Enduring Myth: The Tragedy of Hippolytos & Phaidra at Getty Villa

LOS ANGELES, CA - The Getty Villa’s multidisciplinary approach to studying the ancient world will be seen in two major presentations beginning in August: a theater production and an exhibition both focused on the tragic Greek myth of Hippolytos.  MYTH OF TRAGIC LOVE IS EXPLORED IN INAUGURAL THEATER PRODUCTION AND EXHIBITION AT THE GETTY VILLA.

Premiering at the Getty Villa’s Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman Theater is Hippolytos, the first major production of the Getty Villa’s theater program and the inaugural presentation in the Villa’s outdoor classical theater.  Award-winning playwright and theater director Stephen Sachs directs this compelling adaptation of Euripides' timeless tragedy from a new translation by noted poet and classicist Anne Carson.  Hippolytos will begin preview performances on August 31, 2006.

The accompanying exhibition Enduring Myth: The Tragedy of Hippolytos & Phaidra will be on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Villa, August 24–December 4, 2006.  It brings together approximately 30 objects from antiquity to the present to illustrate the allure that the myth has held for artists and audiences through the ages.

While the exhibition provides visitors with a direct connection to history through the objects on view, the production reinterprets the ancient tale for a modern audience.  Together, they offer a fascinating journey through art and culture to examine the enduring power of a myth that has been explored in countless media.  In antiquity, the myth was the subject of plays by Sophokles and Seneca as well as Euripides, and it figured in the poetry of Ovid and Virgil.  The myth has inspired numerous artists, from the 17th-century dramatist Jean Racine and 20th-century poet Gabriele d’ Annunzio, to the 19th-century artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and the 20th-century filmmaker Jules Dassin.  The play’s underlying themes of passion, miscommunication between genders and generations, and religious fundamentalism still ring true today.

The newly renovated Getty Villa in Malibu, which opened to the public earlier this year, is an educational center and museum dedicated to the study of the arts and cultures of ancient Greece, Rome, and Etruria.

Theater Production
Director Stephen Sachs notes, “Just as the human being is a fragile balance of body and spirit, the four central characters in Hippolytos find themselves tangled in a knot of opposites: ... the sensual and the spiritual, the erotic and the eternal, desire and the divine.  The dangerous relationship between man and god is vividly brought to life, and demonstrates how a strict moral and spiritual fundamentalism can be one person’s salvation and another’s downfall.”

Hippolytos is the first major production of the Getty Villa’s theater program, which is rooted in the Greek and Roman plays of antiquity.  Each fall, a new presentation will be staged in the Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman Theater.  In the winter and spring, the theater program moves indoors to the Auditorium for the Villa Playreading Series, which functions as an incubator for the development of new adaptations in the classical canon. 

Exhibition
Co-organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Getty Research Institute (GRI), Enduring Myth: The Tragedy of Hippolytos & Phaidra includes a wide range of historical materials such as an ancient vase and medieval manuscript, rare books, early photographs, and modern film stills drawn from the Getty's own holdings and from collections around the world.  The exhibition will demonstrate how the ancient Greek play's themes of passion, mortality, and the frailties of human conviction were adapted and interpreted in different periods in art, film, and on stage.  The exhibition is related to the GRI 2005/6 and 2006/7 scholar themes, “The Persistence of Antiquity” and “Religion and Ritual,” respectively.

The exhibition is co-curated by David Brafman, Gabriella de la Rosa, and Roberta Panzanelli from the Getty Research Institute, and by Mary Louise Hart and Kenneth Lapatin, from the department of antiquities, the J. Paul Getty Museum.

The Myth
Hippolytos, son of the Athenian king Theseus, was devoted to Artemis, virgin goddess of the hunt.  Provoked by jealousy, Aphrodite, goddess of love, drove Hippolytos’ stepmother Phaidra to fall desperately in love with him.  Phaidra grew sick, consumed by forbidden passion. Hoping to help her, Phaidra’s nurse told Hippolytos of her love, but swore him to secrecy.  Rejected by Hippolytos and fearing that he would ruin her reputation, Phaidra committed suicide, and left Theseus a note accusing Hippolytos of having raped her.  Because of his sworn oath to silence, Hippolytos was unable to defend himself, so Theseus cursed and banished him.  As the youth drove along the shore into exile, a monstrous bull sent by Poseidon, god of the sea, rose from the waves, terrifying his horses.  Hippolytos was thrown from his chariot and dragged to his death.  (The name Hippolytos literally means “loosener of horses” or “destroyed by horses”).

The J. Paul Getty Trust is an international cultural and philanthropic institution devoted to the visual arts that features the Getty Conservation Institute, the Getty Foundation, the J. Paul Getty Museum, and the Getty Research Institute.  The J. Paul Getty Trust and Getty programs serve a varied audience from two locations: the Getty Center in Los Angeles and the Getty Villa in Malibu.

Visiting the Getty Villa at : http://www.getty.edu/visit/