Iphigeneia Among The Taurians - Presented by VATS!

COME TO OUR CLOSING NIGHT FOR A DIRECTOR Q&A!

The Victoria Ancient Theatre Society (VATS!) is back again for the second show of their 10 year anniversary extravaganza! VATS is a student-led club at Victoria University of Wellington that puts on a ancient play annually, celebrating the fusion of Classical Studies and Theatre! This year, we have put on two plays to celebrate our 10 year anniversary: you may have seen Iphigeneia In Aulis earlier this year, but now we introduce the sequel to the tale: Iphigeneia Among the Taurians.

Written by the Greek playwright Euripides sometime between 414 and 412 BC for the crowds of the Athenian Dionysia festival, Iphigeneia Among the Taurians (Greek: Ἰφιγένεια ἐν Ταύροις) is a tragicomedic play which follows the trials and tribulations of the titular daughter of Agamemnon after the events of Iphigeneia at Aulis.

The scene is set: it is revealed that not all is as it was thought, and Iphigeneia has miraculously survived being sacrificed to the goddess Artemis by the hand of her own father at the port of Aulis, which he did in order to secure favourable winds for the Greek military expedition to Troy. Instead, she is whisked away by Artemis, leaving a deer in her place, to the land of the Taurians (in present-day Crimea), a strange and barbarian people (or so Euripides' audience would have thought). There she is made to serve as the priestess of Artemis, having to officiate gruesome human sacrifice to the goddess.

Much time has passed, and meanwhile in Greece, Iphigeneia's father Agamemnon has returned home from the Trojan War only to be killed by his wife Klytemnestra. Their son Orestes, Iphigeneia's brother, avenges his father by killing his own mother, but is driven mad by the vindictive Furies as punishment, when the god Apollo offers him a way out of his family's curse: travel through the fearsome Clashing Rocks across an inhospitable sea to the land of the Taurians to steal a sacred statue of Artemis. Little do Orestes and his companion Pylades know what is waiting for them on the other side...

A tale of unsettling tragedy, heroic adventure and the unbreakable bonds of siblinghood (with no shortage of laughs in the mix too), Iphigeneia Among the Taurians is a wild ride through the world of Ancient Greek myths and legends.