Staged Reading of Babio, a Medieval Play

• Event Date: Thursday, September 20, 2012
• Time: 7:30 pm (CDT)
• Location: Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana, IL
• Cost: Admission is free, but a $5 donation is appreciated.

• Performance

A lecherous priest, his promiscuous wife, and his clever yet impertinent servant make up the love triangle and main characters of the twelfth-century play Babio, a bawdy medieval comedy satirizing loyalty, piety, love, and the stories of the earliest European literary figures - the gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines, and villains of ancient Greek and Roman popular culture. Translated by University of Illinois History professor Carol Symes and directed by Theatre Ph.D. student Kyle A. Thomas, the staged reading of this once popular play will certainly widen perceptions of medieval drama. Originally used as an educational text employed in the practice of spoken Latin dialogue, this play also emphasizes the humorous and unsettling dysfunctions of contemporary social and domestic relationships while highlighting foundational dramatic techniques that would later find their way into the plays of Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe, and William Shakespeare.

Sponsored by the Spurlock Museum, the Program in Medieval Studies, and the Department of Theatre.