Katerina Evangelatou, artistic director of the Athens Epidaurus Festival, presented in the most vivid way the programme of the Festival’s events and performances to the public and the media. “Amidst a world on fire, the Athens and Epidaurus Festival raises the curtain this year. With 93 productions, in 85 days and the participation of about 2. 500 performers and creators from every corner of the world, with a programme that is polyphonic, militant, comforting, political but full of true beauty, with stars of international renown from the fields of theatre and music, as well as new names on the cutting edge of the contemporary avant-garde, with dance performances, concerts, performances, screenings, discussions, educational programmes, publications, parties, free admission events, honorary tributes, new collaborations, special platforms for professionals in the field and much more, we aspire to show you this world in a new light and to expand the time inside you on the evenings you will join us.”

THE PROGRAMME

OPERA / REVIVAL

1, 2, 6, 11 June

GREEK NATIONAL OPERA –LUKASKARYTINOS –HUGODE ANA

Tosca by Giacomo Puccini

For another year, the Greek National Opera inaugurates the Odeon of Herodes Atticus programme, presenting one of the most beloved operas, Puccini’s Tosca, alongside internationally renowned stars.

Music director Lukas Karytinos• Direction – Set design – Costumes Hugo de Ana •Direction revival Katerina Petsatodi•Visual design Sergio Metalli – IdeogammaSRL•Lighting design Vinicio Cheli• Chorus master Agathangelos Georgakatos• Children’s Chorus Mistress Konstantina Pitsiakou• Cast Floria Tosca Liz Lindstrom (1/6 and 6/6) / Cellia Costea (2/6 and 11/6), Mario Cavaradossi Riccardo Massi (1/6 and 6/6) /Carl Tanner (2/6 and 11/6), Baron Scarpia TassisChristoyannis(1/6 and 6/6) /Yanni Yannissis(02/06 and 11/06), Cesare Angelotti Tassos Apostolou, sacristan Petros Magoulas, Sciarrone / jailerVangelis Maniatis, shepherd boy Evita Chioti, Spoletta Yannis Kalyvas •With soloists, the Orchestra, the Choir,and the Children’s Choir of the Greek National Opera, as part of its educational mission

CONTEMPORARY MUSIC

13 June

ANOHNI

and the Johnsons

                                                                                WORLD PREMIERE

 

For the first time in a decade, ANOHNI presents a series of concerts with the Johnsons, joined by nine musicians including Julia Kent (cello), Maxim Moston (violin), Doug Wieselman (multi-instrumentalist), Gael Rakotondrabe (piano), Leo Abrahams (guitarist) and Jimmy Hogarth (guitarist/producer). Responding to a time of upheaval, ANOHNI issues a challenge: It’s Time to Feel What’s Really Happening.

The artist reaches for courage, resilience, and ceremony in the face of an unprecedented contemporary landscape, and emphasizes, ‘For me, there’s no heavenly respite; Creation is a spectral and feminine continuum, and we remain an inalienable part of Nature.’

CLASSICAL MUSIC

15 June

EMANUEL AX – LEONIDAS KAVAKOS – YO-YO MA

Works by Beethoven

This summer we will have the privilege of enjoying a classical superstar trio performing on the stage of the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. The musical dream team of pianist Emanuel Ax, violinist Leonidas Kavakos, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma have been touring an all-Beethoven programme to packed houses worldwide. They have already recorded three albums of Beethoven’s works, in a collaboration that seems to be tremendously pleasing to both the music-loving public and the artists themselves.

This will be a magical summit that will give us the rare opportunity to relish in music by three genius performers in an elevating creative conversation.

GREEK MUSIC

17 June

TRIBUTE CONCERT

Mimis Plessas:A Century Together

With a legendary career spanning seven decades, the industrious composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor Mimis Plessas has composed melodies and songs that have left an indelible mark, music for film and theatre, jazz, opera, and classical music as well.

A generous and giving creator, he has promoted many great singers (Nana Mouskouri, Jenny Vanou, Yannis Poulopoulos, Stratos Dionysiou, Rena Koumioti, etc.) and defined Greeksinging with his prolific contribution to the recording industry, which also owes him the most commercial Greek album ever released: Dromos, with lyrics by Lefteris Papadopoulos, having sold some4,000,000 copies since 1969.

Many of Plessas’ songsare still sung and identified with the most glorious moments of the old Greek cinema.

The great composer, who this year celebrates his 100thbirthday, will be honoured at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus concert by a host of favourite artists, together with the Mimis Plessas and ERT Contemporary Music Orchestras.

Artistic Director Loukila Carrer Plessa•CuratingDirectorEleana Plessa•Guest Soloists Giorgos Hatzinasios,Stefanos Korkolis•ERT Contemporary Music Orchestraconducted byGeorge Aravidis•Mimis Plessas Orchestra: Giorgos Pachis bouzouki, orchestra leader, Christos Vidiniotisbouzouki, Giannis Kalkanisdrums, Nikos Karatzas melodic percussion instruments, Christos Pertsinidisguitar, Giannis Plagiannakosdouble bass, Dimos Polymerisaccordion, Dimitris Houndissoprano saxophone •Singers (in alphabetical order) Penny Baltatzi, Dimitris Basis, TassisChristoyannis, Vassiliki Karagianni, Spyros Kleissas, Sofia Manousaki •Orchestra curated by Mimis Plessas•Orchestrations by Mimis Plessas, Samy Elgazzar, George Pachis •Lighting designDimitris Koutas•Sound design Michalis Sygletos, Dimitris Hatzakis

CLASSICAL MUSIC

18 June

PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA – SANTTU-MATIAS ROUVALI – PATRICIAKOPATCHINSKAJA

Works by Glinka, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky

London’s renowned Philharmonia Orchestra will be performing at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus under the baton of its principal conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali. Rouvali took over in 2021, at just the age of 35, a position held in the past by legends such as Toscanini, Karajan, and Muti. The vigour and sparkle of Rouvali’s approach to music is perfectly complemented by the explosive temperament of violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, dubbed the ‘enfant terrible’ of classical music for her unconventional and passionate performances.

