Four Neo Classic tragedies from the renowned French dramatist Jean Racine

Jean-Baptiste Racine was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille. Racine is also an important literary figure in the Western tradition and world literature. Racine was primarily a tragedian. Dive into these classic Greek stories told with a French neoclassic flair with star studded casts including, Timothy West, Prunella Scales, Peter Egan, Martin Jarvis, William Fox, Geraldine McEwan

Jean Racine’s 1677 play Phaedra reprises the ancient Greek play Hippolytus by the famed playwright Euripides; however, Racine’s version of events shifts the focus from the tragically-fated Hippolytus to the equally ill-fated Phaedra. The play is set at the royal court in Troezen, on the Peloponnesus coast in Southern Greece. In the absence of her royal husband Thésée, Phèdre ends by declaring her love to Hippolyte, Thésée's son from a previous marriage.


Andromache – Racine's tragedy of passion, set immediately after the Trojan War. The play takes place in the aftermath of the Trojan War, during which Andromache's husband Hector, son of Priam, has been slain by Achilles and their young son Astyanax has narrowly escaped a similar fate at the hands of Ulysses, who has unknowingly been tricked into killing another child in his place. Andromache has been taken prisoner in Epirus by Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, who is due to be married to Hermione, the only daughter of the Spartan king Menelaus and Helen of Troy.


Mithridates - Set in the ancient kingdom of Pontus, the play centers on the legendary King Mithridates, who returns unexpectedly after being presumed dead. He discovers his two sons both love Monime, the woman promised to him as queen. As family loyalty collides with forbidden passion, Mithridates plans a daring invasion of Rome while suspecting betrayal within his own house.


Berenice - The play is set in Rome and centres on a love triangle involving the Roman Emperor Titus, the Queen of Palestine Berenice, and Antiochus, King of Commagene. Inspired by a passage from Suetonius’ Lives of the Twelve Caesars, the play explores the tension between love and duty. Titus, torn between his love for Berenice and his political responsibilities as Emperor, ultimately chooses to fulfil his public duties, thereby forsaking his personal happiness. The play is known for its psychological depth and elegant verse.