- Selected as finalist for the PEN USA 2005 Literary Awards for Drama.
- Named one of Top Ten Theatre Events in Atlanta for 2004 (Creative Loafing),
- Critics Choice in Denver Post.
Winner of four LA Weekly Awards in Design.
Full-length. 1W (20s-30s), 1W (30s-50s), 3M (20s-30s), multiple roles. Fluid space.
Synopsis:
This play hurls one of Greek tragedy’s most compelling sagas into a sleek netherworld of sex, drugs and trance music. Iphigenia is the daughter of a political celebrity who embraces sensuous excess with a transgendered glam rock star named Achilles in a desperate attempt to flee her inevitable fate.
“Iphigenia…a rave fable, through the use of videotaped and live streaming images, performs the mediated culture of simulacra of global capitalism, where the body, especially the female body, is objectified to the point that the boundaries between the “real” and the mediated are blurred.”
Lillian Manzor on Caridad Svich in Oxford Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in the United States. Volume 1. (pp. 186)
Productions:
- Halcyon Theatre, Chicago, IL (2011) dir. Tony Adams
- Salvage Vanguard Theatre, Austin TX (2009) dir. Jenny Larson
- Arizona State University-Tempe (2008) dir. by Lance Gharavi
- Son of Semele Ensemble, Los Angeles, CA (area premiere:2006) dir. by Matthew McCray
- One Year Lease company, New York Sity, NY (area premiere:2006) dir. by Ianthe Demos
- North Harris College, Texas, (2005) director:John Cash Carpenter
- LIDA Project, CO (2004) dir. Brian Freeland
- 7 Stages, GA (world premiere:2004) dir. Melissa Foulger
- Actors Touring Company, UK at the Euripedes Festival, Greece (2000) *workshop. dir. Nick Philipou
Published in
Divine Fire: Eight Contemporary Plays Inspired by the Greeks,
ed. Caridad Svich, BackStage Books, NY (2005);
and
TheatreForum No. 25, ed. John Rouse, University of California-Dept of Theatre and Dance, CA (Spring/Winter 2004),
Links:
Facebook Video link to Salvage Vanguard Theatre’s trailer of IPHIGENIA…A RAVE FABLE
Reviews:
Austin.com review of Iphigenia
Produced by Son of Semele Ensemble, directed by Matthew McCray and stars Doug Barry.
In Print About Iphigenia
“Of Both Worlds: Exploiting Rave Technologies in Caridad Svich’s Iphigenia”
by Lance Gharavi in Theatre Topics 18.2 (2008) 223-242.
http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/theatre_topics/v018/18.2.gharavi.html
Related articles on this play:
“Exploiting Rave Technologies in Caridad Svich’s Iphigenia,” by Lance Gharavi, Theatre Topics 18:2 (2008) pp 223-242.
“The Rise, Fall, and Rise of Iphigenia” by Chiori Miyagawa, The Brooklyn Rail (September 2006)
“Iphigenia Gets Down” by Ali Rohrs, American Theatre (September 2006)
“Contemporary American Playwriting, The Issue of Legacy: Jason Grote, Caridad Svich and Anne Washburn in conversation with Ken Urban,” PAJ 84 (September 2006)
“Euripides’ Children” by Caridad Svich, TheatreForum No. 25 (Spring/Winter 2004)
Iphigenia, A Rave Fable Set in Mexico, Ithaca.com (March, 9, 2012)
Cover story: AMERICAN THEATRE Magazine, July/August 2009.
“Cartography Lessons with Caridad Svich” An Interview by Justin Maxwell
http://www.tcg.org/publications/at/julyaugust09/cartography.cfm0.
Videos:
Music video From the LA production
Music video From the Chicago production
Trailer from the Quito production