CLASSICS AND COMMUNISM IN THEATRE Graeco-Roman Antiquity on the Communist Stage

The cycle on Classics and Communism, launched in 2009 under the title Gnôthi Seauton! – Classics and Communism: The History of Studies on Antiquity in the Context of the Local Classical Tradition; Socialist Countries 1944/45–1989/90, has now reached its third volume. This volume deals with a similarly significant institution, namely the communist theatre and its staging of ancient comedy and drama. The goal is to examine whether and how the authorities, their ideologists, and theatre directors, both pro- and anti-communist, used classical antiquity in general and ancient plays in particular to promote their ends – after the October Revolution and later World War II opened Central and Eastern Europe to Soviet domination. Most of the chapters of the present volume were discussed at the conference Classics and Communism in Theatre, which took place in Warsaw in January 2015.