Rachel Chavkin, director of Hadestown: “This gets now into very old Greek theater, but the idea of catharsis and working through something together and the tragedy as a crucible that the audience travels through as a community and mourns together. … I think there something is so medicinal in that purgation. That’s how the Greeks used that word, catharsis, both spiritually and physically — which of course wasn’t separate for them — as medicinal.” – Slate