A review by msand3
Hippolytos by Euripides

2.0

Despite the noble act of forgiveness advocated in in the final moments, I found this drama to be mostly lacking energy and emotional verve. I think part of the reason was the choice to keep Theseus from entering until halfway through the drama. I realize that he must be “away” from certain events to transpire, but we are left with little development of his relationship with either Hippolytus or Phaedra. The other problem I had was the Hippolytus is actually the least interesting character in the drama. Since we know what will happen from almost the beginning, the real meat of this play is the interaction between Phaedra and the Nurse, leaving the final half of the play to be mostly anticlimactic.