ABSTRACT
A good starting point for discussion of the contested ground of classical adaptation is the correlation between performance studies, editorial theory, and that most arcane subsection of Classical philology, textual criticism. There is something strangely anarchic about the circumscribed openness of theatrical adaptation that can be truly revolutionary. Theatrical adaptation does not mourn the lost text, nor does it carry its corpse. Rather, it resurrects a text that never-was but will always be about to be. It time-travels in a way much more exciting and parallel than the diachronic Tardis of the traditional textual critic. In doing so, adaptation places the onus of meaning creation on the audience’s openness to receive multiple simultaneous texts and hypertexts. It asks a lot of its audience; but perhaps in giving them that task, adaptation translates Greek drama’s communal responsibility more experientially than the slavishly faithful translation.
