21 Ancient Greek Plays Brought To Life At Randolph College

The Greek Play is one of Randolph College's most prized traditions. It started early in the days of Randolph-Macon Woman's College, when a professor of Greek asked her students to bring to life the comedies and tragedies of ancient Greece. Upon her retirement, we took a break for a few decades, and then we revived the tradition again. In celebration of the 2014 Greek Play, we dusted off some historic images from the Greek Play past. Enjoy them. (And come see the show!)

1. Oedipus the King

One of the best known of all Greek tragedies, Oedipus is now in production for the second time in the Dell.

Under the name Oedipus Tyrannus, the play was performed in 1913 in Greek. Now 101 years later, Randolph students will perform Oedipus the King in translation October 10-12.

The new Oedipus

The masks for the 2014 production of Oedipus the King were made with help from 3-D printing technology.

2. Seven Against Thebes

Tragedy follows the family of Oedipus through generations. In Seven Against Thebes, which was performed in 1950 and in 2012, his sons Eteocles and Polynices kill each other in a battle over the Theban throne.

3. Hecuba

Hecuba was performed in 1947 and 2010. It takes place after the Trojan war, and the central character is the queen of Troy.

4. Alcestis

The tradition of the Greek Play began with Alcestis, which Randolph-Macon Woman's College put on in front of the psychology building under the direction of Mabel K. Whiteside. The College has performed the play five times.

In the play, Alcestis sacrifices her life in exchange for the life of her husband, Admetus. Fortunately, she is saved when Heracles retrieves Alcestis from the afterlife and returns her to her family.

And then there's that time that we performed Alcestis IN GREECE

In 2009, we celebrated the centennial of the Greek Play by sending the cast and crew to Greece. Under the direction of classics professor Amy R. Cohen, they performed Alcestis in the Greek theatre at the Kironio Museum. (They also practiced the play in the 1896 Olympic stadium and in an ancient theatre at Delphi.)

5. Elektra

Also spelled Electra, this play has been performed on our campus five times, including shows in 1914, 1930, 1943, 1951, and 2008.

In this family drama, Clymenstra’s lover, Aegisthus, has killed her husband, King Agamemnon. Two of the King’s children, Orestes and Elektra, then plot revenge and kill their mother and her lover where their father was murdered years before.

From the 2008 production of Elektra.

6. The Clouds

Our 2006 production was The Clouds by Aristophanes, a comedy that lampoons intellectualism of classical Athens.

7. The Bacchae

In The Bacchae, Euripides shows the young god Dionysus making a tragedy out of Thebes when the inhabitants refuse to recognize his divinity. It has been performed three times by our student body, in 1941, 1948, and 2004.

Lost performance?

OK, maybe not just three times. There is evidence that The Bacchae was performed again in 1960.

By the way, if you attended R-MWC between 1955 and 1999 and participated in a Greek play, please let us know so we can complete the record.

8. The Libation Bearers

In the middle play in the Oresteia trilogy, the children of Agamemnon seek revenge for his murder by plotting to kill their mother and her lover. In addition to the performance of the entire trilogy in 1954, The Libation Bearers was staged in 2002.

The half masks seen here were an experiment before we developed ways to make full masks in the style of ancient Greek thespians.

9. Iphigeneia at Aulis

Performed in The Dell in 2001, this tragedy relates the story of King Agamemnon and his sacrifice of his daughter, Iphigenia, in exchange for his army’s success in the Battle of Troy. In a twist of fate, just before she is to die, her body disappears, leaving the fatal blow cutting through air.

10. Antigone

We have performed Antigone in five different years: 1910, 1917, 1931, 1944, and 2000.

Antigone takes place shortly after the events of Seven Against Thebes, and Creon, the city's new ruler, refuses (against the wishes of the gods) to bury one of his nephews.

Antigone was the College's second Greek Play.

11. The Oresteia

The entire trilogy was performed in 1954 to celebrate the Greek play tradition as Mabel Whiteside prepared to retire.

The Roanoke Times covered the trilogy in its "Society and Women's Activites" section.

12. The Euminedes

The third play in the Oresteia trilogy, The Euminedes was performed in the 1954 production of the trilogy in addition to independent productions in 1932 and 1953.

This photo is from 1954, when the Oresteia was also filmed in a performance at a local high school.

Orestes has fled Argos after murdering his mother and is pursued by furies for the matricide. In Athens, Athene holds a court case for Orestes, where he is acquitted. In a twist of fate, the furies are appeased with a position of honor in Athens and they are transformed into kindly spirits known as Eumenides.

13. The Birds

The Birds was performed in 1926, 1937, and 1952. The 1937 photo is shown here.

The comedy takes readers to new heights as Pisthetaerus convinces the world’s birds to build a city in the sky, allowing him to communicate with the gods. He eventually transforms into a bird-like god and seizes power over Olympus from Zeus.

14. The Frogs

The god Dionysus and his slave travel to Hades to bring the playwright Euripides back from the dead and revive the art of Athenian tragic drama. It was staged at the College in 1949.

15. Trojan Women

Performed four times (1927, 1933, 1939 and 1946), Trojan Women tells the tale of Hecuba, Andromache, Cassandra, and the other women living in Troy after its destruction and the enslavement of its people by the Spartan King Menelaus.

16. Agamemnon

As Agamemnon returns from the Trojan War, he is murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra, and her lover. This play, performed in 1945, begins the trilogy The Oresteia.

These photos also came from the set of the film made in 1954.

17. Medea

upload.wikimedia.org / Via en.wikipedia.org

Medea exacts revenge on her husband by murdering his bride-to-be, her own two children, and finally herself. The College staged Medea three times, in 1911, 1920, and 1938.

18. The Suppliants

Fifty damsels in distress, the Danaides, or daughters of Denaus, flee from their impending arranged marriages to their 50 cousins from Egypt. Fortunately, they are saved by King Pelasgus from Argos. It was performed in the Dell in 1936.

19. Ion

The 1935 Greek Play tells the story of man, presumed to be an orphan, who eventually returns to his home and discovers his true origins.

20. Prometheus Bound

This tragedy recounts the story of Prometheus after he has given fire to humanity and is chained to a mountain. Zeus soon demands Prometheus use his power of prophecy to find who will usurp the leader of the Gods, but when Prometheus refuses, he is sent to the abyss of Tartarus. It was the College's Greek play in 1934.

21. Iphigenia in Tauris

Two children of Agamemnon, Iphigenia and her brother Orestes, reunite on the island Tauris, where Iphigenia’s task is to kill trespassers and Orestes is a trespasser. They work to escape together.

22. Here's a nice cartoon of the founder of the Greek Play tradition

This cartoon appeared in the 1935 Helianthus, the College's yearbook, on a page celebrating fun, unique aspects of campus life.

Mabel Kate Whiteside taught Greek and Latin at Randolph-Macon Woman's College for more than 50 years, also serving as the College's first Dean of Students. During that time, she directed 40 Greek drama productions in the original Greek. We have her to thank for an educational tradition that you won't find at just any college.