CLASSICAL MUSIC

21 June – WORLD MUSIC DAY

ERT NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA – MICHALISECONOMOU

Every year on June 21, the Festival celebrates World Music Day with the established concert of the ERT National Symphony Orchestra. On the podium will be the internationally awarded and renowned conductor Michalis Economou.

DANCE

25 June

ANNE TERESA DE KEERSMAEKER, MESKEREM MEES, JEAN-MARIE AERTS, CARLOS GARBIN / Rosas

EXIT ABOVE– afterthe tempest

One of the most important creators of contemporary dance, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker returns to the Odeon of Herodes Atticus to present EXIT ABOVE, her new work that has been praised by critics at all major European festivals (Avignon, Vienna, Rome).

A choreography to live music for thirteen performers, where walking, an act familiar to us all, meets the blues. The work illuminates how the blues builds community and a sense of togetherness in a demanding choreography that gradually engulfs the stage with its explosive energy.

De Keersmaeker brings together in this work the wizard of sound Jean-Marie Aerts, the captivating performance of Meskerem Mees, an up-and-coming Flemish singer-songwriter of Ethiopian origin, and the guitarist Carlos Garbin.

Choreography Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker•Co-created and performed by Abigail Aleksander, Jean Pierre Buré, Lav Crnčević, José Paulo dos Santos, Rafa Galdino, Carlos Garbin, Nina Godderis, Solal Mariotte, Meskerem Mees, Mariana Miranda, Ariadna Navarrete Valverde, Cintia Sebők, Jacob Storer •Music Meskerem Mees, Jean-Marie Aerts, Carlos Garbin •Stage musicians Meskerem Mees, Carlos Garbin •Set design Michel François •Lighting design Max Adams •Costumes AouatifBoulaich•Text and lyrics Meskerem Mees, Wannes Gyselinck•Dramaturgy Wannes Gyselinck•Rehearsal Directors Cynthia Loemij, Clinton Stringer •Production Rosas •Co-production Concertgebouw Brugge (Belgium), De Munt / La Monnaie (Belgium), InternationaalTheater Amsterdam (The Netherlands), Le théâtre Garonne (France), GIE FONDOC OCCITANIE (Le Parvis Tarbes, Scènenationale ALBI Tarn, Le CratèreAlès, Scènenationale Grand Narbonne, Théâtre Garonne) •With the support of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels •The production is supported by the Tax Shelter of the Federal Government of Belgium, in collaboration with Casa Kafka Pictures – Belfius •The Rosas group is supported by the Flemish Community and the Flemish Community Committee (VGC)

CONTEMPORARY MUSIC

26 June

LOREENA MCKENNITT

The Mask and Mirror –30th Anniversary Tour

Loreena McKennitt returns to Greece after her two sold-out concerts in 2019,which left an unforgettable impression in Athens and Thessaloniki alike. The acclaimed Canadian singer and composer is known for her unique musical style that combines world music with folk elements from Northern Europe and the Mediterranean.

Athens is the starting point of her European tour celebrating the 30th anniversary of the release of her landmark album The Mask and Mirror, in which she masterfully mingles Celtic, Spanish, and Moroccan influences. The first set on the tour will feature ‘fan favourites’ while the second will include every song on the album. She will be accompanied by musical companions Caroline Lavelle on cello, Brian Hughes on guitar, Hugh Marsh on violin, Dudley Phillips on bass, and Robert Brian on drums.

Caroline Lavellecello • Brian Hughesguitar • Hugh Marshviolin • Dudley Phillipsdouble bass

Production Archangel

CLASSICAL MUSIC

28 June

ATHENS STATE ORCHESTRA – NEEME JÄRVI

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9

Select lyric artists of international renown join the Athens State Orchestra under the experienced baton of celebrated Estonian-born American conductor Neeme Järvi to present Ludwig van Beethoven’s magnificent Symphony No.9 to the Odeon of Herodes Atticus audience. This immortal masterpiece, undoubtedly one of the highest achievements of the human spirit, changed the course of symphonic music like no other. An unsurpassed legacy of beauty and truth, this work represents the most emblematic musical expression of humanism; it is a symbol of freedom, dignity, and brotherhood of peoples.

Conductor Neeme Järvi• Soloist Camilla Tillingsoprano, Aude Extrémomezzo soprano, Barry Bankstenor, Andrew Foster-Williamsbass• Choirs ERT Choir (Chorus MasterMichalis Papapetrou), Choir of the Athens City Music Ensembles (Chorus Master Stavros Beris), Amadeus Mixed Choir (Chorus MasterSvilen Simeonov)

CLASSICAL MUSIC

30 June

CHAMBER ORCHESTRA OF EUROPE –SIMON RATTLE – MAGDALENA KOŽENÁ

Works by Dvořák,Mahler,Bartók,Schubert

The award-winning Chamber Orchestra of Europe has been at the top for decades thanks to its distinctive sound and captivating performances. This summer, the beloved Orchestra tours to Europe’s greatest stages under the baton of podium superstar, Britain’s Sir Simon Rattle. This is Rattle’s second collaboration with the Orchestra, with which the charismatic conductor declares himself ‘in love’. Gustav Mahler’s stirring Rückert-Lieder will be performed by the acclaimed mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená. The programme also includes Béla Bartók’s Five Hungarian Folk Songs and Antonín Dvořák’s Scherzo Capriccioso, Op. 66, and concludes with an unparalleled masterpiece, Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 9 in C major, ‘The Great’.

CLASSICAL MUSIC

4 July

GRAZER PHILHARMONIKER – VASSILIS CHRISTOPOULOS – ALEXIAMOUZA

Works by Strauss, Mozart, Mahler

The Greek conductor Vassilis Christopoulos began his tenure as chief conductor of the Graz Opera and Philharmonic Orchestra a few months ago, taking over the reins of one of Europe’s most historic opera houses. The Festival is delighted to welcome the internationally acclaimed conductor and ‘his’ orchestra together with the explosive pianist Alexia Mouza. The works in the programme, in one way or another, allude to Vienna’s musical tradition: the charming Johann Strauss’ Overture to Die Fledermaus (The Bat)is followed by one of Mozart’s most renowned and treasured works, the Concerto No. 23 in A major for piano and orchestra. The second part is dedicated to a landmark work of late musical romanticism, Mahler’s Symphony No. 1.

