Jean Racine

Based on Euripides' Hippolytus, this play by one of France's greatest playwrights is a magnificent example of character exposition. When the title character, Hippolytus' stepmother, receives false information that her husband, Theseus, is dead, Phedra reveals a passionate love for her stepson — an act that eventually …

Iphigénie is a dramatic tragedy in five acts written in alexandrine verse by the French playwright Jean Racine. It was first performed in the Orangerie in Versailles on August 18, 1674 as part of the fifth of the royal Divertissements de Versailles of Louis XIV to celebrate the conquest of Franche-Comté. Later in …