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If Greece had contributed nothing beyond spanakopita, the voice of Maria Callas and the beginnings of Western democracy, it would still qualify as a remarkable civilization. But it also produced a body of playwrights who were the best in the world in their time and have influenced dramatists for two and a half millennia.
You don't see their work locally, of course, because no theatrical company even dabbles in plays from the classical era. For most Charlotte playgoers, drama begins with Shakespeare.
Not for Larry Peroulas, however. The Greek-born co-founder of Socrates Academy, a Greek-intensive charter school in Charlotte, has not forgotten his heritage. Last year, he imported Leonidas Loizides' all-female tour of "The Bacchae," spoken in Greek with English titles.
He's bringing in a second tragedy by Euripides, "The Trojan Women," next Sunday, with Loizides directing a cast with one man in it. This time, to give everyone a better chance of understanding the play, it'll be spoken in English.
(The playwright's name is pronounced "you-RIP-id-eez." Here's the only joke I recall from four semesters studying Greek and Roman literature in college: A guy walks into a tailor with a torn pair of pants. The tailor examines them and asks, "Euripides?" The guy says, "Yeah. Eumenides?" See, even Greek puns are classy.)
"Drama is a way of learning essential things," Peroulas believes. "So is music. You understand other cultures better. You come closer to people."
Beauty in the language
Peroulas has never been in a Greek play himself. He recalls being born in a poor village during World War II, studying hard enough to finish high school in Athens, coming to New York for a master's degree in economics. "I never had the time to go into drama and music," he says. "That's why I'm doing it now, to promote these beautiful things in life."
There is beauty in the language of "The Trojan Women," however raw the emotions get. This version is famous, because the script is by Mihalis Kakogiannis, and the music is by Mikis Theodorakis. They collaborated on a 1971 film of Euripides' story, six years after bringing us "Zorba the Greek."
The play is the third in a trilogy about the war that ensued when Trojan prince Paris took the gorgeous Helen away from her Greek husband, Menelaus.
That war ended in the sacking of Troy, and this play follows the fates of upper-class women after their husbands have died and their families are about to be enslaved. Hecuba, the queen, laments that she has seen her city burn and her husband, children and grandchildren slain - and she will now become Odysseus' property.
You don't have to look far to see modern parallels in Africa and Asia, where eternal tribal and religious conflicts seem to have causes that make no more sense to Westerners than the loss of a prince's wife. Maybe even World War I, triggered when a Yugoslav nationalist shot a member of Austria's ruling family, would qualify.
Confronting us with power
Loizides says the aim of both tours has been the same: to promote classical Greek drama all over the world and remind people of the philosophic principles of Greek culture. He is respecting Euripides' language and avoiding melodrama in the performances and direction.
"Few plays, ancient or modern, could be more pertinent to the grim reality of our conflicted world," he says.
"Euripides challenges us to re-examine our values and beliefs. He ruthlesslyconfronts us with (questions about) the meaning of power, civilization, sanity, truth, beauty, justice, freedom, and above all, the meaning of personal or public victory."
That's how directors talk, you know. It would be as easy to say the play grabs us by the lapels and turns our heads toward things we'd rather not see in ourselves - as great Greek tragedies have done since 500 years before Christ was born.
