From ancient Rome to modern America, The Song of Rome explores cyclical human history

The Song of Rome is not just another rendition of Virgil’s epic poem Aeneid – it’s simultaneously a story about the Roman Republic and, more generally, American democracy.

The play, which makes its world premiere May 25 at the Dock Street Theatre, marks a Spoleto Festival USA return for coauthors Denis O’Hare and Lisa Peterson, who brought their An Iliad here in 2023. But this particular piece has been in the works for far longer, having started as a commission for the Princeton University-affiliated McCarter Theater back in 2015.

“We had done a lot of research and traveled with a Princeton class to Rome,” said Peterson, who also directed An Iliad and is doing the same for The Song of Rome. “We were very much trying to get it done for the 2020 election, and we were just running up against some self-created roadblocks in the scheduling – and the pandemic, of course.” (They’re in good company: Virgil also took his time, writing the Aeneid between 29 and 19 B.C.E.)

O’Hare and Peterson created the new work with a desire to effect change in the contemporary political sphere through an understanding of the cyclical nature of history. The Song of Rome juxtaposes An Iliad’s portrayal of the Trojan War with a focus on the power struggles that birthed the Roman Empire and killed the republic.

The impact of a national mythology

“It piqued my interest immediately,” said Spoleto director Mena Mark Hanna. “Aeneid is effectively the creation of a national mythology for the Roman Empire by the poet Virgil – tying the Roman Empire to the tragic Trojan War. It was a very intentional objective of Octavian to commission Virgil to write Aeneid because the dissolution of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire was happening right at the moment that he was writing.”

Peterson said she and O’Hare tried “to take a period in ancient history and bring it to the now. … Human beings over time try to organize themselves in fair and intelligent ways but keep making the same mistakes. What are the things about human nature that make it impossible for us to live peacefully with each other for long periods of time?”

Pursuing these questions, they said, would not have been possible without the support of Spoleto. “They are allowing us to push this plate forward and bring it to its fulfillment,” said O’Hare, a Tony Award-winning actor who starred in An Iliad but remains behind the scenes this time. “We could not have done it without them – that’s Mena’s vision and bravery.”

According to Hanna, The Song of Rome offers another “vehicle to have discourse when we’re looking at our society turned aside, sectarian and so divided that we cannot even talk to each other.”

“The creation of a national mythology is something we are continually confronted with today,” Hanna said. “I won’t delude ourselves into thinking that this doesn’t have an appropriate impact for an election year, too, so there’s some reverberations. Looking at the creation of a national myth of the Roman Empire and holding a mirror up to the way we have created a national myth of the United States is very useful.”

Art’s enduring influence on power struggles

The Song of Rome weaves together a contemporary story of Sheree, a pre-med graduate student, and Azem, a recent immigrant, with the tale of Octavia, the sister of Roman emperor Augustus, and Virgil himself. The play sets up a corollary through dual casting, with Rachel Christopher playing the two women and Hadi Tabbal playing the two men. Blending temporal and physical boundaries, The Song of Rome navigates an understanding of our world through an understanding of classic Rome and the ways people historically pushed against the exploits of power.

“The Song of Rome is about the role of art in all of these power struggles,” Peterson said. “Art is powerful and can tip the scales in either direction and can give relief … that’s the coil of history. Things repeat. It’s not just bad that they repeat, it’s resonant that they repeat.”

For O’Hare, the potency of art is evident in the very existence of the Aeneid more than two millennia after it was written. “When we think about what Virgil created, this incredibly powerful myth of Rome that has reverberated through 2,000 years and still affects us today – an artist did that,” he said. “This is not an etching on a side of a building with a law account of Hammurabi’s code. It’s not a bunch of laws. This is a work of art.”

In The Song of Rome, the current political landscape serves as a catalyst for understanding the state of the world. And Peterson says a throughline in the two epic poems and the two modern adaptations is the act of remembering history.

“An Iliad, because it is based on Homer, is very much about the oral tradition – and the theory is that it was actually memorized, told and changed by each person who did it until it became a thing,” she said. “The Song of Rome is very much about a person. Virgil really existed. There is even a record that he wrote it [Aeneid] and read it aloud to patrons. This piece is about writing in the way An Iliad is about storytelling.”

Ultimately, The Song of Rome aims to navigate contemporary power struggles through the lenses of Roman history and art. While Peterson recommends the play for anyone “if you love art, history and the way they dance together,” O’Hare has cast a wider – and more dire – net in terms of potential audiences.

You should see it, he said, “because your future depends on it.”

The Song of Rome runs May 25 at 7 p.m., May 26 at 4 p.m., May 27 at 7 p.m., May 31 at 8 p.m., June 1 at 7 p.m., and June 2 at 4 p.m. Tickets are available.

Brandon Wallace is an arts journalism graduate student at Syracuse University.