Episode 2: Oresteia

In this bonus episode, Naomi interviews Ferdia Lennon about his 2024 novel, Glorious Exploits, a book about tragedy and comedy in the wake of the Sicilian Expedition—Athens’ disastrous attempt to seize Sicily in 415–413 BCE, which resulted in their utter defeat. They talk about the sensory experience of visiting the ancient theater and quarries in Syracuse, […]

Long considered the oldest anti-war play, Euripides’ Trojan Women is a devastating portrayal of the suffering of war’s female victims. It is also about female relationships and forms of agency, as well as the power of artistic innovation in the face of brutality and loss. Naomi discusses this strange and beautiful play with Professor Ella Haselswerdt (University of California, Los Angeles) and Rosanna Bruno (artist and illustrator of Euripides’ Trojan Women: A Comic).

In this episode, we talk about Euripides’ Bacchae. Dr. Lucy Jackson (Durham University) joins Naomi to explore the theatricality of this play about Dionysus, the questions it raises about gender, and how it has been reimagined in modern productions. Professor Monica Youn (University of California, Irvine) gives a reading of her poem “Study of Two Figures, Agave/Pentheus” from the collection From From (2023) and talks with Naomi about how this work traces constructions of Asianness, ancient and modern.

In this episode, Naomi talks to Professor Al Duncan (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) about Euripides’ Medea as a revenge drama, Medea's liminality, and the particular performance opportunities presented by this extraordinary tragedy. Then she interviews Rhodessa Jones, founder and director of The Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women, about Medea and “women on the edge.”

In this episode, we discuss Sophocles’ Antigone, from classical Athens to 21st-century Mexico. Dr. Andrés Carrete (Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University) joins Naomi to explore different frameworks, ancient and modern, for understanding this incredibly influential play. Then they talk to two Mexican playwrights, David Gaitán and Perla de la Rosa, who have both produced their own versions of Antigone as forms of political theater.

In this episode, we turn to Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. Dr. Lyndsay Coo (University of Bristol) joins Naomi to discuss the play’s plot, its riddles, its questioning of human knowledge, and the role of the gods in a tragedy where they may at first seem absent. Janet Eilber, Artistic Director of the Martha Graham Dance Company, then talks about Graham’s Night Journey (1947), which tells Oedipus' story through the body of Jocasta, his wife and sister.

In this episode, Naomi introduces Prometheus Bound, a play traditionally attributed to Aeschylus. Professor Mark Griffith (University of California, Berkeley) joins her to discuss Prometheus as philanthropos (“human-loving”), Zeus as a tyrant, and the other plays in the Prometheus trilogy. Then Naomi talks to theater director Annie Dorsen about Prometheus Firebringer, algorithmic theater, and technological hubris.

In this episode, Naomi introduces Aeschylus’ Oresteia, first performed in 458 BCE. She discusses the trilogy’s politics with Professor Afroditi Angelopoulou (University of Southern California) and then talks to author and journalist Larry Tye about Robert F. Kennedy’s use of Aeschylus in 1968.

What was Greek tragedy and what is it today? In this episode, Naomi discusses the forms and ideas of Greek tragedy, from classical Athens to 20th-century Cuba, with Rosa Andújar (Barnard College, Columbia University) and Josh Billings (Princeton University).