The first in-depth assessment of re-vision as a phenomenon in womens drama, examining the diverse ways in which classical myth narratives have been reworked by women playwrights for the European stage. This study explores the ideological and aesthetic potential of such practice and silmultaneously exposes the tensions inherent in attempts to challenge narratives that have fundamentally shaped western thought.

From tracing the persistence of classical myths in contemporary culture and the significance of this in shaping gendered identities and opportunities, through to analysis of individual plays and productions, Babbage reveals how myths have served in the theatre as pretexts for ideological debate; enabling exploration of the fragile borders between mythic and the everyday and how revision has been regarded, not unproblematically, as a route towards restructuring the self.

This makes compelling reading for anyone interested in womens writing for the theatre or wider practices of adaptation in literature and performance.

Introduction
1. The lie of the land
Theorising myth
Re-visioning myth
Staging myth: Hella Haasses A Thread in the Dark
2. Political acts
Furiously funny: The Same Old Story and Medea, by Franca Rame and Dario Fo
And she stopped the world: Sarah Daniels Neaptide
3. Out of character
Nothing sacred: Maureen Duffys Rites
I dont know what got into me: Caryl Churchills and David Lans A Mouthful of Birds
Making silence speak: Timberlake Wertenbakers The Love of the Nightingale:
4. Stages of subjectivity
The voices within: Serena Sartori, Renata Coluccini and Demeter Beneath the Sand
Hélène Cixous and the scene of the unconscious: The Name of Oedipus: Song of the
Forbidden Body
The scene of history: Cixouss The Perjured City, or the Awakening of the Furies
5. New directions
Shock treatment: Sarah Kane and Phaedras Love
Ive got the feeling well be eternal: Hrafnhildur Hagalíns Easy Now, Electra
In pieces: Gilla Cremers m.e.d.e.a
Bibliography