Well before either film, Cacoyannis had directed both plays Off-Broadway, at the old Circle in the Square on Bleecker Street (the current Broadway version of that institution had not yet been built). THE TROJAN WOMEN (1963) cast included Mildred Dunnock as Hecuba, Joyce Ebert as Andromache, Carrie Nye as Cassandra and Jane White as Helen. The IPHIGENIA IN AULIS (1967) cast featured Papas as Clytemnestra, with Mitchell Ryan as Agamemnon and Chris Walken as Achilles.
Both productions were formalized and seemed rather staid, but some of the acting - Dunnock, Ebert, Walken - was pretty spectacular. Papas was a powerful Clytemnestra. She also played Agave in THE BACCHAE for Cacoyannis at the uptown Circle in the Square, which I didn't see. |
