Playing Diotima

All Diotima wants is for her music to be heard and understood. The flute is her expression, her connection to herself and her world, and she needs to share it. When she meets a young man named Aristocles, it seems she has found the perfect opportunity to free her voice. But Ancient Athens is an unwelcoming place for ambitious women. Thousands of years later, not enough has changed...

In 2025, PhD student Aurora is navigating a messy personal and academic life in Greece. She searches for women's voices through history but finds only silence. With her academic future on the line, Aurora must do everything she can to uncover the true identity of the woman mentioned in Plato's Symposium. She finds herself facing three big questions: who was Diotima? Why was Plato so taken by her? And why is it so hard to rationalise love?

This new theatre work takes a feminist approach to the study of history, exploring what is lost when the only words found in textbooks and research are those written by men. As a playwright, Rushmer is known for her inter-disciplinary approach to theatre, frequently using distortions of time and ethereal elements to explore the constancy of human experience.

Presented by wren wants a top hat, this premiere production features original music by Anna Rushmer (Undine) and Rick Butler (A Succulent Chinese Musical?!)