CONTEMPORARY MUSIC

5 July

STING

In Sting’s distinguished career, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer has received 17 Grammy Awards and sold 100 million albums worldwide from his combined work as one of the most distinctive solo artists in the world and former front man of The Police. A composer, singer-songwriter, actor, author and activist, Sting also has received a Golden Globe, four Oscar nominations, a Tony nomination, Billboard Magazine’s Century Award and Kennedy Center Honors. His support for human rights organizations such as the Rainforest Fund, Amnesty International, and Live Aid mirrors his art in its universal outreach. Along with wife Trudie Styler, Sting founded the Rainforest Fund in 1989 to protect both the world’s rainforests and the indigenous people living there. You can find out more at www.sting.com

At the Odeon of Herodes Atticus concert, Sting’s special guest will be the multi-talented songwriter and performer Giordana Angi.

Production High Priority Promotions

GREEK MUSIC                                               METAPOLITEFSI CYCLE

8 & 9 July

DIONYSIS SAVVOPOULOS

Our Own Metapolitefsi*

The Festival commemorates the 50th anniversary of the restoration of Democracy and invites Dionysis Savvopoulos to stage a musical celebration/tribute to the songs that marked the Metapolitefsi era, the conquest of democratic rights, freedom, entertainment, everyday life, hope.

Spotlighting the musical milestones of the period from 1973 to 1983, Dionysis Savvopoulos, as the evening’s host, calls upon the acclaimed performers Eleftheria Arvanitaki, George Dalaras, Maria Farantouri, Dimitra Galani, Manolis Mitsias, Panos Mouzourakis, and Christos Thivaios to join their voices and sing his own hits of the era but also those of Hadjidakis, Theodorakis, Xarchakos, Loizos, Markopoulos, Mikroutsikos, Lagios, and others.

With a band comprised by exceptional musicians under the orchestration of GiotisKiourtsoglou (with two additional orchestrations by Stavros Lantsias) and the ERT Choir, we will have the chance to experience two nights that will make history.

* The Greek term ‘Metapolitefsi’ (Regime change) refers tothe period of Transition to Democracy after the fall of the junta in 1974.

PerformersDionysis Savvopoulos, Eleftheria Arvanitaki, George Dallaras, Maria Farantouri, Manolis Mitsias, Panos Mouzourakis, Christos Thivaios• MusiciansGiotisKiourtsogloubass,Michael Kapilidisdrums,Sakis Dovoliselectric/acoustic guitar,Stavros Lantsiaspiano, keyboards, drums, Thanos Stavridisaccordion, Thymios Papadopoulosclarinet, saxophone, flute•The concert features the ERT Choir• Sound engineerYiannis Tountas• Lighting Periklis Mathielis• Stage designAngela Katri• ProductionWell Art Live

CLASSICAL MUSIC

10 July

THE PHILHARMONIC BRASS – PHILIPPEAUGUIN

Works by Gershwin, Williams, Morricone, Shostakovich, Verdi, Mascagni, Dvořák

The Philharmonic Brass was formed in 2023 by sixteen brass players and four percussionists, members of the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras& Friends. Eminent musicians spanning three generationsbring together their passion and strengths to further expand their virtuosity. Working with conductors who are closely tied to both the Berlin and the Vienna Philharmonic, The Philharmonic Brass aim to create an unforgettable concert experience.

At the Odeon of Herodes Atticus concert, the orchestra will be performing popular film

score pieces and classical works alike, under the baton of Maestro Philippe Auguin.

CLASSICAL MUSIC

12 July

ATHENS STATE ORCHESTRA – LUKAS KARYTINOS – KHATIA BUNIATISHVILI

Works by Tchaikovsky and Bartók

Thanks to a fiery combination of talent, virtuosity, expressivity, and brilliance, Georgian piano superstar Katia Buniatishvili is always able to captivate her audiences wherever she appears, performing highly demanding works and delivering genuinely passionate and inspired readings. This year we welcome her to the Odeon of Herodes Atticus to perform perhaps the most popular piano concerto of all time, Tchaikovsky’s No. 1. Her companions in this melodic journey through the romantic composer’s world, the Athens State Orchestra and the acclaimed conductor Loukas Karytinos, will transform themselves into… soloists in Bella Bartók’s iconic Concerto for Orchestra, the Hungarian mastermind’s most impressive symphonic work; vibrant, uplifting, and bordering on frenzy, promising a most enthralling evening!

Co-production Athens Epidaurus Festival–Athens State Orchestra

GREEK MUSIC

14 July

TANIA TSANAKLIDOU

50 Summers and Winters

The unique Tania Tsanaklidou will be welcomed on the stage of the Odeon or Herodes Atticus 14 July, in a special evening of this year’s Festival. The performer brings the treasures of her 50-year discography to the present day, with songs that have defined her career.

In a musical performance curated by herself, the flow of the songs will be tracking both the socio-political context in which they were born and Tsanaklidou’s artistic pursuits over the years. Thus, the junta years, the Metapolitefsi era, the boîtesof Plaka, Nikos Xylouris, and Christos Leontis will be conversing on stage with Tania Tsanaklidou’s passage through the Greek Art Theatre (TheatroTechnis) and the National Theatre of Northern Greece, Yannis Spanos,yet also Mugnog Kinder, Charlie Chaplin, Edith Piaf, George Hadjinasios, Stamatis Kraounakis, Michalis Delta, etc.

