Each month, I will be sharing a roundup of the coolest classics events happening across the UK, with a focus on arts and culture.
If you'd like to include an event, exhibition, or something similar in a future roundup, please email me at [email protected].
Iphigenia in Splott
Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, London
26 September – 22 October 2022
What is gonna happen, when we can't take it anymore?
Stumbling down the street drunk at 11.30am, Effie is the kind of girl you avoid making eye contact with. You think you know her, but maybe you don’t know half of it.
Effie’s life is a mess of drink, drugs and drama every night, and a hangover worse than death the next day – ’til one night gives her the chance to be something more.
Gary Owen’s critically acclaimed and powerful monodrama, Iphigenia in Splott, inspired by the Greek myth, opens at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre after a smash-hit run at the National Theatre.
Orpheus, Opera North
Various venues
14 October – 19 November 2022
This pioneering collaboration melds the music of Monteverdi’s 1607 opera Orfeo with brand new music by composer Jasdeep Singh Degun. Together, he and early music specialist Laurence Cummings lead a cast starring some of the best Indian classical and European baroque musicians in the UK.
In this beautiful new version of an ancient story, Orpheus, a musician of mythical power, marries Eurydice. But the newlyweds’ joy is shattered by her sudden death, so our heartbroken hero sets off on a mission to the underworld to rescue his bride.
Set in a leafy garden bursting with colour, be mesmerised as the trumpet and theorbo meet the sitar and the santoor in a moving musical encounter between East and West.
Also, check out Orfeo ed Euridice (20 October – 18 November 2022) – a dramatic concert performance inspired by ancient Greek myth - which forms part of Orpheus Season.
The Cambridge Greek Play, 2022
Cambridge Arts Theatre, Cambridge
19 – 22 October 2022
Following the success of 2019’s Oedipus at Colonus, the same creative team led by Director Dan Goldman present an exciting double bill: the earliest surviving Greek tragedy Persians by Aeschylus and the only remaining satyr play Cyclops by Euripides.
While Persians draws on recent Greek history and Cyclops derives from the well-known episode in Homer’s Odyssey, both plays present an outsider as the central character.
Can those we consider monsters become the object of our pity, if only we look at them closely enough?
Alexander the Great: The Making of a Myth
British Library, London
21 October 2022 – 19 February 2023
He built an empire that stretched across the world. Rode across the sky on a flying chariot. And descended to the bottom of the sea in a glass bell. Or did he?
Pharaoh, prophet, philosopher. European, Middle Eastern and Asian cultures have all moulded Alexander into the fictional hero they want him to be. And today artists and storytellers alike are still trying to reimagine the man and his myth.
Who was he really? You’ll have to decide for yourself.
Find out more about the British Library's free Classics: Study Days. These include sessions for both secondary students and A Level students linked to the Alexander the Great exhibition.
Vile Vindolanda Tours
Chesterholm Museum
22 – 30 October 2022
Sometimes Romans did things that we now consider to be rather gross and they could also be quite gruesome!
Come along to Roman Vindolanda during half term and join our volunteers guides on the fort to find out more about these aspects of Roman life at Vindolanda. How clean was the bathhouse really? Would you want to stay in a barrack room? What sort of punishments did the soldiers receive?
This event will be held outside at Vindolanda Roman fort. Tours are roughly 30 minutes long and take place everyday.
Seasons
Baron’s Court Theatre, London
25 – 26 October 2022
Rooted in Greek Mythology, Seasons is a puppet show narrated by two comical farmers who tell the story of Goddess Demeter creating the seasons.
It includes plenty of songs and audience interaction. Set and props are made from recycled and second-hand materials, with puppets designed by Hannah Williams.
A Moot Trial of Alexander the Great, Classics for All
Supreme Court, London / Zoom
26 October 2022
Alexander the Great stands trial for war crimes at the UK Supreme Court. He is charged with four counts of violation of the laws and customs of war during the razing and conquest of Persepolis.
The prosecution will argue that Alexander was a war criminal, who committed atrocities at Persepolis as a deliberate political act. The defence will argue that the burning of Persepolis was not politically motivated, rather it was merely the tragic consequence of drunken behaviour.
War hero or war criminal? The jury will decide.
Classics for All's annual moot trial will be livestreamed from the Supreme Court, giving you the opportunity to watch the proceedings online.
Seshepenmehyt: Into the Afterlife
The Great North Museum
Now booking until 19 February 2023
A rare opportunity to see the inner coffin of Seshepenmehyt, on loan from the British Museum.
Seshepenmehyt lived during Ancient Egypt's Late Period (664-332 BC). The hieroglyphic inscriptions on the coffin give us her name and title: Lady of the House.
This wonderfully preserved coffin provides a fascinating insight into Ancient Egyptian beliefs surrounding the afterlife and helps us explore some of the themes, gods and goddesses involved with Seshepenmehyt’s journey after her death.
Burnt City, Punchdrunk
One Cartridge Place, London
Now booking until April 2023
In the smouldering promise of the fall of Troy, a mythical world of gods and mortals rises from the ashes.
As Greece teeters on the brink of victory, the neon backstreets of Downtown Troy give way to a sprawling labyrinth hiding secrets even the prophecies could not foretell.
In this colossal playground, the furies watch on as mortals play out their fate. And as night falls, the city comes alive.
One last time.
Kitty is currently doing an MPhil in Classics at Cambridge. She is focusing on travel narratives and cultural identity in Roman Greece, particularly in the work of Pausanias, Apuleius and the extant Greek novelists. She is an active member of The Chorus and sits on the student steering committee.