2 September 2026, 12:00
Diachronic Museum of Larissa
Edith Hall
Classicist
Professor Durham University, UK
The distinguished Hellenist Edith Hall—who has just received the International Hellenic Prize 2025 in Athens for her book Facing Down the Furies—will visit Larissa for the very first time to honor the 1st UNDER30 Thessaly International Performing Arts Festival. In an open seminar, she will speak about the new generation of the Atrides (Orestes and Iphigenia), exploring how the younger generation negotiates and manages intergenerational trauma.
The discussion that follows will address the reception of Ancient Drama by the “Under 30” generation in Great Britain.
Edith Hall is one of the world’s leading and most influential classical philologists. Her pioneering work serves as a global benchmark for the study, interpretation, and contemporary revival of ancient Greek theater. She is a Professor at Durham University in the UK, a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), and holds an Honorary Doctorate from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
Professor Hall’s approach stands out globally because she shifts ancient drama from a strictly academic framework into live theatrical practice. She views tragedy and comedy not as static texts of the past, but as dynamic, democratic institutions that speak directly to contemporary social, political, and psychological challenges. Through her research, she demonstrates how ancient theater gave a voice to marginalized groups (women, slaves, foreigners) and functioned as a space for dialogue on gender-based violence, political disobedience, and collective trauma.
She has authored and edited more than 35 books. At the heart of her theater-focused bibliography are the iconic works Greek Tragedy: Suffering Under the Sun (a comprehensive analysis of all 33 surviving tragedies) and The Theatrical Cast of Athens, alongside specialized volumes on the performance history of the Oresteia (Agamemnon in Performance) and Aristophanes (Aristophanes in Performance). In 2024, she was honored in Athens with the International Hellenic Prize for her book Facing Down the Furies: Suicide, the Ancient Greeks, and Me, where she utilizes Sophocles’ Ajax to approach human loss.
Uniquely bridging academia with the global theater scene, Edith Hall regularly works as a dramaturg and academic consultant for leading artistic organizations, including the Royal Shakespeare Company and London’s National Theatre, guiding directors and actors in the modern delivery of ancient texts. Furthermore, she is a frequent broadcaster for the BBC, a columnist for international media (The Guardian, The Times), and leader of the British campaign Advocating Classics Education, which fights for the return of classical studies to state schools. She is currently developing her next major research project, Unmasking Dionysus, which examines the relationship between ancient performance culture and ecology.