Conducting – OrchestrationsNeoklis Neofytidis•Executive Production Yannis Peridis

Production Celestial Arts & Entertainment Productions

16 July

JAKUB JÓZEF ORLIŃSKI                                                   GREEK DEBUT

IL POMO D’ORO

Beyond

The Polish award-winning counter tenor Jakub Józef Orlińskicomes to the Odeon of Herodes Atticus to captivate the Greek audience not only with his voice, which has been described as ‘the most eerily beautiful on the planet’, but also with his charismatic presence as a breakdancer. Together with the extroverts and activists Il Pomo d’Oro, the acclaimed ensemble founded in 2012 by renowned virtuosos in the field of historical music performance, they are celebrated in sold-out recitals around the world, introducing a new generation of listeners to Early music. It is no coincidence that Orliński’s live recorded performance of Vivaldi’s aria Vedrò con miodiletto (Aix-en-Provence, 2017) has over 11,000,000 views on YouTube. With Beyond, they present early Baroque compositions, many of which are rarely performed, in one of the most highly anticipated and unconventional evenings on this year’s programme.

CONTEMPORARY MUSIC

18 July

CHARLES LLOYD SKY QUARTET

Special Guest MARIA FARANTOURI

The legendary jazz musician Charles Lloyd returns to Greece to share the stage once again with Maria Farantouri, a decade and a half after the historic ‘Athens Concert’, which captivated the Odeon of Herodes Atticus audience in 2010, and was released shortly afterwards on a hugely successful album.

The great American saxophonist and composer, who has just celebrated his 86th birthday with the release of his new album The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow, brings to the Roman Odeon threeinternationally renowned soloists:Jason Moran on the piano, Larry Grenadier on the double bass and Brian Blade on the drums. The paths of jazz meet with Greek musical tradition and Mikis Theodorakis in a concert of fascinating musical amalgams.

Charles Lloydsaxophone, flute•Jason Moranpiano•Larry Grenadierdouble bass•Brian Bladedrums, percussion

Production Lykofos / Giorgos Lykiardopoulos

OPERA / REVIVAL

27, 28, 30 &31 July

GREEK NATIONAL OPERA – PIERGIORGIO MORANDI –KONSTANTINOS RIGOS

La traviata by Giuseppe Verdi

The Odeon of Herodes Atticus programme closes with Verdi’s La traviata, directed by Konstantinos Rigos, which was first performed by the GNO at the Roman Odeon in the summer of 2019 with great success. The unlucky love of the ‘Lady with the Camellias’ for Alfredo Germont, as was conceived and set to music by Verdi through uniquely powerful melodies, which are indelibly etched in the mind and heart, will be revived for four performances.

American opera superstar Nadine Sierra will be performing the role of Violetta Valéry in the first cast, alongside the rising tenor Freddie De Tommaso as Alfredo Germont and internationally acclaimed baritone Dimitri Platanias as Giorgio Germont.

Conductor Pierre Giorgio Morandi •Direction – Choreography – Set design Konstantinos Rigos•Costumes Ioanna Tsami •Lighting Christos Tziogas•Associate Architect Mary Tsagari•ChorusMasterAgathangelos Georgakatos•CastVioletta ValeryNadine Sierra (27/7 and 30/7) andVasiliki Karagianni (28/7 and 31/7), Alfredo GermontFreddie De Tommaso(27/7 and 30/7) andFrancesco Demuro (28/7 and 31/7), Giorgio GermontDimitri Platanias(27/7 and 30/7) andTassisChristoyannis(28/7 and 31/7), Flora Chrysanthi Spitadis, Annina Eleni Voudouraki, Gastone Yannis Kalyvas, BaroneDoupholNikolas Douros, Marchese d’ObignyNikos Kotenidis, Dottore GrenvilGeorgios Papadimitriou, Giuseppe Nikos Katsigiannis, Housekeeper / MessengerIoannis Kontellis •With the Orchestra, Choir,and Ballet ofthe Greek National Opera

PEIRAIOS 260

260 PIRAEUS 260 D –THEATRE–POLAND

INTERNATIONAL CO-PRODUCTION

5 – 7 June

NOWY TEATR – KRZYSZTOFWARLIKOWSKI

Elizabeth Costello / J. M. Coetzee. Seven Lectures and Five Moral Tales

Based on J.M. Coetzee’s works Elizabeth Costello, A Slow Man,and Moral Tales

Can art save the world? Or is the desire of artists to ‘speak’ through art and make an impact simply utopian? This is the question posed by Elizabeth Costello, the fictional heroine of South African Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee, to her creator.

Yet, Elizabeth Costello is not just a fictional literary character. One could argue that she is Coetzee’s artistic alter ego: speaking on his behalf, she suffers the criticism and wrath of his readers and critics. According to Coetzee, Elizabeth Costello invades his imagination and writings, and then uses his voice to talk about philosophy, the environment, social and existential issues, or to raise awareness of animal abuse, social injustice, and the exclusion of the elderly and disabled. She is something of a ghost, always returning to haunt her creator.

The beloved Polish director Krzysztof Warlikowski constantly makes reference to Coetzee’s work: Costello seems to be haunting Warlikowski’s theatre, as she has already appeared in five of his performances so far – at times as herself and at times as an allusion. However, this is the first time that he devotes an entire play to her, making

Costello the central character in his new performance.

His new production premieres in spring 2024 at Warsaw’s Nowy Teatr and after that will be presented in Barcelona, Liege, Paris, and Stuttgart among others. The Festival is a proud co-producer of this work and has the privilege of presenting it first, immediately after its world premiere in Poland.

Directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski•Written by Krzysztof Warlikowski, Piotr Gruszczyński•Collaborators Łukasz Chotkowski, Mateusz Górniak, Anna Lewandowska •Dramaturgy Piotr Gruszczyński•Set design – Costumes Małgorzata Szczęśniak•Music Paweł Mykietyn•Lighting design Felice Ross •Video – Animations Kamil Polak •Artistic collaborationClaude Bardouil•Make-up Monika Kaleta •Cast (in alphabetical order)Mariusz Bonaszewski, Magdalena Cielecka, Andrzej Chyra, Ewa Dałkowska, Bartosz Gelner, Małgorzata Hajewska-Krzysztofik, Jadwiga Jankowska-Cieślak, Maja Komorowska, Hiroaki Murakami, Maja Ostaszewska, Ewelina Pankowska, Jacek Poniedziałek, Magdalena Popławska•Production Nowy Teatr•Co-production Schauspiel Stuttgart (Germany), Festival d’Avignon (France), Théâtre de Liège (Brussels), La Colline –théâtrenational, Paris (France), Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, Malta Festival Poznań 2024 (Poland), Athens Epidaurus Festival (Greece)

Partners:Kinoteka, IAM, Culture.pl, Institut Français de Pologne

Co-financed by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the CulturalPromotion Funds – a state purpose fund

Co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland

Adam Mickiewicz Institute is the main partner of the 2024/25 European tour of “Elizabeth Costello”

Nowy Teatr is financed by The City of Warsaw.

Copyright for Elizabeth Costello © 2003 by J. M. Coetzee

Copyright for Slow Man © 2005 by J. M. Coetzee

Copyright for Moral Tales © 2017 by J. M. Coetzee

Copyright for Interview © 2018 by J. M. Coetzee; Soledad Constantini

Arranged by the Peter Lampack Agency, Inc.

Elizabeth Costello translated into Polish by Zbigniew Batko

Slow Man translated into Polish by Magdalena Konikowska

Short stories ‘As a Woman Grows Older’, ‘Vanity’, ‘The Glass Abattoir’ translated into Polish by Jacek Poniedziałek

The video ‘Anywhere Out of the World’ (2000) by Philippe Parreno is used in the show

PEIRAIOS 260 H – DANCE– GERMANY / GREECE

5 & 6 June

DRESDENFRANKFURT DANCE COMPANY – IOANNIS MANDAFOUNIS

À la carte

The internationally renowned Greek choreographer Ioannis Mandafounisintroduces himself as the new artistic director of the Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company with À la carte, a large-scale work that has received enthusiastic reviews. As with a restaurant menu, its structure is set in advance. What is presented on stage, however, is shaped by the dancers in real time, as per Mandafounis’ familiar choreographic method. The starting point is always the encounter between the ensemble and the audience, just as if they were cooking a colorful menu together.The Festival extends this generous invitation to spectators, signalling the opening of this year’s Dance programme.

Choreography Ioannis Mandafounis• Performed by the dancers of theDresden Frankfurt Dance Company• Assistant to the Choreographer Pauline Huguet• Musical direction Manon Parent• Dramaturgy Anna Lemonaki,Philipp Scholtysik• Stage lights Ioannis Mandafounis• Costumes Thomas Bradley

5 June Post-show talk with the artists.

PEIRAIOS 260 E –DANCE

5 – 7 June

ANASTASIA VALSAMAKI

THE VERSO

How can the dance body and choreography resist the typical‘on recto’ contact with the audience and create moving landscapes? The performance THE VERSO is inspired by the romantic movement Rückenfigur’s aesthetic tendencies and experiments with the ‘back figure’, symbolically and literally.

In the early 1800s, the German painter Caspar David Friedrich revisited the same theme over and over: figures gazing magnificent landscapes, with their backs to the viewer. In THE VERSO, four dancers expose their backs to the audience, creating a series of atmospheric images that alternate between moving and static landscapes. The absence of eye contact and a sense of bodies being misplaced make up an unprecedented dramaturgical pact, where visible and invisible elements each time propose new performative narratives. A ‘passport’performance to new explorations, like a painting’s verso, which reveals its journey through time.

Concept – ChoreographyAnastasia Valsamaki• Dramaturgy Rodia Vomvolou• Music Jeff Wager •Costumes – Setdesign Dido Gogou•Lighting design Eliza Alexandropoulou •Co-created and performed byGabriela Antonopoulou, Maria Vourou, Petros Nikolidis, Xenia Stathouli•Assistant choreographer Anna Anousaki • Production managerKassie Kaffetsi / CULTOPIA• Executive production MIND THE LOOP

PEIRAIOS 260 B

ART INSTALLATION –DISCUSSIONS             METAPOLITEFSI CYCLE

5 – 7 June KALPAKTSOGLOU –C. MARINOS –C. CHRYSSOPOULOS

Metapolitefsi

The emblematic TV programme A film, a discussion (ERT, 1976-1982) by Robert Manthoulis had been a crucial meeting point fostering dialogue among Greek intellectuals of the post-war period. Using it as a springboard and source of inspiration,

curator Xenia Kalpaktsoglou, art historian and curator Christoforos Marinos, and author Christos Chryssopoulos revive the conditions that gave life to thatprogramme as a multidimensional and ongoing project. The set is completely reconstructed and transformed into a visual art installation, hosting works and archival material that comment on the timeline of the Metapolitefsi era (in cultural, political, social, and ideological terms). During the first three days, the set will host numerous open discussions with speakers from a variety of fields (artists, academics, activists). The discussions will be filmed in real time to produce three contemporary versions of a television dialogue while maintaining the qualities of the programme’s original concept. An ambitious and complex project that explores the present by looking back at the legacy and timeline of the last fifty years of Greek history.

Concept Xenia Kalpaktsoglou, Christoforos Marinos • Curators Xenia Kalpaktsoglou, Christoforos Marinos, Christos Chryssopoulos/ discussions were co-curated by the moderators Despina Zefkili, Makis Malafekas, Vassilis Noulas• Visual art exhibition curation Christoforos Marinos, Christos Chrysopoulos• Performance and screening programme curation Xenia Kalpaktsoglou • Architectural design, lighting design Maria Maneta • Set design Yannis Nitsos• Visual identity design Kottage Design • Translations Daphne Kapsali • Film digitisationAylon • Technical equipment Yannis Malatantis• Management – Executive Production Apparat Athen • Artists Nikos Arvanitis, Vlassis Caniaris, Anastasia Douka, Vangelis Gokas, Maria Karavela, Christina Mitrentse, Argiris Rallias, Grigoris Semitekolo, KostantisSkantzis, Spyros Staveris, AspaStasinopoulou, Anastasis Stratakis, Yiannis Theodoropoulos, Thanasis Totsikas, George Tourkovasilis, Leonidas Tsirigouliset al.• We would like to thank Antonis Tolakisand the Hellenic Cinema and Television School Stavrakosfortheir help in recording the discussions.

