Two thousand years ago, the Roman poet Ovid gave voice to a group of inspirational women – queens, sorcerers, pioneers, poets and politicians – in a series of fictional letters called The Heroines. They were the women left in the wake of those swaggering heroes of classical mythology: Theseus, Hercules, Ulysses, Jason, Achilles…
Drawing inspiration from Ovid, fifteen female and non-binary playwrights were commissioned by Jermyn Street Theatre, London in 2020 to dramatise the lives of these fifteen heroines, in a series of new monologues for the twenty-first century.
Now, performed to mark International Women’s Day 2024, six local actors will bring six of these extraordinary monologues to life in an evening that celebrates these powerful women of myth.
The six monologues are:
Briseis: Perfect Myth Allegory by Abi Zakarian
Penelope: Watching the Grass Grow by Hannah Khalil
Dido: The Choice by Stella Duffy
Canace: A Good Story by Isley Lynn
Ariadne: String by Bryony Lavery
Phaedra: Pity the Monster by Timberlake Wertenbaker
