Between Tragedy and Horror
A pioneering event of webinars, workshops, forums, art exhibition and three live performances
Held by the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation from September 12th to September 26th, 2024
From September 12th to 26th, the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation (MCF) will be hosting a program on Ancient Drama, which seeks to explore interconnections between ancient theatre and the challenges of the modern age. Held at the MCF in Athens, in conjunction with McGill University in Montréal, this ten-day event features webinars, workshops, art exhibitions, and live performances will explore how contemporary horror aesthetics and concepts can be useful starting points for reinterpreting and reinvigorating elements of Greek tragedy today. Over twenty scholars from several prestigious universities including McGill University, The University of British Columbia, University of California Berkeley, University of Edinburgh, among others, will come together to discuss the ongoing relevance of tragedy and horror in our contemporary age.
Since 2012, the MCF has been implementing the European Union program on Ancient Drama in collaboration with many renowned academic institutions such as Stanford University, the University of Leeds, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Helsinki Academy in partnership with the Aalto College of Art and Design, la Fundación de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, the LabexArts-H2H (ArTeC) – Département Arts et Technologies de l’Image, Université Paris 8 Vincennes Saint-Denis, the Forum Internationale Wissenschaft of the University of Bonn, and more. The program mobilizes interdisciplinary research related to Ancient Drama and aims to promote dialogue while enhancing the way ancient drama is presented through performing and visual arts in the 21st century.
This year, the MCF is implementing a program titled “Ancient Drama: Interdisciplinary and Cross Art Approaches,” co-funded by the European Union and the European Regional Development Fund, through the Regional Program “Attika,” in accordance with the Partnership Agreement 2021-2027.
McGill University, invited by the MCF to serve as academic curators, have organized an interdisciplinary team of scholars and artists from Greece, Canada, and abroad. The program, “Ancient Drama: Between Tragedy and Horror,” explores the affective and aesthetic connections between ancient Greek tragedy and contemporary horror media, exploring interdisciplinary perspectives by Canadian and international scholars and artists working in the theoretical and creative spaces where the two genres overlap.
Live performance and comic art exhibition
Inspired by “The Trojan Women” of Euripides, Tutto Brucia is a live performance that will be held in September by the award-winning Italian theatrical group MOTUS. At the same time, a comic art exhibition titled “Trojan Women/ Struggle in Ruins” will open on September 12th with the participation of 24 artists. The events organized by the MCF aim to demonstrate the shared dynamics of tragedy and horror, create new approaches to ancient drama, and address how these genres engage with and help process the terror and violence of everyday contemporary life.
“I mourn for the sons who died in war. For the women made slaves. For the lost freedom.
Oh beloved creatures, come back, come, come and take us away!”
Hecuba whispers these words, raising questions.
“Which lives matter? What makes a life grief-worthy?”
Never more than now does mourning appear to us as a political issue.
Yet, it is through pain that the protagonists in the tragic scene are materially transformed – they become other than themselves, processing the violence suffered.
A metamorphosis that opens to other possible forms. And writes about the world to come.
For the end of the world is but the end of a world. -MOTUS Theatre
The program “Ancient Drama: Between Tragedy and Horror” offers a unique learning experience for artists, students, activists, and audiences interested in how we engage both genres. Dr. Lynn Kozak, professor of History and Classical Studies at McGill University, shares: “While Greek tragedy might not be as popular as horror media is today, both genres trade in the Aristotelian affects of “fear” and “pity”, and both suggest ways in which we might process both our individual and our social anxieties through drama; taking the two genres together can give us new insights into and new approaches to both.”
“Little work has been done in the field of classical studies regarding the connection between tragedy and terror,” underlines Alexandra Georgopoulou, artistic director of the MCF. “For the first time, the program “Ancient Drama: Between Tragedy and Horror, creates a dialogue implementing modern research trends, examining the connection between tragedy and terror, pointing out pioneering researchers’ views, and combining them with a variety of cultural events such as theatrical performances and comic art exhibitions.”
Notions such as punishment, cruelty, and sacrifice, alongside the inescapable nature of human destiny, the terrifying narratives of messengers, and mythological curses rouse the spectator’s horror not only toward the hero, but also toward themselves. The slaughter of children, women abused by men, communities confronting plague and war—these main elements of Greek Tragedy tie together the ancient with the modern. As Aristotle notes, tragedy’s pity and fear might purge spectators’ anxieties—suffering can lead to catharsis.