Adaptation as critique: Gender and politics in the plays of Effat Yehia and Amel Fadgy, Caridad Svich and Christine Evans

This article explores three adaptations of classical Greek stories/myths: Kan Ya Ma Kan/Once Upon a Time (2000), Iphigenia Crash Land Falls On The Neon Shell That Was Once Her Heart (a rave fable) (2004) and Trojan Barbie: A Car Crash Encounter with Euripides’ Trojan Women (2007). These adaptations seek to deconstruct ‘source’ texts by presenting new readings that challenge the dominant patriarchal and political discourses embedded in these myths. Even though the plays offer examples of different modes of adaptation, they all use myth as a catalyst to explore issues of gender and politics. The article examines these three feministoriented adaptations in order to explore the ways in which their theatrical practices illuminate and critique contemporary social and political issues.