Tony Harrison Plays 6: Hecuba; Fram; Iphigenia in Crimea

Tony Harrison’s sixth collection includes a foreword by Lee Hall. The book contains Harrison’s translation of Euripides’s Hecuba, which inaugurated the modern amphitheatre of Delphi in 2005; the remarkable Fram, which opened at the National Theatre in 2008; and Iphigenia in Crimea, after Euripides, which premiered on BBC Radio 3 to mark Tony Harrison''s eightieth birthday in 2016.

‘Tony is that incredibly rare beast: as great a playwright as he is a poet.’ Lee Hall

‘I am convinced that Tony Harrison is one of the truly great poets writing in English today.’ Melvyn Bragg

Hecuba
‘Harrison’s urgent translation never lets us forget the aching topicality of Euripides’ study of the powerful and the powerless.’ Guardian

Fram
‘Harrison brings gloriously rich life to the stage, by turns funny and rending. His couplets are a feast for rhyme junkies.’ Financial Times

‘As visually resplendent a piece of theatre as you will see all year. The words more than hold their own, however, expressing in rhymes to be relished that poetry might yet, if not lead us out of the darkness, at least make us feel ashamed we’re still stuck in it.’ Sunday Times

Iphigenia in Crimea
Set in Sebastapol, 1854, inthe midst of the Crimean war, a lieutenant decides to stage an all-male production of Euripides’s tragedy. After initial raucous incredulity, the atmosphere changes as the men commit themselves to the drama until, as it draws to a close, ancient and modern worlds collide and warfare resumes in earnest.