Long-lived monarchs, ancient and modern
May 11, 2016
In light of the Queen’s recent 90th birthday, Nicholas Wilshere discusses long-lived monarchs ancient and modern. April 21st marked the 90th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II, an event which prompted royal reporters to make comparisons with other long-lived and long-reigning rulers, and to point out that she is both the longest-lived and longest-reigning British monarch, …
Oedipus showing at the Lakeside
April 20, 2016
Lynn Fotheringham attends a rehearsal of the Lakeside production of Oedipus and considers the process of fragmentation in modern approaches to tragedy. After the Greek tragedy film season, Lakeside Arts is putting on another Greek tragedy this week: this year’s annual collaboration with the Nottingham New Theatre is Sophocles’ Oedipus (Steven Berkoff’s version) http://www.lakesidearts.org.uk/theatre/event/3172/oedipus.html. The project, which gives New Theatre students the opportunity to …
Gout: the heroic malady?
January 26, 2016
Nick Wilshere muses on a ‘humorous’ painful disease: Painful chronic disease is not something that we generally consider a source of humour. Yet gout – inflammation of the joints, especially in the feet, caused by the formation of monosodium urate crystals – has a long history of being discussed in playful and humorous ways. As long ago …
Queen of the Silver Arrow competition
January 24, 2016
Prize: copy of Queen of the Silver Arrow, signed by Caroline Lawrence. Write a tweet or a blogpost (up to 500 words) to tell us how children’s literature or media has influenced your understanding of or enthusiasm for the Greeks and Romans. Were you inspired to become a classicist by reading Harry …
The challenge of Virgil as children’s literature
January 23, 2016
Helen Lovatt explores Virgil as YA literature: Caroline Lawrence has just published Queen of the Silver Arrow, an excellent retelling of Virgil’s Camilla episode, with Barrington Stoke, aimed at reluctant teenage readers. It is simply written, with a reading age of about 8, but contains challenging content more suitable for 12+. This makes it really …
From Aulis to Game of Thrones
January 22, 2016
Lynn Fotheringham tells us about the story of Iphigenia: I became fascinated with the story of the sacrifice of Iphigenia when I was a little girl. I first saw Cacoyannis’ 1977 film, Iphigenia, when taking a Greek-tragedy-in-translation course at Iowa State in what would now be called my ‘gap year’ in 1986—thanks, David Roochnik and …
Stagestruck: Interviewing Robert Icke
January 6, 2016
Lynn Fotheringham reports on an exclusive interview with Robert Icke: Recently I went down to London to interview Robert Icke of the Almeida Theatre for my forthcoming conference, Sacrificing Iphigenia Through the Ages. His mind-blowing modernisation of Aeschylus’ Oresteia (which he both wrote and directed) wowed London theatre-audiences this summer, first at the Almeida and …
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