IPHIGENIA
AMONG THE TAURIANS                   

The Tauris of this design is rooted in what we western citizens of the 21st century would recognize as a functioning contemporary city, governed by the aboveboard king Thoas. What we see onstage is a dead end street with the rear side and back door of the Temple of Artemis, the building that envelops the goddess’ statue that fell from the sky. This is where the Chorus of captive Greek women work and reside, and where the priestess Iphigenia performs her daily duties as head of the temple and of the ritualistic sacrifice of foreign men. This backstreet receives the street that leads to the outside of the city, and runs along the rear of an apartment building with a passage at basement level that leads to another part of Tauris.

A glimpse of the gold covered interior of the temple is seen through its backdoor, through a vestibule that works as a transitional space between the exterior and interior. The space between the mundane and the holy is narrow.

^{Play by Euripides
Translation by Anne Carson
Design: Tatiana Kahvegian
Concept project @ Luma Theater (The Fisher Center) 2021
[ scale model photos ]}