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"IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS."

MISS SPINNEY IN GREEK DRAMA. Miss Dorothea Spinney returned to the Masonic Hall last evening to delight an audience with a recital of the Greek play "Iphigenia in Tuuris," of Euripides, a work which history relates was first performed over 400 years 8.C., yet, wonder of wonders, is just as fresh and beautiful in thought .and action as though penned yesterday. Indeed, onr recent yesterdays have given birth to no such writers of tragedies as those who first kindled the torch of the drama at the dawn* of things. Miss Spinney uses Professor. Gilbert Murray's beautiful translation, to which, by the aid of her rare art and ripe intellect, she lends a grace and dignity at once.charming and arresting. It was impossiblo to listen to her musical voice, telling, with every respect to the foibles of character, this strango old story of Iphigenia, the' daughter of Agamemnon, who, on ths point of being sacrificed by her own father, is whisked away in a cloud by tho God Artemis, and placed in charge of his temple on the bitter shores of Taurus, where her loathsome duty is to sacrifice all strangers who venture that way. Though she longs for her native land, she is bound by lies she cannot break to act as tho priestess of Artemis, until one day her brother Orestes, tortured by furies owing to having killed his own mother, arrives on the scene with his friend, to seek the sacred image of Artemis, the possession of which will alono restore his reasou, and a highly dramatic scene ensues upon the discovery of their relationship. Iphigenia, who siTsiild see both strangers slaughtered, nvolves a plot by which she will escape with her brother, bearing away the sacred image at the same timo. The gods aro kind, and the happy ending ensues. Miss Spinney has the faculty of suggesting very clearly the various characters embodied in the piny. The sweetness of Iphigenia in her sad circumstances, her shuddering horror at the deeds she has to witness and participate in, and the ineffable joy at seeing her brother were delightfully reflected, and her skill in showing how the chorus is einploved as bridges in the narrative was also very striking. To lovers of tha Greek drama—the drama , in its purest form—tho visit of Miss Spinney should bo an intellectual feast.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19160719.2.44

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2827, 19 July 1916, Page 6

Word count
Tapeke kupu
393

"IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS." Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2827, 19 July 1916, Page 6

"IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS." Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2827, 19 July 1916, Page 6

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