Bryan Doerries made these translations for use with his Theater of War and they are in highly idiomatic English and honed for specific audiences, so I somehow doubt they would meet with a purist's approval. But as a lay reader, and having never read any of these plays previously, I have to say I found them very affecting, most especially the three by Sophocles. "Ajax" and "Philoctetes" are used by Doerries with military audiences to speak to the experiences of anger, betrayal, madness, and PTSD in soldiers. "Women of Trachis" is used with those dealing with end-of-life issues, including assisted suicide. "Prometheus Bound" has been successful with groups of prison employees and, maybe, prisoners. I read them keeping in mind how they are used by Doerries: as dramatic readings meant to, as he says, "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable". ( )

The translator relates these ancient tales of suffering to contemporary victims of PTSD and similar conditions of intractable pain or mental anguish. Some of the anachronistic language I found a little distracting, but perhaps this is less of a problem in actual performance.