Professor David Peimer
The Colosseum of Ancient Rome: Much More than Bread and Circuses?
Summary
An architectural marvel, seating for over 50,000 Romans, one of the great icons of the Empire - what ideas did the Colosseum forge in Ancient Rome’s identity? The Empire’s Colosseum was about offering much more than rule by ‘bread and circuses’; it created a fascinating, violent, self confident, conquering and ‘superior’ identity. For Imperial Rome, it was also the place to be seen in, to watch others - for both the powerful elite and the ordinary citizen. As the great spectacle of ancient times, is it so different to similar icons of national identity today?
Professor David Peimer
David Peimer is a professor of theatre and performance studies in the UK. He has taught at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and New York University (Global Division), and was a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University. Born in South Africa, David has won numerous awards for playwriting and directing. He has written eleven plays and directed forty in places like South Africa, New York, Brussels, London, Berlin, Zulu Kingdom, Athens, and more. His writing has been published widely and he is the editor of Armed Response: Plays from South Africa (2009) and the interactive digital book Theatre in the Camps (2012). He is on the board of the Pinter Centre in London.