The discussions will be held in Greek.

PEIRAIOS 260 H – DANCE – BURKINA FASO / BELGIUM

12 & 13 June

SERGE AIMÉ COULIBALY – FASO DANSE THÉÂTRE

C la vie

The choreographer Serge Aimé Coulibaly sees dance as political and social action. Born and raised in Burkina Faso, West Africa, he is well aware of social inequalities and poverty; his choreographies are born out of contestation, desire for rebellion, and hope.

In his new work, he employs the rich tradition of African culture to create a modern-day rite of initiation and invites us to take part in the dismantling of the old world. In this ritual, there are no trials for the hero to overcome, but a single challenge: how to coexist with others. Seven dancers, a singer, and a musician explore alternative ways of living together that bridge the gap between cultures. In a world swirling towards self-destruction, the only antidote is the joy of coexistence.

Coulibaly has been working worldwide since 2001. Although deeply influenced by his collaboration with Alain Platel, as the choreographer admits, his homeland remains his chief source of inspiration. It is there where he founded Faso Dance Théâtre in 2002. It is also there where he engages in community outreach projects, such as the flagship initiative Ankata, an interdisciplinary laboratory of research and creation in the performing arts founded by Coulibaly in 2014 in his hometown Bobo-Dioulasso.

Conceived and choreographed by Serge Aimé Coulibaly • Assistant to the Choreographer SiguéSayouba• Co-created and performed by Jean Robert Koudogbo-Kiki, Ida Faho, Angela Rabaglio, Guilhem Chatir, Djibril Ouattara, Arsène Etaba, Bibata Maiga, Dobet Gnahoré,Yvan Talbot • Song Dobet Gnahoré• Music Yvan Talbot aka Doogoo D • Dramaturgy Sara Vanderieck• Artistic assistant Hanna El Fakir • Lighting design Emily Brassier • Costume artistic direction – Stage design – Video Eve Martin • Videographer John Pirard• Costumes Mira Van den Neste • Mask Stephan Goldrajch • Technical coordination Thomas Verachtert• Lighting direction Hermann Coulibaly • Sound direction Andreas Le Roy • Stage manager Dag Jennes • Production manager Arnout André de la Porte • Distribution Frans Brood Productions • Production Faso Danse Théâtre • Co-production Charleroidanse(Brussels), Kampnagel Hamburg (Germany), Tanz im August / HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin (Germany), La Rampe – La PonatièreEchirolles(France), Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg (Luxembourg), Festival RomaEuropa(Italy), Festival Culturescapes Basel (Switzerland), MünchnerKammerspiele(Germany), KVS-KoninklijkeVlaamseSchouwburg Brussels (Brussels), FestspielhausSankt•Pölten(Geneva) • With the support of the Flemish authorities and La Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Service Général de la CréationArtistique – Service de la Danse• C la vie was created with the support of the Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government

12 June Post-show talk with the artists.

PEIRAIOS 260 D – THEATRE – FRANCE

13&14 June

CAROLINE GUIELA NGUYEN

Lacrima

An haute couture house receives an unusual order: to make the wedding dress of a princess of the royal family of England. For eight months, various people –the dressmaker in Paris, the lace weaver in Normandy, the embroiderer in Mumbai– work on the secret project, unaware of what the final product will be. They all pledge not to reveal a single thing. And yet on stage we watch their fate and their dreams unfold. Caroline Guiela Nguyen, whom we met at the Festival in 2019 with the enchanting Saigon and in 2021 with FRATERNITY, A Fantastic Tale, weaves upon the toilsome process of creation a story about violence, both institutional and domestic, and about the tears that lie behind beauty.

Lacrima is the first act of a planned repertory of works that will form a ‘contemporary history of tears’.

Written and directed byCaroline Guiela Nguyen • Artistic collaboration  Paola Secret • ScenographyAlice Duchange, Atelier de construction des décors du Théâtre National de Strasbourg • Costumes Benjamin Moreau, Atelier de construction des décors du Théâtre National de Strasbourg • DramaturgyLouison Ryser, Tristan Schinzand the dramaturgy class of Groupe 48 of the school of the Théâtre National du Strasbourg • Light design Jérémie Papin • Sound design Antoine Richard • Music Jean-Baptiste Cognet, Teddy Gauliat-Pitois, Antoine Richard • VideoJérémie Scheidler • WithDanArtus, DinahBellity, Natasha Cashman, Charles VinothIrudhayaraj, Anaele Jan Kerguistel, Maud Le Grevellec, Liliane Lipau, Nanii, Raji Parisot, VasanthSelvam and on film Louise Marcia Blévins, Fleur Sulmont • Casting Lola Diane • Sound Thibault Farineau • Lights Mathilde Chamoux • Videocollaboration Marina Masquelier, Philippe Suss • Régie générale Stéphane Descombes, Xavier Lazarini • Direction intern Iris Baldoureaux-Fredon • Sound intern Ella Bellone • Artistic counselingNoémie de Lapparent • Stage design – CostumesAtelier de construction des décors du Théâtre National de Strasbourg • Production Théâtre National de Strasbourg • Co-production Wiener Festwochen | FreieRepublik Wien, TransAmériques de Montréal, Comédie – Centre dramatique national de Reims, Points communs – Nouvelle scène nationale Cergy-Pontoise / Val d’Oise, Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, Centro DrámaticoNacional, Piccolo Teatro di Milano – Teatro d’Europa, Théâtre de Liège, Théâtre National de Bretagne • Supported by Odéon – Théâtre de l’Europe, Théâtre Ouvert, Maison Jacques Copeau, Le CENTQUATRE-PARIS, Comédie-Française

Premiere May 2024, Wiener Festwochen | Freie Republik Wien

 

PEIRAIOS 260 E –THEATRE

15 – 18 June

VALERIA DIMITRIADOU

Ninety

How would we look at the world if we were ninety years old? Would we accept the approaching end or would we want to drink life down to the last drop? A member of the C for Circus group, Valeria Dimitriadou, who has been awarded by the Hellenic Association of Theatre and Performing Arts Critics for her play And God Planted Paradise, gives us a new humorous and tender text, a praise to life.

