In Performance

Court Theatre opened its 2002-03 season of classic drama with an adaptation of an adaptation of Racine's Phèdre - itself a 17th-century version of Euripides's tragedy about a queen's mad passion for her husband's son. Working from Paul Schmidt's English adaptation, director JoAnne Akalaitis, AB'60, set the Greek myth in an island spa, "a place where rich, important people vacation. It's the kind of place where nothing bad could ever happen...."

Seeing Phèdre as "an iconographic story," Akalaitis punctuated the production with ritualistic gestures, actors striking poses at any mention of the underworld or the king of Athens.

The Chicago Tribune called the Court show "highly charged and exactingly brave," praising Jenny Bacon (left) as Phèdre, the scenic design, lighting, costumes, and the "brilliantly" conceived sound design-the last by Andre Pluess, AB'96, and Ben Sussmann, SB'94.
- Mary Ruth Yoe