Olympias: Mother of Alexander the Great (a play)

Author: Vasso Kalamaras
Title: Olympias: Mother of Alexander the Great (a play)
English edition pp. 93 ISBN 0 9586390 3 5
Greek edition pp. 102 ISBN 0 9586390 4 3
Date of publication: 2001
$15.00

This play (written in English and in Greek) aimed to be published first in book form and subsequently to be staged as a theatrical production. Distinguished author Vasso Kalamaras from Perth, Australia, whose writing captures the universal themes of exile, marriage, motherhood, betrayal and more, chose as her subject the legendary queen Olympias of Ancient Macedonia and mother of Alexander the Great. The play explores the fascinating story of a woman (wife, mother and grandmother) who fought courageously against the male order of her day.

Vasso Kalamaras was born in Athens and arrived in Western Australia in 1950 where she still lives, with frequent visits back to Greece. She holds degrees from various tertiary institutions in Perth and she taught Greek language for 20 years. Her publications include poetry (Twenty-two poems, Landscape and Soul, and Genesis: 33 poems), prose (Other Earth, Bitterness, The Same Light), and plays (The Bread Trap, Karagiozis Down-Under, Olympias). Her prose has been highly anthologised in Australia and abroad and her plays have been performed in mainstream theatres.