An old man in his nineties and his forty-year-old sonin a fast-paced city, a wild city. The first, although old, feels like he has just been born. The latter, although young, feels as if his life is coming to an end. Feeling weakand vulnerable, he decides to send his father to a home for the elderly. The old man’s only friend is a young handicapped girl, with whom they spend every day at the city’s central park lake. Why should an old man have to accept the end? Why can’t he go out there, fall in love, and make love? Is it because he is really unable to or because everyone else, ourselves included, do not let him?

In our youth-idolising era, the performance pinpoints to the taboo of old age. With live music on stage, it narrates an imaginary microcosm that strongly resists our dystopian present by putting empathy and solidarity to the forefront.

Written and directed by Valeria Dimitriadou • Set design Tina Tzoka• Costumes Dimos Klimenof•Lighting design Tassos Paleoroutas• Movement Katerina Fotiadi• Music Valeria Dimitriadou • Assistant to the Director Athina Sakali • Sound design Fivos Papagiannis • Cast (in alphabetical order) VaggelisAmbatzis, Andriana Andreovits, Konstantinos Aspiotis, ElieDriva, Maria Katsandri, Mihalis Panadis, Dimitris Papagiannis, Mariam Rukhadze •Management –Executive ProductionChrysa Kottarakou, Vasileia Taskou

Co-funded by Greece and the European Union

PEIRAIOS 260 B – OPERA/ PERFORMANCE                     RERUN

15 – 18 June

GIANNIS SKOURLETIS – bijoux de kant

Songs of the Greek people – Drag Oratorio

After its great success in the last year’s programme, Giannis Skourletis’ bijoux de kant returns with the Songs of the Greek People – DragOratorio, a groundbreaking performance, a bold reading, described by critics as ‘a leap in time, place, and gender’ (Lifo), and considered to have given birth to ‘a new artistic form that moves away from the strict confines of the nationality of art’ (Avgi).

The performance is inspired by the great Asia Minor composer, conductor, and pianist Giannis Konstantinidis (1903-1984). Having excelled in the genre of elafra (light) songs (‘Ksypna Agapi Mou’, ‘ThaXanartheis’, ‘Ta Nea tis Alexandras’, ‘Poso Lypamai’, among others) by the pen name Kostas Giannidis, his cycle of Twenty Songs of the Greek People moved on to create a transcending text, a musical composition on a par with his ‘twofold’ artistic oeuvre.

Based on this charming song cycle and the texts of the artist and researcher Alexandros Papadopoulos, drag baritone Nina Nai, the performer Daglara and the pianist Giorgos Ziavras tell a story that may very well have been the screenplay of a Greek horror show. In a bizarre landscape, designed by the set designer Konstantinos Skourletis, they talk about the open trauma of patriarchy and deviance. They narrate a story about a different, often unseen, Greece. Idols of a well-hidden personal experience, they recount the passions and pain of otherness in a dystopian world.

Conceived and directed by Giannis Skourletis• Music Giannis Konstantinidis / Kostas Giannidis• Set design Konstantinos Skourletis• Costumes Daglara•Lighting design bijoux de kant • Text – Translation Alexandros Papadopoulos • Dramaturgy – Artistic coordination Giorgos Papadakis • Performed by Nina Nai (baritone in drag), Giorgos Ziavras(piano), Daglara (performer) • Production Manager AsimeniaEfhtymiou • Executive Production bijoux de kant

PEIRAIOS 260 – DANCE

15 & 16 June

AEF URBAN DANCE CONTEST

Hip hop battle

All styles battle

After its success in the previous years, the AEF Urban Dance Contest, which introduced the Peiraios260 audience to the hip hop and street dance universe, returns for a fourth time, staging new explosive dance encounters in two consecutive nights, always curated by the dancer and choreographer Elias Hadjigeorgiouand his dance companion Periklis Petrakis. Acclaimed and up-and-coming dancers will be competing in two categories (1vs1 Hip Hop Battle and 2vs2 All Styles Battle) to claim the title of the winner of the 4thAEF Urban Dance Contest and also remarkable cash prizes. The judges, comprised by distinguished dancers from Greece and abroad, will not only decide this year’s winners but will also give us the pleasure to enjoy them dancing in the Judges Showcases. Both nights will be hosted by Sifu Versus’ exuberant andcertainly familiar voice with DJ Amaze Me spinning electrifying dance tunes on the decks that, after the battles, will send us to a boundless celebration of dance.

PEIRAIOS 260 D – THEATRE – LEBANON

17 & 18 June

RABIH MROUÉ

Looking for a missing employee

Documents of false suspicions, scandals, revelations of government corruption, and murder surround the case of a Ministry of Finance employee’s sudden disappearing in Beirut in 1996. The disappearance of a big sum of money furthermore raises a lot of questions. The employee’s wife, asserting her right to know her husband’s whereabouts, is arrested.

Based on actual events, playwright, director, and actor Rabih Mroué presents this work on a troubling criminal case and the implicated political and financial actors, searching for the “Truth” through relevant newspaper stories and photographs he has been collecting for decades.

He calmly but relentlessly compares all the material he has gathered. He sits among us as we may see his face while watching this meticulous presentation of the material on the screen. We gradually get a picture of the employee’s personality. His remains were found two months after his disappearance.

Mroué guides us to realise how manipulative and ambiguous all information is – in this case, in perfect agreement with the government’s interests.

