Rome, 73 CE. NAEVIA — a Nubian woman enslaved and trained as a gladiator — has survived 23 bouts. The Senate has decreed her 24th will be her last: she will face three opponents simultaneously in the Colosseum, and this time the crowd will not be permitted to grant mercy. What the Senate doesn't know: Naevia has been quietly building a network of enslaved gladiators for five years, and the 24th bout is the distraction. GODDESS is a visceral, muscular musical — physically extraordinary in its choreography — about one woman refusing the story written for her. The score is operatic rock fused with ancient Mediterranean tonalities.
