David Bullen on Greek Drama

Dr David Bullen is Associate Professor in Drama and Theatre at Royal Holloway, University of London as well as a theatre director, writer, and dramaturg, and our 2026 Expert in Residence. He has been co-artistic director of Theatre of the Gentle Furies since 2011. 

Both David’s research and practice focus on the adaptation of traditional narratives for political purposes, from feminist revisioning of Shakespeare to eco-critical explorations of Greek myth. From 2015-2021, he was Visiting Research Associate in Classics at King’s College London, working to revitalise the longstanding King’s Greek Play.

His own adaptations of plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes have been performed in the UK and the US. Recent and forthcoming books include Greek Tragedy, Education, and Theatre Practices in the UK Classics Ecology (co-edited with Dr Christine Plastow, Routledge), Shakespeare in the Theatre: Phyllida Lloyd (with Elizabeth Schafer, Arden Shakespeare), and Greek Tragedy as Twenty-First-Century British Theatre: Why, What, How (Liverpool University Press). Most recently he has completed a new edition of Don Taylor’s Antigone for Methuen Student Editions.

Listen to our interviews below where he discusses Aristotle’s influence on drama; Tony Harrison, Katie Michell, Peter Hall and modern revivals; the differences in the Electra plays; theatre, ecocriticism and Dionysus; his favourite four ancient plays; the post-dramatic; and his take on Euripides…