\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cP\u003eFrom \u003cI\u003eThe Persians\u003c/I\u003e\u003cBR\u003e\"Defeat is impossible\u003cBR\u003eDefeat is unthinkable\u003cBR\u003eWe have always been the favorites of fate.\u003cbr\u003eFortune has cupped us\u003cBR\u003eIn her golden palms.\u003cBR\u003eIt has only been a matter\u003cBR\u003eOf choosing our desire. Which fruit\u003cBR\u003eTo pick from the nodding tree.\"\u003c/P\u003e\u003cP\u003eThis chilling passage is from Ellen McLaughlin\u0026rsquo;s new adaptation of \u003cI\u003eThe Persians \u003c/I\u003eby Aeschylus, the earliest surviving play in Western literature, an elegy for a fallen civi-lization and a warning to its new conqueror. As Margo Jefferson wrote in the \u003cI\u003eNew York Times\u003c/I\u003e, \"The play is a true classic: we see the present and the future right there, inside the past. And when writers give us a \u0026lsquo;new version\u0026rsquo; (a translation or adaptation) of a classic, they both serve and use it. They serve the playwright\u0026rsquo;s gifts by refusing to simplify. But they can\u0026rsquo;t just imitate. Every age has its own rhythms and drives. The classic must make us feel the new acutely. Ellen McLaughlin serves and uses \u003cI\u003eThe Persians \u003c/I\u003ewith true power and grace.\"\u003c/P\u003e\u003cP\u003eAlso included in this volume: \u003cI\u003eIphigenia and Other Daughters \u003c/I\u003e(from Euripides and Sophocles); \u003cI\u003eThe Trojan Women \u003c/I\u003e(Euripides); \u003cI\u003eHelen \u003c/I\u003e(Euripides); and \u003cI\u003eLysistrata \u003c/I\u003e(Aristophanes), all powerfully realized and as relevant today as when they were first performed.\u003c/P\u003e\u003cP\u003eEllen McLaughlin\u0026rsquo;s plays include \u003cI\u003eDays and Nights Within, A Narrow Bed, Infinity\u0026rsquo;s House\u003c/I\u003e and \u003cI\u003eTongue of a Bird\u003c/I\u003e, which have been widely produced. She is a past finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and was the co-winner of the Great American Play Contest. Also an accomplished actor, Ms. McLaughlin is most known for having originated the part of the Angel in Tony Kushner\u0026rsquo;s \u003cI\u003eAngels in America\u003c/I\u003e, appearing in every U.S. production through its Broadway run.\u003c/P\u003e\u003c/div\u003e
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