This text examines the performance of Greek tragedy in the classical Athenian theatre. Whilst post-structuralist criticism of Greek tragedy has tended to focus on the literary text, the analysis of stagecraft has been markedly conservative in its methodology. David Wiles aims to corrects that balance, examining the performance of tragedy as a spatial practice specific to Athenian culture, at once religious and political. Athenian conceptions of space were quite unlike those of the modern world. After examining controversies and archaeological data regarding the fifth-century performance space, Wiles turns to the chorus and shows how dance mapped out the space for the purposes of any given play. He shows how the performance as a whole was organized in respect of axes embodying oppositions such as inside and outside, east and west, above and below. The audience is both outside the performance and embraced as part of it.