Alcibiades

About the show

Alcibiades is a 1675 tragedy by the English writer Thomas Otway, based on the life of the Athenian statesman and general Alcibiades. Staged by the Duke's Company, it premiered at the Dorset Garden Theatre in London with a cast that featured Thomas Betterton as Alcibiades, Matthew Medbourne as Agis, Samuel Sandford as Tissaphernes, John Crosby as Patroclus, Henry Harris as Theramnes, Thomas Gillow as Polyndus, Mary Lee as Deidamia, Mary Betterton as Timandra and Elizabeth Barry as Draxilla. Alcibiades is a verse play is written in heroic couplets, that is rhymed verse in iambic pentameter, which was championed by John Dryden at the time. While Otway originally wrote in rhymed tragedies, he eventually settled on writing in blank (unrhymed) verse in iambic pentameter, the better to imitate Shakespeare. Alcibiades draws inspiration from Plutarch's Parallel Lives. The story centers around the historical character of Alcibiades during his exile to Sparta, and his seduction of the Spartan Queen.