The Theater of War

What Ancient Greek Tragedies Can Teach Us Today

By: Bryan Doerries

Narrated by: Adam Driver

This compassionate, personal, and illuminating work of nonfiction draws on the author's celebrated work as a director of socially conscious theater to connect listeners with the power of an ancient artistic tradition. For years Bryan Doerries has been producing ancient tragedies for current and returned servicemen and women, addicts, tornado and hurricane victims, and a wide range of other at-risk people in society. Here, drawing on these extraordinary firsthand experiences, Doerries clearly and powerfully illustrates the redemptive and therapeutic potential of this classical, timeless art: how, for example, Ajax can help soldiers and their loved ones grapple with PTSD or how Prometheus Bound provides insights into the modern penal system.

Doerries is an original and magnanimous thinker, and The Theater of War - wholly unsentimental but intensely felt and emotionally engaging - is a humane, knowledgeable, and accessible book that will inspire and inform listeners, showing them that suffering and healing are both parts of a timeless process.

©2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc. (P)2015 Blackstone Audiobooks

Powerful

It's as powerful as these productions are. We need more people like Mr Doerries in the world. As a classicist, this work also casts Greek drama in a new light.

Thanks,
Cameron

One of the better stories I have listenned to

Bit short and a bit mixed, this could be made into 3 different books,

What really made it interesting are real stories of the real people and their strugle

Riveting.

I originally got this book because it was narrated by Adam Driver. However, by the end of the first chapter I was hooked both by the subject and the narration. I was moved to tears on many occasions by the author's observations and the stories of the people he was writing about. The narration added to the effect and while I feel this book would be great on its on..the impassioned narration really added and enhanced the feelings and points the author was trying to put across. I just ordered the hard copy version.

Okay

This book had a very interesting concept and I enjoyed learning more about the Greek plays at the core of the narrative. However, the entire book felt more like a big self-congratulatory ad for his plays than anything else. At the end of the book, I felt like I just listened to a nearly six-hour-long commercial and was kind of shocked when the end came and he didn’t close it with something like: did I mention I’m awesome?

Unexpected Enjoyment

Really didn't know what to expect, but really appreciated the author's interpretation of classical works as therapy throughout human history.