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DIDO/ELISSA: A staged reading/work in progress
24 November 2023 - 24 November 2023
8:00PM - 9:30PM
Concert Room, Divinity House, Department of Music, Palace Green, Bailey Court, Durham
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Free
‘Dido/Elissa’ is a Stage Reading and Work in Progress by IAS Fellow Dr Magdalena Zira in collaboration with Durham University Classics Society members as cast, the production team, and dramaturgs. It features an all-female ensemble who will tell the unknown and riveting story about legendary Carthaginian Queen Dido.
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Courtesy of Dr Magdalena Zira
Dido has captivated the imagination of countless readers of Virgil’s Aeneid, in which she is one of the most unforgettable jilted lovers in literature. Our play, inspired by lesser-known sources that tell the life story of this amazing woman, reveals a very different version of the events, in which she is an epic heroine and a feminist role model. This Phoenician version of Dido that completely annuls the Roman propagandist love story of Dido and Aeneas, is still told by the Lebanese and the Tunisians today. The feminist poetics of this new play deconstruct the patriarchal, colonialist lines of a familiar ancient story, in order to propose a new ‘foundational myth’.
“Her Phoenician name was Elissa. Or Elissar. Or Elishat. ‘Divine.’
They called her Dido.
Some people say this was the name given to her by the locals in her new homeland
It means wanderer. Or migrant. Or immigrant. Or refugee.”
Tickets are free and available through Eventbrite! There are two types of tickets due to venue capacity:
(1) In Person viewing in the Divinity House’ Concert Room
(2) Viewing of a Live-Stream in the Classics Department
You can access the tickets here or through the link below.