Event archive

2025

• The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical

  A review by Niamh Clarke-Willis

  I saw The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical twice - once at The Other Palace in London and once at the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh - and both performances convinced me of the same thing: this is a loud, scrappy, and genuinely effective piece of theatre that knows exactly who it’s for. It smartly rewards familiarity while still keeping the plot coherent and attractive to newcomers. Similarly, it does this for the classical elements too! References to Greek myths are abundant in the show, keeping with Rick Riordan’s success of creating a gateway to a more accessible ancient world, sparking curiosity for many.

  The adaptation choices were pragmatic and mostly effective. Hades’ helm and the ‘Thrill-ride of Love’ subplot have been removed and the final encounter is staged as a fight rather than with the scorpion, a choice that aligns the production with the Disney+ version more than the original novel. Those cuts speed up the narrative and keep the performance pacey; purists will miss some beats, but the production prioritises clarity, momentum, and theatrical payoff over exhaustive fidelity. It is still commonly thought of as one of the most accurate adaptations of the .

   

  The snarky quips and passionate punk-rock-pop tunes drive home that the composer Rokicki truly understands the currents underneath Percy’s character - keeping iconic lines such as “we are impertinent” alongside songs like “Good Kid” puts a fan’s mind at ease - we are in good and safe hands. I was also pleased to see “Try” included, a song that wasn’t in the original cast recording. Its reprise, with Percy, Annabeth and Grover singing each other’s lines, adds depth to their friendship and an emotional through-line that is missed if you have solely listened to the album. This friendship is something that Riordan prioritises and encapsulates in the book, so having it reflected on stage was satisfying.

   

  The only place where the production fumbled a little was some awkward staging. Where in the thrust stage of The Other Palace the actors running back and forth felt natural and communicated the distress of the characters, in the proscenium of The Festival Theatre it meant that, at times, it was clunky and it seemed as though the characters were about to run off stage. This ruined the climax of a couple of songs. This could be chalked down to a touring cast working with many different stage types .

  The plot of Percy Jackson thrives on rebellion against norms. Sally and Percy’s mother and son duet “Strong” backs this up through its messaging about celebrating difference, and its superiority over conforming. The individual actors were hugely-talented and the script allowed them to communicate the ancient world to a new audience..

  From an academic perspective the musical performs valuable cultural work even while it simplifies ancient material. It is not a textually faithful re-telling of classical sources, yet it drip-feeds mythic motifs - Lotus-Eaters, the Oracle of Delphi, Medusa - enough to seed curiosity. Percy Jackson functions as an invitation to the classical world; it brings in a new audience by making the ancient Greek elements contemporary and relevant to teenagers. In that sense the show is an accessibility triumph; it’s not a substitute for studying Classics, but it is a highly effective gateway. It was brilliant to see many school trips in the audience - whether English, Theatre, or Classics classes, I am sure they all had a memorable night. I hope the teachers will open up conversations about the reception of Greek Myths with more ease now that the students are hooked by the Percy Jackson and the Olympians universe.

  Overall, The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical  is an exuberant, occasionally rough-around-the-edges piece of theatre that does a brilliant job bringing myth to a teenage audience - and in doing so, it does the study of Classics a service by sparking curiosity, conversation, and a hunger to learn more.

  4 out of 5 stars ⭐

• ‘Why Cicero Matters: in conversation with Dr Vittorio Buffachi’:

Prof Holmes-Henderson at ClassicsFest, Newcastle Lit and Phil (May 2025)

• ‘Classics in Schools’

Prof Holmes-Henderson at ClassicsFest, Newcastle Lit and Phil (May 2025)

Taking Classics Education research global: FIEC 2025

The international ambitions of CERES will be explored in greater depth when Arlene chairs two panels at the FIEC (Federation of international Classical Associations) conference in Wroclaw, Poland, in July 2025. Bringing together colleagues (at all career stages) from Euroclassica, the UK, Belgium and the USA, she will investigate the appetite for an international network of classics educators, and will identify next steps to make this a reality.

Who are the CERES PhD students?

CERES hosts the following PhD stduents:

Katharine Russell: The Noise of the Girls: contemporary female fiction and the reframing of school students' classical imaginations

Iaomie Malik: Factors affecting Latin provision in primary schools in the North East of England

Fiona Henderson: What Makes a Monster? A study on children’s interpretations of heroic agency and monstrous nature in the Perseus myth.

Lucy Charilaou: Foreign Language Education in England: Exploring Learners’ and Teachers’ Attitudes & Motivations 

Angela Nash: Exploring the impact of Latin teaching on neurodiverse teenage learners

New publication: Classical Civilisation and Ancient History in British Secondary Education

Arlene Holmes-Henderson and Edith Hall have written an important new book on the history of Classical Civilisation and Ancient History in British schools. It will be published by Liverpool University Press in August 2025 and will have two launch events. The first launch event will be hosted in Parliament by Dr Peter Swallow MP on Monday 8^th September. The second event will be hosted at Marylebone Boys’ School (London). Both events will celebrate the 60^th birthday of Classical Civilisation as an examined subject in England, and will allow policymakers, politicians, academics and teachers to engage in conversation about the future of these subjects in the curriculum.

