Biography
David Stuttard took an MA in Classics from St. Andrews University, where he became the first person twice to win the HJ Rose Memorial Prize for essay writing, and where he remained to work on a PhD on Plutarch’s Symposiaka. He subsequently taught Classics for eleven years in Edinburgh, St. Andrews and York.
In 1993, David founded the theatre company, Actors of Dionysus (aod), to tour regularly throughout the UK, and for which he would direct direct his own translations and adaptations of Greek tragedies, remaining with the company as Joint Artistic Director until 2004. He is now its Strategic Advisor.
In addition to stage shows, David produced the Penguin Audiobook of Medea and a video entitled The Face of Tragedy, while his play Blow Your Mind, Aristophanes! premiered at London’s Mermaid Theatre in association with the British Film Institute and Channel 4. In 2003 and 2004, David produced Trojan Women and other plays for performance in ancient theatres in Turkey, Albania and Croatia, including at Troy, Pergamum, Ephesus, Aspendus, Butrint and Split.
His work has been heard on BBC Radio 3, his translation of Aeschylus’ Agamemnon was adopted as an Open University set text and his scripts have been performed throughout the world. His Trojan Trilogy was premiered at The British Museum in 2007.
In 2009, with Sam Moorhead, David wrote AD 410, The Year That Shook Rome, published by The British Museum Press in March 2010. In May that year, David’s pastiche Greek tragedy, Economus Wrecked, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, and in June, he was elected to serve on the Council of the Roman Society.
His adaptation of Aristophanes Lysistrata, together with essays by eight academic experts on the play, was published by Duckworth in August 2010. That Autumn, it was used in a touring production by Actors of Dionysus. In 2011 it was staged at the Rose Theatre, Kingston.
In 2012, three new books were published: Power Games (about the Greek Olympics of 416BC) for The British Museum; The Romans Who Shaped Britain, written with Sam Moorhead, for Thames and Hudson and 31BC: Anthony, Cleopatra and The Fall of Egypt, also written with Sam Moorhead (British Museum Press).
David has spoken at a range of literary festivals, including Oxford and Cheltenham, and led study tours to Italy, Greece and Turkey, while his background in Greek drama sees him take part in forum discussions on the subject. In 2012 he appeared on a panel with Liz Lochhead and David Grieg.
In May 2012, David devised a special event for aod, featuring readings of his work at London’s Reform Club, performed by Jane Asher, Simon Russell Beale, Tom Conti and Fenella Fielding. This led to his spearheading (with Lianna Valenti) the new ‘aod Events’ programme, which in October 2012 saw Fenella Fielding perform the role of Hekabe in a rehearsed reading of David’s reconstruction of Euripides’ Alexandros at Europe House, London. Further such events are planned for 2013 and beyond.
David writes regularly for magazines such as Minerva and The British Museum Magazine, and he is currently working on two books: Parthenon, Power and Politics on the Acropolis for the British Museum Press, due out in September 2013, and A History of Ancient Greece in 50 Lives for Thames & Hudson, due to appear in 2014. He has recently received a commission to edit Looking at Medea for Bloomsbury Press. The volume will include David’s translation of the play.
David Stuttard
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With a background in classics and drama, David is a writer and lecturer, who also works as a director, theatre dramaturg and workshop leader.
In August last year (2012), Current World Archaeology wrote of him: ‘David Stuttard is a classicist well-known for translating and directing Greek plays. His career represents an admirable commitment to popularising classical culture and making it accessible to new non-specialist audiences.’
In February 2013, historian Bettany Hughes wrote of his stage show ‘Savage Beauty’ at London’s St. James Theatre that it ‘pulled together sensuous, hilarious and genuinely moving work from Ancient Greek poems, plays and inscriptions. A✭!’ To see a short ‘teaser’ for ‘Savage Beauty’ click here.
In Brief
Parthenon, Power and Politics on the Acropolis will be published by the British Museum in October 2013. David is now writing A History of Ancient Greece in 50 Lives for Thames & Hudson and editing Looking at Medea for Bloomsbury Press. He recently curated the event, Disaster in the Loveliest of Lands, at the British Museum in association with their exhibition, ‘Life & Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum’, a list of readings for which can be accessed by clicking here. This Autumn he will appear at the Heiffers Classical Festival.
Books
Parthenon, Power and Politics on the Acropolis
This book tells the dramatic story of the conception and creation of one of the world’s most iconic buildings. Setting it against a turbulent historical background and rooting it firmly in the real and mythological landscape of Athens, the book considers the Parthenon’s place in the social and religious world of ancient Greece and the wider ancient world. Populated with Athens’ most memorable characters and beautifully illustrated, it explores the Parthenon as the spiritual heart of a network of commanding buildings, used by Pericles and his successors to promote the power of Athens as the leader of the Greek world. For more details click here.
AD410, The Year That Shook Rome
Published in the UK by the British Museum Press and the US by Getty Publications, and co-authored with Sam Moorhead, AD 410, The Year That Shook Rome tells the story of the events which led to the sack of Rome by the displaced peoples of the Visigoths under their charismatic leader Alaric.
AD 410, The Year That Shook Rome has garnered considerable acclaim, including being chosen as one of the Daily Telegraph’s ‘Top Reads’ of 2010, a ‘Must Read’ from Current Archaeology and a slew of great reviews in the media. For further information, please click here.
David’s adaptation of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata is published by Duckworth Press. The volume includes David’s introduction to the play, together with a collection of eight essays from written by leading academics and experts. In 2011 a new production of Lysistrata in David’s adaptation was staged at The Rose Theatre, Kingston. Here, Professor Alan Sommerstein, one of the leading academic experts on Lysistrata, described David’s work as ‘that rather impossible thing, a faithful adaptation’, adding that he thought that Aristophanes ‘would have said, in many cases, “why didn’t I think of that?”’
Focussing on the Greek Olympics of 416 BC, this book looks not only at athletics but at the festival in its entirety, a major religious ceremony and a forum for high-profile international meetings. It takes the reader through the five days of the Games, weaving together the art and architecture of Olympia with the politics and personalities of the day as well as the excitement of the contests themselves, recreating the experience of a visitor in this crucial year in Greek history. Power Games has been long-listed for the John D. Criticos prize (2013). For further information and reviews, please click here.
Co-written with Sam Moorhead (Archaeologist of the Year, 2011), The Romans Who Shaped Britain is an epic treatment of the Roman occupation of Britain. By following the careers and lives of individuals who made a major impact on the island’s history, it places the events of Rome’s north west frontier province in a wider context. With its disparate cast of characters, it traces the changing fortunes of Roman Britain to create a gripping story of ambition and imagination tainted by corruption and greed. For further information and to read reviews, please click here.
31 BC: Antony, Cleopatra and The Fall of Egypt
Following the success of AD 410, The Year That Shook Rome, David and Sam give a similar treatment to the story of Antony and Cleopatra for the British Museum Press. The story has been told many times, but what makes this book different is that it focuses on the impact which the overthrow of Cleopatra by the Roman Empire had on the Greek city of Alexandria and on wider Egypt. It was published in the UK in May 2012 and in Germany (translated by Cornelius Hartz as 31 v Chr. Antonius, Kleopatra und der Fall Ägyptens) in September that year.
The East Facade of the Parthenon, Athens
