomen (Hiketides) but he took for granted the circle as her key point of departure.4Palmer, nonetheless, left us with important cues pointing to the centralityof the form of the circle to her philosophical and practicalapproach to the Greek theater: "The Greek Theatreis primarily a circle ... The attention of actors, chorus and audience was centered on a point, the orchestra, and formed circling waves of power which increased in intensity as the drama un- folded."5The preserved photographicevidence supports my claim that Palmermateri- alized her thinking about Aeschylean tragedy in the form of the circle. But before engaging in my argument, I owe the reader a brief sketch of Palmer's main contribu- tions to the reception of Greek drama. In 1905, the American heiress Eva Palmer (1874-1952)first met the young Greek poet Angelos Sikelianos (1884-1951),whom she married two years later.6In 1927, she undertook the pioneer act of directing Aeschylus' PrometheusBound at the ancient theaterof Delphi (premieredon May 9). Threeyears later,she produced both Prometheus 2. Again according to Anton (106 n. 2), this reference is a paraphrase of Aristotle, Poetics, 1456a25-26,where Aristotle states that the chorus ought to be regardedas one of the actors, i.e., it must be an integratedpart of the whole play. 3. I take this opportunityto thankthe librarystaff membersfor their assistance.Yannis Hamilakisgraciously accepted to readan earlierversion of thispaper and offered insightful comments. He discusses Palmer'scontribution in his forthcomingstudy on the reuse of the classics in contemporaryGreece, entitled Dreamingin Ruins:Antiquity and NationalImagina- tion in Greece. 4. Palmer did not question the authorship of the PrometheusBound. The attribution of this tragedyto Aeschylushas been contested:some interpretershave positeddating problems based on observations on content and dramatic form, which seem better to fit a post- Aeschylean author. According to Griffith,the PrometheusBound might have been written by Aeschylus late in his career (Aeschylus died in 456 B.C.E.).He pointed out that most scholars, however, have dated the play to the 440s or 430s B.C.E.See Griffith,Aeschylus, PrometheusBound, 31-35; and The Authenticityof 'PrometheusBound.' Taplin, 240, 460-469, and passim. 5. Palmer-Sikelianou,"What Is GreatTheatre?," 298-299. Palmer explained that, in the origi- nal ancientGreek theater, "the actions and attention of actors,chorus and audience were all centeredround the samepoint, which was the centreof the circle"(224). 6. Lia Papadakepublished the earlier,romantic correspondence between Eva Palmerand Natalie CliffordBarney. VanSteen 377 and the SuppliantWomen as part of the second "DelphicFestival."7 Both Delphic Festi- vals gave preliminary,material expression to the couple's lifetime dream of establish- ing Delphi as a new spiritual center of humanistic values. These values were to unite the divided peoples and nations but would also revive the Greeks' Great Idea (Megale Idea),not as an expansionist political program,but as a broad cultural and humanitar- ian vision.8 Glytzoures has honored Palmer with the title of "the first director-ideo- logue" for adopting non-commercial, purely aesthetic principles, which challenged established capitalistpractices of the Westernand also the Athenian star-system of the 1920s and 1930s.9Both his studies stress Palmer'sactive role as director and organizer and are a welcome change from the decades-long crediting of the productions to Angelos Sikelianos (whether exclusively or in uneven parts).1'0 Palmer marked a first in many areas:in 1927, she was the first woman to stage an ancient tragedy in an authentic Greek outdoor setting, the fourth-century B.C.E.the- ater on the archaeological site of Delphi, under the--at first very skeptical--eyes of many Greek and Western tourists, academics,journalists, correspondents, and others. She and her husband were the first to invite a mass audience of exclusively village people to the second performanceof the 1927 PrometheusBound and to take cues from their understanding and appreciationof the play. Their revival production, be it a re- enactment of classical Hellenic achievement, was, for the first time, part of a larger festival that celebratedGreek cultural continuitiesbeyond the glorious ancient monu- ments and texts. Palmer'sexhibition of Greek folk art and handicraft,for instance, was to demonstrate to all foreign festival-goers that Greek folk genius and skill continued to flourish. Villagers of Parnassos performed traditional klefth songs and dances for the same purpose. Young Greek men competed in athletic games, in an ancient-style pentathlon, and in the Pyrrhicdance (classical military dancing) to show that Greek prowess and courage lived
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