In 2024, Classical Civilisation was OCR exam board’s fasted growing GCSE subject and exam entries for Ancient History are at their highest level since the qualification began. Both subjects are taught widely in the state-maintained sector.

Making headlines again: Classics education in Prisons

Since September 2024, Arlene Holmes-Henderson and Edith Hall have been teaching Classics in prisons. The first prison they visited was HMP Deerbolt near Barnard Castle in County Durham. Over four months, they introduced adult male (and some youth offenders) to the art, archaeology, literature, philosophy and drama from the ancient world. Learner feedback was incredible positive, both about the content of the course, and about the friendliness of Durham University professors. The podcasting team from ‘Against the Lore’ captured much of this feedback (by interviewing learners in situ) which is now available here.

They taught intensively for a weel in a youth offender institution in the Midlands in March 2025 and in a women’s prison in June 2025. Once again The Guardian covered this project and its impact:

Visiting local schools

In March 2025, Arlene Holmes-Henderson, Edith Hall, Magdalena Zira and Phil Horky visited Polam Hall School in Darlington to lead several enrichment sessions for students of Classics and Drama. Dr Zira is an award-winning playwright from Cyrpus so she inspired Darlington pupils about the employment opportunities in creative industries.

Prof Horky led sessions on philosophy, Edith Hall led sessions on ancient drama and Prof Holmes-Henderson led sessions on rhetoric, argumentation and effective communication.

Teacher Rosalind Stewart at Polam Hall, and her students, wrote to the Durham University CERES team, thanking them for an ‘utterly inspiring and unforgettable day’.

Access to Classics education in England’s North East: teacher event

We ran a two-day event for teachers and stduents of classical subjects from across the North East in February 2025. On Day 1, Durham University challenged learners to a ‘treasure hunt’ in the Oriental Museum. This was great fun! They then enjoyed a handling session with archaeology colleagues and a visit to the university special collections library where they saw lots of Latin!

Day 2 provided professional development for teachers at Hardian’s Wall. By working in partnrship with the Wall’s curator (Frances McIntosh, English Heritage) and colleagues from the Great North Museum Hancock, teachers were supported to learn more about the legacy of the Romans across the North East.

In collaboration with Dr Laura Hope (co-ordinator of the Classics for All North East hub), Arlene is developing a network of teachers from primary, secondary and tertiary education settings across the North East.

The work to ‘map’ access to classical subjects in the North East is now complete and finsings will be published as ‘Hadrian in hiding? Investigating access to Classics education in the North East of England’, a chapter in Edith Hall’s forthcoming book ‘Classical encoutners in England’s North East’ (Routledge, 2026).

Re-establishing the Classics All-Party Parliamentary Group

Arlene Holmes-Henderson founded the Classics All-Party Parliamentary Group with help from the British Academy Higher Education Policy Team, Prof Tim Whitmarsh (Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge) and the Classical Association. A cross-party forum, led by former Classics teacher and Durham staff-member Dr Peter Swallow MP, it offers a national strategic platform for discussing issues affecting the learning and teaching of classical subjects in UK schools, colleges, universities, museums and communities. It held three meetings in 2024-2025: the first was in October 2024 which focussed on membership and agenda setting; the second in March 2025 focussed on Classics and the Curriculum and Assessment Review process and the third in June 2025 focussed on Greek language and culture education.

Making headlines

The Guardian interviewed Arlene about her work to widen access to Classics locally, nationally and internationally:

2024

CERES Launch Event

In mid-December 2024, Durham welcomed teachers, policymakers, charity representatives and researchers to an event which launched the new Durham Centre for Classics Education Research and EngagementS (CERES).

The culmination of more than a decade of collaborative vision-shaping, more than 70 attendees celebrated with talks, tea, cake and fizz.

Founding Director of CERES Professor Arlene Holmes-Henderson outlined the planned activities of CERES in the short and medium term. Deputy Director Edith Hall described the recent successful partnership with NOVUS, the prison education charity, to teach Classics in an HMP in North East of England.

The Centre’s first two PhD students, both qualified Classics schoolteachers, Iaomie Malik and Katharine Russell talked about their research projects. Attendees were delighted to hear from 1st year postgraduates who are conducting practice-based research.

Attendees were asked to provide input to shape the research centre’s strategy and identify priorities. They did so generously and the subsequent discussions revealed just how promising a sub-field of Classics research Classics Education is. By inviting perspectives from diverse stakeholders across theatre, business, journalism and policymaking, we identified opportunities for innovation which will enrich existing academic and educational approaches.