September 8, 11:00
Municipal Art Gallery of Larissa, “G.I. Katsigras Museum”
The Topic
There is an immense desire in the United Kingdom for new versions of ancient Greek tragedies. In my lecture, I will examine the production of Euripides’ Bacchae, which was staged at the National Theatre in London in 2025, as well as the Welsh-language film Effi o Blaenau, which is based on Gary Owen’s play Iphigenia in Splott—an adaptation of Euripides’ Iphigenia in Aulis. I will focus particularly on the ways in which these new versions aim to attract new and younger audiences, and I will explore how these ancient works can be utilized for the political education of our younger generations.
LUCY JACKSON
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Lucy Jackson is an Associate Professor of Classics at Durham University, specializing in ancient Greek literature. She has also taught at King’s College London and the University of Oxford. Her first book, published in 2019, examines the role of the chorus in ancient Greek theater following the deaths of Euripides and Sophocles. Her current research focuses on the survival and reception of ancient Greek drama in the Renaissance, the 20th and 21st centuries, as well as in modern political theory. In 2025, she curated the exhibition “The Greeks: Radical Reinvention” at the Wolfson Gallery of the National Theatre of Great Britain. Alongside her academic work, she has served as a production consultant and dramaturg for major theatrical productions, including The Odyssey (National Theatre, 2023), Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp. (Royal Court Theatre, 2019), Cymbeline (Royal Shakespeare Company, 2016), The Oresteia (Shakespeare’s Globe, 2015), The Iliad (British Museum/Almeida Theatre, 2015), and Medea (National Theatre, 2014).
