mary beard (expired event)

Join the world-famous classics scholar and feminist icon Mary Beard for this captivating conversation on her first-ever visit to Australia.

Author of countless books, star of dozens of television shows, and perhaps the one woman who thinks about the Roman Empire more than any man on TikTok, Beard gets to the nitty gritty of misogyny and power from the ancient world to today.

For the first time, Sydney audiences will hear directly from Cambridge Professor Emerita Dame Mary Beard in an event that delves into the broad range of her career - from the ruins of ancient Rome to the trenches of Twitter.

No one is better equipped to tell us about how power is skewed along gender lines than Mary Beard, whose latest book, Emperor of Rome, gives us a nuanced understanding of sex, class, race, and politics in the ancient world, and whose astute observations of modern political power have shone a light on the remarkably persistent patterns of patriarchy today.

This event will run for 60 minutes.

Event duration is a guide only and may be subject to change.

Suitable for all ages.

Children aged 15 years and under must be accompanied at all times.

Mary Beard is Professor Emerita of Classics at Cambridge, and the classics editor of The Times Literary Supplement. She has worldwide academic acclaim. Her previous books include the bestselling, Wolfson Prize-winning Pompeii, Confronting the Classics, SPQR and most recently, Women & Power and Twelve Caesars. She has made numerous television series and her books have been published in over thirty languages.

One of the world’s most sought after venues, the Concert Hall is a performance space like no other. With its cathedral like ambience and unrivalled majesty, standing on this very special stage will see you deliver a performance to remember. In July 2022, the Opera House completed extensive upgrades to the Concert Hall. The multi-million-dollar project delivered extensive improvements to the venue, including: better acoustics for artists and audiences, enhanced access for people with mobility needs, new state-of-the-art theatre machinery and staging systems, and a more flexible and safer working environment for staff behind-the-scenes.

Our foyers will be open 90 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and two hours pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances. Refreshments will be available for purchase from our theatre bars. Please remember to maintain physical distancing whilst consuming drinks in our foyers.

All Sydney Opera House foyers are pram accessible, with lifts to the main and western foyers. The public lift to all foyers is accessible from the corridor near the escalators on the Lower Concourse and also in the Western Foyer via the corridor on the Ground Level (at the top of the escalators). Pram parking will be available outside the theatres in the Western Foyer consistent with COVID-safe rules.