The writing isn't always enthralling but the story that's told truly is captivating as is the main character. It's a fascinating story of a person but more a period of time when things were so changeable. 'Historical fiction? Theodora was a figure who I knew nothing about who rose to prominence in Constantinopale, first as an actress, accompanying that role as a whore, and then through penitence, became suitable to be married and became the empress. Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore is a sexy, captivating novel that resurrects an extraordinary, little-known figure from the dusty pages of history. So who was this woman who rose from humble beginnings as a dancer to become the empress of Rome and a saint in the Orthodox Church? Award-winning novelist Stella Duffy vividly recreates the life and times of a woman who left her mark on one of the ancient world's most powerful empires. Roman historian Procopius publicly praised Theodora of Constantinople for her piety-while secretly detailing her salacious stage act and maligning her as ruthless and power hungry. Sardou serves as a useful reminder that, ultimately, we all create our own vision of Byzantium and we all get the Theodora we deserve.A bravura performance: a witty, moving, sexy book that bursts with as much color and excitement as the city of Constantinople itself.' - Financial Times Rather than scorn Sardou's play for its warped vision of Byzantium, Byzantinists should embrace it as a didactic example for probing how we, too, frame, claim, and re-frame Byzantium based on our own fashions, scholarly preoccupations, and shifting paradigms. Sardou, Sarah Bernhardt, and their sumptuous Byzantine spectacle created a long-lasting impression upon the popular and academic imagination. Was it Greek or Roman, familiar or hybrid, barbaric or civilized, Oriental or another Other? The image of Theodora perpetuated by Sardou would become firmly ensconced in the popular imagination, despite the best efforts of his critics. Acclaimed as the greatest spectacle of the nineteenth century, the play also became a major bane for scholars of Byzantine studies, for it actively participated in positioning Byzantium within an established system of knowledge.

In the process of selling scandal, murder, intrigue, grand spectacle, opulent costumes, and dangerous liaisons, the seductive performance of Byzantine decadence actively shaped indexical, iconic, and ontological frameworks for the Byzantine empire within Euro-American visual and cultural discourse.

This play was the most successful collaboration between Victorien Sardou and the tremendously celebrated actress Sarah Bernhardt. Victorien Sardou's Theodora (first staged in 1884) introduced mass audiences to Byzantium and literally created Byzantine realities for its spectators.

Theodora by Stella Duffy