APGRD - Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama

We are still having some problems with our website, so here is the programme for Saturday, just in case you can't access it:

'Antiquity in Simulation: Global Receptions of the Classical World in Video Games'

-9:15 - 10:15: ‘Journeys to the West: Mediterranean Antiquity in Japanese Video Games’. Dr Dunstan Lowe (University of Kent). Chair: Alex MacFarlane (University of Birmingham)
-10:15 - 10:30 Break
-10:30 - 12:00 PANEL 1: Epic & Divinity. Chair: Edward Hammond (University of Bristol)
-10:30 - 11:00 ‘The Epic Turn: Scale, Transmediality, and Classicism in Online Gaming Culture’. Kevin Wong (Harvard University)
-11:00 - 11:30 ‘Creators & Controllers: Puppeting the Past in Raji: An Ancient Epic’. Sanjana Ramanathan (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor)
-11:30 - 12:00 ‘Gods of the Command System: Machinic Sovereignty and Divine Infrastructure in Fate/Grand Order’s Lostbelt No.5’. Mario Valori (University of Pisa)
-12:00 -12:15 ‘Future Directions in Antiquity Game Studies’. Dr Richard Cole (University of Bristol)
-12:15 - 13:30 Lunch
-13:30 - 14:30 PANEL 2 Environment. Chair: Sarah Marshall (University of Oxford)
-13:30 - 14:00 ‘Alea Iacta Est in Ash: Caesar’s Rubicon and Ecological Catastrophe in Armored Core VI’. Dr Jiawen Zhu (UCL)
-14:00 - 14:30 ‘Hyrule Histories: The Legend of Zelda’s Use of Graeco-Roman Architecture’. Margaret Daily (KCL)
-14:30 - 14:45 Break
-14:45 - 15:45 PANEL 3 Pocket Classics. Chair: Clare Chang (University of Oxford)
-14:45 - 15:15 ‘Philosophical Vesselisation: An Alternative Mode of Classical Reception in Honkai: Star Rail's Amphoreus Arc’. Haoran Jin/Existential XP (Independent)
-15:15 - 15:45 ‘Love stronger than the player’s affection: Circe, Europa, and Artemis in Fate/Grand Order’. Dr Maria Szafrańska-Chmielarz (University of Warsaw)
-15:45 - 16:00 Break
-16:00 - 17:00 ‘(Re)constructing Ancient Egypt in non-Western Video Games’. Dr Jennifer Cromwell (Manchester Metropolitan University). Chair: Dr Pantelis Michelakis (University of Oxford)
-17:00 onwards Drinks Reception

Not long to go! Saturday 13 June, 9am-5pm, Conference 'Antiquity in Simulation: Global Receptions of the Classical World in Video Games'. Organised by Clare Chang & Sarah Marshall in collaboration with the APGRD and Bristol Digital Game Lab.

📣 The APGRD website is currently down - we're looking into it - hopefully have it back up and running again soon! 👩‍💻🔧⚙️

[Image: American spiders and their spinning work. A natural history of the orbweaving spiders of the United States, with special regard to their industry and habits, 1889]

Coming up events, the last few weeks of Trinity Term! Sat 13 June: 'Antiquity in Simulation: Global Receptions of the Classical World in Video Games'; Thur 25 June: 'Technologies in the Theory and Practice of Greek and Roman Performance and its Reception'; also 25 June: 'The Digital Auteur: Technology, Transmission, and the Re-Invention of Greek Tragedy'. Join us in person or online. Visit the APGRD website for more info and zoom links.
https://www.apgrd.ox.ac.uk/events

Musical Workshop opportunity coming up! A new musical based on Homer's Iliad staged at the Phoenix Arts Club in London on the 17th and 18th of June. Featuring an original pop-rock soundtrack, Age of the Hero is a retrospective of the epic woven with contemporary interpretations of the text.

Tickets are available at the following link: https://phoenixartsclub.com/events/age-of-the-hero-a-new-musical-workshop/

⚠️☀️ Summer Closure ☀️⚠️
The Ioannou Centre for Classical & Byzantine Studies will be undergoing major building works this summer and we are unable to accept visitors from July to October 2026. If you had hoped to consult the collections during that time, please email us to discuss an alternative.

Check our new "Introductions to... Women in Greek Theatre", by Leo Kershaw. Go to the APGRD website/ Learning to access all our Introductions and Notes from the Archive.

Saturday 13 June! 'Antiquity in Simulation: Global Receptions of the Classical World in Video Games'. A conference on Eastern and Western approaches to the reception of the classical world in video games
For the zoom link to join online and the programme, please go to:
https://www.apgrd.ox.ac.uk/events/2026/06/antiquity-in-simulation-global-receptions-of-the-classical-world-in-video-games

Exciting event coming up in Oxford focused on artistic responses to the new Euripides fragments discovered in 2024.
'Stories from the Sands', 11th June, 2-5:30pm, Grove Auditorium, Magdalen College.
In 2024, an astonishing discovery was made. An Egyptian archaeological team, excavating an ancient necropolis, uncovered a papyrus containing nearly 100 lines from lost plays by the Greek playwright Euripides. The find gives us insight into two plays very different in mood but connected by the death of children.
Oxford University and Professor Laura Swift (Classics) have commissioned three artists who have spent the last few months learning about these discoveries and coming up with their own creative response to them. On 11th June, they will be giving us a glimpse into their work and the process behind it.
The event is free to attend, but please do book your place: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/stories-from-the-sands-tickets-1989535711871?aff=oddtdtcreator&keep_tld=true

From our friends at Dansox: TODAY, 5:30PM!! Clare Finburgh Delijani: “A Way to Inhabit the World”: Decolonial-Environmental Resistance in Dance from the French Caribbean
Jacqueline du Pré Music Building 11th May 5.30pm
Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/resistance-in-dance-from-the-french-caribbean-tickets-1984321572239
Here is the livestream link https://youtube.com/live/b2B7RO8lU74?feature=share