Paradoxical, or maybe not
June 4, 2013
In which classical Greek drama will you find these passages in praise of warlike achievements? 1. “Now, Spartans, do you not remember when Pericleidas the Spartan once came here to Athens and sat at our altars supplicating the Athenians – deathly pale in his scarlet cloak – begging for an army? You were hard pressed then …
Tragic Troy reviewed
May 22, 2013
Below is a review by Alan Geary of the Lace Market Theatre’s Women of Troy, from the Nottingham Evening Post of Wednesday 15 May. “The Trojan War has ended with Greek victory. Troy is in ruins; its menfolk have been killed; its women and children are being carried off into slavery or worse. As Women …
Tragic Troy in Nottingham
May 15, 2013
Euripides’ Women of Troy, adapted by Don Taylor and directed by Cynthia Marsh, is playing all this week at Nottingham’s Lace Market Theatre. And tonight (Wednesday) Professor Judith Mossman, of the University’s Centre for Ancient Drama and its Reception (CADRE), will be giving a post-performance talk at the theatre on “The Life and Times of …
The appliance of cognitive science
May 8, 2013
On Thursday 9 May, at 5 pm in A2 Humanities Building, Dr Peter Meineck of New York University, who is a Special Professor in the Department of Classics, will give a lecture on an exciting new interdisciplinary development in the study of ancient drama. The Theatre that Moved the Soul: Understanding the Power of Ancient …
Lysistrata at the Lakeside
May 2, 2013
Take a look at the Nottingham Evening Post review of last week’s production of Lysistrata, and at the thoughts of a member of the cast.
Song, dance, drama
April 24, 2013
This post is by Richard Rawles. Since attending a conference in London during the Easter vacation, I have been thinking about Greek tragedy as a form of music drama, and how hard it is for us as modern readers to grasp this. If we watch a musical or an opera, one of the things which …
Death and honour, honour in death
April 15, 2013
When a person dies who was in life a towering but also a deeply controversial figure, how far, if at all, is it appropriate for those who hated her while she lived to continue giving expression to their hatred in word and deed? Like so many other perennial human questions, this one was pondered over …
Thoughts of a serial translator
April 10, 2013
Here … is the text of the plenary lecture I gave at the annual conference of the Classical Association at Reading last Wednesday. Next year’s conference is in Nottingham. It will be a bit later in April, and we hope the weather will be better! Alan Sommerstein
National Theatre film
March 27, 2013
Take a look at the National Theatre’s five-minute film, An Introduction to Greek Comedy and Satyr Drama (with Sean McEvoy, Edith Hall, Laura Swift, and Alan Sommerstein) at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-BvMbfkxcc .
The woman from Samos
March 22, 2013
Just a plug for my forthcoming edition of Menander’s Samia (The Woman from Samos), being published this autumn by Cambridge University Press; see http://www.cambridge.org/gb/knowledge/isbn/item7257906/Menander%20Samia%20(The%20Woman%20From%20Samos%20)/site_locale=en_GB .
