"[3] Alcestis is, possibly excepting the Rhesus, the oldest surviving work by Euripides, although at the time of its first performance he had been producing plays for 17 years.

[4] Long before the start of the play, King Admetus was granted by the Fates the privilege of living past the allotted time of his death.

His father, Pheres, is unwilling to step in and thinks that it is ludicrous that he should be asked to give up the life he enjoys so much as part of this strange deal.

In the play's prologue, the god Apollo comes out from Admetus' palace in Pherae (modern Velestino in Magnesia), dressed in white and carrying his golden bow, with the intention of leaving to avoid becoming stained by the imminent death of Alcestis, who is being comforted within.

He hails the arrival of Thanatos (Death), who, dressed in black and carrying a sword, has come to the palace in his role as psychopomp to lead Alcestis to the underworld.

Thanatos challenges Apollo's apparent defense of Alcestis and accuses him of "twisting slippery tricks" when he helped Admetus cheat death in the first place.

Unwilling to turn a guest away, the king decides not to burden Heracles with the sad news and instructs the servants to make him welcome and to keep their mouths shut.

Heracles is deeply embarrassed at his blunder and his bad behaviour and he decides to ambush and confront Death when the funerary sacrifices are made at Alcestis' tomb.

After much discussion, he finally forces a reluctant Admetus to take her by the hand, but when he lifts the veil, he finds that it appears to be Alcestis, back from the dead.

[12] The production supplemented Euripides' play with material drawn from a range of sources, united by their exploration of the themes of death and rebirth.

[13] It began with Heiner Müller's Explosion of a Memory (Description of a Picture) (1985) as a prologue; the piece is a dream narrative partly composed using automatic writing.

Müller described it as a description of "a landscape beyond death" that is "an overpainting of Euripides' Alcestis which quotes the Noh play Kumasaka, the Eleventh Canto of the Odyssey, and Hitchcock's The Birds.

"[14] The production also utilised a Japanese kyogen play whose themes parodied those of Alcestis, laser projections, a musical score by Laurie Anderson, and sound sculptures by composer Robert Rutman.

[13] T. S. Eliot's play The Cocktail Party is a modern adaption of Alcestis; it was premiered at the Edinburgh Festival on 22 August 1949, directed by E. Martin Browne.