In Racine's masterpiece Phedre, the characters are wracked by massive emotion from first to last. Love and hate, loyalty and guilt, co-exist on the same pendulum. Every speech, every exit and entrance, is propelled by a helpless momentum. Each scene and each act become part of one large and fast whirlpool. The heroic power of Racine is vividly present, as are the formal elegance, the sonorous musicality, the controlled rhetoric.