Inspired by Euripides’ The Bacchae and, even more importantly, by the puzzling darkness at the heart of the most ritualistic ancient Greek tragedy, Yannis Mavritsakis delivers another enigmatic play. A strikingly modern, technocratic universe, prominently featuring a projector screen in lieu of Pentheus’ palace, serves as the space for a theatrical event walking the fine line between the virtual and the real, dream and actual experience, culture and nature, male and female, human and divine. Poetic language takes centre stage, vividly brought to life at the Little Theatre of Ancient Epidaurus through Giorgos Skevas’ distinctly cinematic style.
New Greek works inspired by ancient drama and commissioned by the Athens and Epidaurus FestivalFour avant-garde Greek writers, Amanda Michalopoulou, Alexandra K*, Yannis Mavritsakis and Vavgelis Hatziyiannidis, have been commissioned by the Festival to author an original work, each in dialogue with an ancient Greek tragedy, namely Euripides’
Hippolytus,
Medea,
Bacchae and Sophocles’
Trachiniae respectively. Each of these original plays will be staged by an acclaimed director (Yannis Kalavrianos, Yannos Perlengas, Eleni Skoti and Giorgos Skevas) at the Little Theatre of Ancient Epidaurus.
In addition to the unique dynamics generated by each work and performance, this is a multifaceted artistic endeavour, with dramaturgical, performative, social and publishing aspects; an experiment aiming to re-ignite the process of making art from scratch. On the one hand, it fosters dialogue between playwriting and Ancient Drama, providing food for thought on the relationship between ancient myths and contemporary identity. On the other hand, in these extremely difficult times for theatre, this project motivates over thirty actors and several other theatre professionals (directors, set designers, musicians, dramaturgs, translators), a company’s worth of artists comprising a unique team in this year’s artistic programme.
With our eyes set to the future, and with a global outreach in mind, a bilingual edition of these four original works will be published in cooperation with Nefeli Publishing, as part of a newly launched theatre book series. An ambitious, highly promising publishing project that is central to the Festival’s initiative of supporting and promoting Greek theatre.
Due to the ongoing pandemic, all performance dates are subject to change Directed by Giorgos Skevas
Set design Thalia Melissa
Costume design Evelina Darzenta
Music Simi Tsilali
Lighting design Haris Dallas
Video Giorgos Skevas
Assistant to the director Giannis Savouidakis
Assistant to the set designer Iris Skolidi
Photos Elina Giounanli
Cast Maximos Moumouris (Dionysus), Giorgos Nousis (Pentheus), Kora Karvouni (Agave), Angeliki Papathemeli (Messenger), Giorgos Ziovas (Cadmus), George Frintzilas (Tiresias)
Executive producer Highway Productions - George Lykiardopoulos
Production manager Katerina Berdeka
Production organiser Panos Svolakis
