Although the presence of Greek tragedy on American soil has a history of well over two hundred years, at no other time in the past has it been so strongly felt as it has been in the turbulent 60s and after. Numerous performances of the originals in translation, and equally numerous adaptations and appropriations have not only enriched the knowledge theatergoers have about tragedy but also the very aesthetic and ideological development of American theatre. The aim of this essay is to show the multilayered trajectory Greek tragedy follows from the early sixties to the present and argue how (and why) it has become an ideal vehicle for the dramatization of controversial issues about war, race, gender, ethnicity, identity, slavery, immigration and politics. In other words, this study is not meant to provide any data concerning the numerous performances realized in the U.S in the last decades, but rather offer the sociocultural, political and theoretical frame necessary for the deconstruction and subsequent reconstruction of the various aesthetric and other trends that are directly or indirectly related to the present, polymorphous state of Greek tragedy in the U.S. and its equally polymorphous multicultural reception.
