Oresteia

Aeschylus’ “Oresteia” concludes with “Eumenides,” depicting the establishment of the Areopagus court to replace cycles of vengeance, thus mythologizing the roots of jury trials.

They kept in touch, and, in 2015, when Stevenson congratulated Williams backstage, after watching her performance in Icke’s “Oresteia,” the director had a flash of inspiration.

Art and activism are deeply intertwined in his work: As part of his “trilogy of ancient myths,” he rehearsed and filmed part of an adaptation of Aeschylus’ “Oresteia” in Iraq in 2019.

Those programs assign more than 1,000 titles to students — including Aeschylus’ “Oresteia” and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s “A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.”

I had a hard time taking seriously the tragedian togas, masks and wigs — I felt like I was stuck watching classics majors putting on an overambitious, reworked “Oresteia,” and as fanciful as the costumes are, my interest waned.