Events

Company of Wolves presents: The Bacchae

Friday 6 October 2023, 7:30pm, at the Byre Theatre

Inspired by Euripides
Created, written and performed by Ewan Downie
Directed by Ian Spink

A god who doesn’t fit in.
A woman barely holding on.
A king who refuses to dance.

What happens when they all let go?

For further information and tickets please visit the Byre Theatre website

Friday 31 March 2023 at 4pm

Rosa Andújar from KCL, will be joining us to give her paper “Repeating Greek Tragedy in the American ‘Mediterranean’ Sea”.

Hybrid event: 

  • In person: Room S03 Swallowgate, School of Classics
  • To attend online please subscribe to the Classics seminar mailing list by emailing [email protected] with ‘subscribe classics-ressem’ in the subject line.

For further information please email [email protected].

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Annual Lecture

Friday 4 March 2022 at 4pm online in Microsoft Teams

Professor Eric Csapo, from the University of Warwick, will be joining us to give his paper “Phanodemos and the invention of Attic theatre history“.

To attend this lecture please subscribe to the Classics seminar mailing list by emailing [email protected] with ‘subscribe classics-ressem’ in the subject line.

For further information please email [email protected].

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Friday 23 April 2021 at 4pm online in Microsoft Teams

Professor Timothy Moore, from Washington University in St Louis, will be joining us to give his paper “Excited Voices: Anapests in Greek and Roman Theatre“.

To attend this lecture please subscribe to the Classics seminar mailing list by emailing [email protected] with ‘subscribe classics-ressem’ in the subject line.

For further information please email [email protected].

Achilles

Performance: Saturday 12 October 2019, 7.30pm at the Barron Theatre on North Street

The Company of Wolves theatre company will be performing the acclaimed show Achilles.  Written by the performer, Ewan Downie, it contains narrative, dance and song in its telling of Achilles’ story.

View a taster, and read more about the Achilles project

The School of Classics has exclusive access to this performance, and tickets are free.

Workshop: Wednesday, 2 October 2019, 2 - 5pm.

Andrea Cabrera Luna of Anahat Theatre Company led a workshop on the performance of choral passages from Greek tragedy.

This is an exciting opportunity to learn from an experienced theatre practitioner, and no prior knowledge of the text or familiarity with Greek tragedy is required. The focus will be on movement and gesture, so comfortable clothing and footwear are recommended, but don’t worry if you have no experience of performance – most of us will be complete beginners! By bringing a choral ode to life in this way, our aim will be to gain insights into the richness of tragic choral poetry and the challenges of performing it.

Workshop: 28 May 2019, University of La Réunion

The workshop aims to investigate, within a variety of different forms (epic, comedy, tragedy, etc.), the processes of ‘restitution’ of ancient texts in Ancient Régime France. The term is chosen because of its semantic ambivalence (between ‘restitution (of the Ancients) to their right place’ or ‘restitution (of the Ancients) to the moderns’), in order to overcome the traditional dichotomy between ‘translation’ and ‘adaptation’.

Performance: 30 April and 1 May 2019, at the Byre Theatre

Parent Trap, Freaky Friday, but Roman. Performed in English, but with a touch of Latin, from Classics Students of St Andrews.

Iphigenia In Aulis

Performance: 18-19 April 2019, 7.30pm at the Barron Theatre, St Andrews

War. Religion. Family. Three things that have clashed and torn each other apart for centuries. But which are you willing to put first and which are you willing to sacrifice? Agamemnon faces an agonizing choice of whether his duty is to his country or to his family. Whichever he chooses he is damned. Set in a modern warzone with modern warfare we are looking to make Euripides’ disturbing two thousand year old words ring true and resonate with the conflict and destruction that plagues our modern day world. Directed by Rose Annable and Juliet Boobbyer.

Workshop: 10 April 2019, 2.30pm at School of Classics, St Andrews

With Martin Revermann (Toronto) and Francesco Morosi (SNS, Pisa), the workshop will reflect on the challenges of translating an ancient play into a modern performance, by confronting them in a practical context. 

View event materials.

Conference: 6-7 April 2019, at Rhode Island Hall, Brown University.

With Julia Prest (St Andrews), Maryam Sanjabi (Yale), John Steele (Brown) and others.

Download Programme (pdf).

Conference: 19 March 2019, 7-9pm at Monumento Ai Mille, Marsala, Italy.

Looking at Roman comedy and ancient drama, with Maurizio Bianco, Jon Hesk, Gianna Petrone,  Giuseppe Pezzini et al.

Download Vis Comica programme (pdf).

Performance: 3-4 November 2018, 7.30pm at the St.Age

Birds is set in a fantastical world where two men, Peisetairos and Euelpides, convince the world’s birds to create a celestial city, Cloudcuckooland, where birds will rule over both gods and humans. With a darker motive, Peisetairos gradually monopolises power, even turning against his companion, and the birds’ promised free world is shaped into a tyrannical society where rebellious birds are eaten by their leader… …Wait That can’t be it. That bird’s feathers are falling off…and is that Prometheus walking around with a parasol? And why is everybody dancing?

Performance, 25 October 2018, at 5.30pm at the Byre Theatre

Byre Opera in partnership with SHINE and Voices18: John Eccles and William Congreve,The Judgment of Paris (1701) – the classical Homeric story performed by University students and staff, in partnership with the University of St Andrews School of Physics and Astronomy. A shepherd’s task – to choose the most beautiful of three goddess – is explored using Isaac Newton’s ideas about the imagined relationship between sound and colours, and with the help of modern space photography.  A meditation on how ancient, early modern and modern ideas about how humans see heavenly bodies.  17:30pm, Thursday 25th October, Byre Theatre, FREE.  (Directed by Jane Pettegree).  

Preceded by public talk, 24th October, at 1430 in the Younger Hall Rehearsal Room: ‘The Judgment of Paris: sound, light and heavenly bodies, from Isaac Newton to the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys’.  Anne-Marie Weijmans and Jane Pettegree, discuss this project’s collaboration between music, literature and modern science.

Opera: 14-15 October 2018, 7.30pm at the Byre Theatre

The University of St Andrews Opera Society proudly present their exciting new production of John Blow’s Venus and Adonis. Let John Blow’s sumptuous baroque score transport you to the foothills of arcadia where Cupid’s stray arrow has caused Venus’ desires and passion to fall upon the hunter, Adonis. Taken from Ovid’s metamorphosis, this rarely performed tale of desire and grief showcases the talents of young performers across the university community.

 

Lecture by Zinnie Harris, 10 October 2018, 5.15pm in School III, St Salvator's Quad

Zinnie Harris is a multi-award winning playwright, screenwriter and theatre director. In 2016 she was commissioned to adapt the ‘Oresteia’ by the National Theatre of Scotland/Citizens’ Theatre for performance in Glasgow and subsequently at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2017. In her lecture she will discuss her approach to Aeschylus’ ancient text and how she brought ‘This Restless House’ (winner of the Best New Play at the Critics Awards For Theatre in Scotland 2017) to the stage.