Phèdre

Phedre is a French tragedy in alexandrine verse by the playwright Jean Racine, originally staged under the title Phedre et Hippolyte and first performed on 1 January 1677 at the Hotel de Bourgogne theatre in Paris. Drawing on Greek mythology and on earlier dramatic treatments of the same story by Euripides and Seneca, the five-act play centers on Phedre, wife of the Athenian king Theseus, and her consuming, guilt-ridden passion for her stepson Hippolyte, a passion that sets in motion a chain of false accusation and tragedy once it becomes known. Composed at the height of French classical tragedy, the play is built around the strict formal conventions of the genre, including the unities of time, place and action, while probing the psychological torment of a protagonist destroyed by a desire she cannot control or admit. It is widely regarded as Racine's greatest tragedy and one of the central works of seventeenth-century French theatre.