This paper provides a review of a production of Aeschylus’s play The Persians by New York’s CITI Company in the Getty Villa’s Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman Theater, Los Angeles, in September 2014. It focuses on the message of the play, three aspects of its production, and its universal worth.

The key message of The Persians is the danger of imperial overreach. The play revolves around the defeat of a large and powerful army of the Persian king Xerxes in their expedition against a much smaller and weaker army of the Greeks. Xerxes’s hubris leads him to invasion of Greece and building of a bridge over the Hellespont in order to provide for his army’s advance. However, this decision angered the gods and led to the defeat of the Persians, who face enormous losses. Hence, the key message is as follows: even mighty leaders and strong armies should not try to conquer the lands out of pride and ambition. Their hubris may lead them to a catastrophic and humiliating defeat.

The three aspects of The Persians production to be discussed in this review are acting, directing, and costume design. First of all, focusing on acting, it needs to be said that the ensemble was at their best, even in staging of such a challenging play as The Persians, with their unusually low level of dramatism compensated by words. The most impressive acting performance were by Ellen Lauren, who played the Queen and mother of Xerxes. Ellen Lauren can be praised by her eruptions with powerful emotions, which make her portrayal of the Queen quite realistic. At the same time, Dareius and Xerxes played by Stephen Webber and Gian-Murray Gianino can be said to have given weaker performances.

Specifically, Webber as Dareius played with nonchalant irony and looked as if a stock trader rather than a king had been brought from the world of the dead. As for Gianino’s Xerxes, his performance was rather indecisive, because he apparently could not find the balance between what he wanted to represent: overbearing pride or overpowering shame. Hence, the acting varied depending on the performer. As for the director’s work, it was not bad, given the fact that staging The Persians is a kind of hubris itself. However, in some places, the directing lapses were obvious. For example, the Chorus participation was not well directed, with excessive gesturing in a melodramatic fashion upon hearing the bad news about the expedition of Xerxes and lack of participatory acting in other places, when the Chorus turned out mere detached witnesses, as well as weird yoga-like positions. As for the costume design, it was rather good, but failed to represent the decadent richness of the Persians. In this respect, the Queen’s long train of golden fabric was fitting. Overall, the modern dress was a good choice as it brought the play closer to the modern audience.

The universal worth of the play is looming through the centuries. Since the key message of the tragedy is warning against hubris, greed, cruelty, and unrestricted ambition, it is in tune with the modern political events in the world. One example is Russia’s annexation of the Crimea in Ukraine and starting a war in the East of Ukraine, when a strong military state has neglected all regulations and has decided to get the territories of the weaker neighbor. Russia, however, is now at a deep economic crisis and has faced lots of harsh sanctions from the world community. Its currency, ruble, has undergone devaluation and its prosperity has come to an end. If the NATO decide to enter the war, Russia will cease to exist as a state. In this sense, Russia will repeat the fate of Xerxes, who had a good army but was too greedy and unconcerned about the consequences of his military expedition.

Overall, the production of The Persians by SITI was worthy of visiting and could be recommended to the lovers of Greek plays. With its minor drawbacks, it still conveys the main anti-war message to a modern viewer.