Adelphae: a new Roman comedy in Latin

"Adelphae" is a new, original Roman comedy by Aloysius Aeschliman which premiered at the third THALIA Festival in Braga, Portugal on August 5, 2026. The story is based on Jane Austen's "Sense & Sensibility" with additional inspiration from Terence's "Adelphoe." This performance represents the first time in over 1000 years—perhaps even 1500—that a new comedy in Latin verse has been accompanied by double reed pipes, or tibiae, as Roman comedies were in antiquity. The pipes used in this performance are a reconstruction of the famous Louvre aulos, a likely Roman-era artifact. The diction and meter of our play imitates that of Plautus and Terence, and the following symbols are used to indicate the meter of each line in the subtitles: ia6 – iambici senarii ia7 – iambici septenarii ia8 – iambici octonarii tr7 – trochaici septenarii tr8 – trochaici octonarii cr4 – cretici quaternarii ba4 – bacchiaci quaternarii an7 - anapaestici septenarii colreiz - colon reizianum etc. This comedy is, to our knowledge, the first Neo-Latin work to observe all the iambo-trochaic metrical phenomena of the ancient playwrights discovered by Post-Wolffian philologists (e.g. Meyer's Law, Ritchl's Law, Hermann's Law, the 'loci Iacobsohniani,' etc.) as well as the norms of metrical vicissitude described by Timothy Moore in his monumental "Music in Roman Comedy." To learn more, visit: https://www.palaestralatina.com/adelphae Directed by Patricia Aeschliman Music by R.W. Enoch Choreography by Nissa Flanders Set & Prop Design by Helen Hickman Starring: Aloysius Aeschliman – Fridericus Augustus Wolf, adulescens (Austen's Edward) Patricia Aeschliman – Helena (Austen's Eleanor) Elżbieta Górka – Marianna (Austen's Marianne) Nathaniel Privitt – Ioannes (Austen's Willoughby) Uvius Fonticola – Fridericus, senex Luke Ranieri – Laurentius Valla Nissa Flanders – Philargyra (Austen's Fanny) / Lucia (Austen's Lucy) Brad Van Uden – Chremes (Austen's John Dashwood) / Brendanus (Austen's Col. Brandon) Katherine (Penelope) Bradshaw – Myrrhina (Austen's Mrs. Dashwood) / Virgo gravida Helen Hickman – Chrysis (Austen's Margaret) Jack Riley – Ebrius vir / Tabellarius Thomas Von Steiglitz – Prologus Videography by Lindsay McMurray, R.W. Enoch, and Luke Ranieri Edited by R.W. Enoch 0:00 Intro 1:01 Prologus 3:24 Act.1 sc.1 10:09 Act.1 sc.2 12:27 Act.1 sc.3 16:37 Act.1 sc.4 17:32 Act.1 sc.5 18:52 Act.2 sc.1 20:55 Act.2 sc.2 25:08 Act.2 sc.3 26:27 Act.2 sc.4 39:03 Act.2 sc.5 40:46 Act.3 sc.1 43:22 Act.3 sc.2 45:41 Act.3 sc.3 47:00 Act.3 sc.4 50:48 Act.3 sc.5 54:26 Act.4 sc.1 58:24 Act.4 sc.2 59:19 Act.4 sc.3 1:04:44 Act.5 sc.1 1:05:44 Act.5 sc.2 1:08:53 Act.5 sc.3 1:10:03 Act.5 sc.4 1:15:33 Act.5 sc.5