Written and directed by Rabih Mroué•Cast Rabih Mroué, Hatem Imam •Set design Samar Maakaron• Assistants Talal Chatila, Ghassan Halawani • Video – interview Mohamed Soueid, Pamela Ghoneimeh• English translation Ziad Nawfal • Photography Houssam Mchaiemch • Production Christine Tohme, Ashkal Alwan, Nov. 2023

PIRAEUS 260 H–THEATRE                                                 MONOLOGUES

17 & 18 June

NIKETI KONTOURI

Cryptogam by Michalis Albatis

Having caused a great sensation with his novel Let the Dead Bury Their Dead(Kai oi nekroi as thapsoun tous nekrous tous), published in 2022 (Nissos Publishing), the author Michalis Albatis writes for the Festivala theatrical monologue set in a small town in early 1980s Crete.

‘The [Greek] words kryptón(secret) and gamein(marry), as the author explains, make up the title Cryptogam,which means to be secretly reproduced. This name was given by the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus to the algae, fungi, bryophytes, and pteridophytes as their lack of flowers, fruits, and seeds made their reproduction seem like a mystery. However, the same mystery seems to also stand for human creatures whose gender classification is unclear and their role in the flow of evolution is nebulous (…). They are organisms that, in order to survive, imitate their peers, in manners, in how they dress or talk, forced to flourish only in the dark, filling their lungs with night. This is how they live, holding their breath for years.Yet, ifthey are left with no air, compelled to violently emerge into the light, a flashover is inevitable…’

The protagonists are ‘a butcher who didnot want to be born a butcher, who hates the smell of entrails and blood, a magic ring that transforms whoever wears it into what they most desireand fearto be, an engagement party, and a murdered transvestite who idolised Aliki Vougiouklaki, performing her songs in the streets and taverns under mockery and boos’.The author’s text centres around the savageness of rural Greece in the 1980s while the performance around those who have suffered the terror of marginalisation, failure, and public shaming. NiketiKontouri’s direction brings together a group of passionate artists, aiming at revealing the explosive mechanism between the words of such a humane text and the opening of another bright path leading to the acceptance of difference. After all, as the director notes: ‘Nature is always stronger and finds a way out even in the most painful ways. Let us listen to it!’

TextMichalisAlbatis • DirectedbyNiketiKontouri • Set design – CostumesConstantinos Zamanis • MusicAlexDrakos Ktistakis • LightingMelina Mascha • Assistant to Danae Papakonstantinou• Performed byMakis Papadimitriou

PEIRAIOS 260 H –THEATRE–BELGIUM/ GREECE    MONOLOGUES

21-26 June

GUY CASSIERS

Monsieur Linh and His Child by Philippe Claudel

One of the world’s most significant contemporary theatre-makers, Guy Cassiers comes to Greece to direct ConstantineMarkoulakis in Philippe Claudel’s novellaMonsieur Linh and His Child (2005). The leading Belgian director, former artistic director of the renowned Toneelhuis Theatre in Antwerp, tackles with a very personal theatrical language, in which he skilfullyintertwines on stage visual media and literature.

Claudel’s novella, which the director treats as a monologue, tells the moving story of a man who is forced to flee his war-torn country with his young granddaughter and seek refuge in Europe, without being able to grasp the language. Through Mr. Linh’s story, the author insightfully speaks about the uprooting, trauma, reconciliation, camaraderie, and people’s vital need to connect and communicate. The monologue is performed by Constantine Markoulakis, who has also adapted the play into Greek.

The play premiered in Thessaloniki, on 22 March 2024.

Translated by Aspasia Sigala • Directed by Guy Cassiers• Adapted by Constantine Markoulakis• Performed by Constantine Markoulakis• Sound design Diederik De Cock, Ilias Flammos• Video design Bram Delafonteyne,Sibylle Meder •Lights collaborator Dimitris Koutas•Assistant to the Director Silia Koi•Production management Lykofos/ Konstantina AngeletouandToneelhuis/ Tanja Vrancken•Technical management Lykofos / Victor Berkan andToneelhuis/ Diederik Hoppenbrouwers•Video Art KlaasVerpoest•Production Assistants Xenia Kalantzi, Panucci Margelos•LykofosPR & Communication Manager Aris Asproulis•Marketing – Social Media LykofosRenegade • Co-production National Theatre of Northern Greece–Lykofos(G. Lykiardopoulos)

PEIRAIOS 260 D

21 – 23 June

TRIBUTE TO LEFTERI VOYATZIS

Screening of Antigone(Epidaurus 2007) and discussion

On the occasion of an unforgettable theatre-maker’s 80thanniversary ofbirth, the Athens Epidaurus Festival hosts a three-day tribute to his memory. This endeavour includes the screening of Nea Skini’slegendary Antigone directed by LefteriVoyatzis at Epidaurus in 2006, with him in the role of Creon and Amalia Moutoussi in the title role. The screening that we will watch is a filmed version of the performance rerun at Epidaurus in 2007. On June 22, the screening of the performance will be followed by a round-table discussion among artists and scholarson the indelible mark of this unique artist on contemporary Greek theatre.

Antigone, Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, 2007

Translated by Nikos Panagiotopoulos • Directed by Lefteris Voyatzis • Set – Costumes Chloé Obolensky • Vocal ensembles Spyros Sakkas • Movement Ermis Malkotsis • Lighting Lefteris Pavlopoulos • Cast Amalia Moutousi(Antigone), Lefteris Voyatzis (Creon), Nikos Kouris (Aemon), Dimitris Imellos (Guardian), Evi Saoulidou (Ismene) • Chorus Dimitris Agartzidis, Athanasios Chalkias, Charalambos Charalambous, Athanasios Dovris, Konstantinos Giannakopoulos, Menelaos Hazarakis, Alexia Kaltsiki, Yannis Klinis, Panagiotis Klinis, Konstantinos Koroneos, Irini Kyriazi, Vera Lardi, Efstratios Menoutis, Nikolaos Papagiannis, Aglaia Pappa, Apostolos Pelekanos, Dimitris Sdrolias, Amalia Tsekoura, Thanasis Vlavianos

PEIRAIOS 260 D – THEATRE – UNITED KINGDOM

INTERNATIONAL CO-PRODUCTION

26 & 27 June

FORCED ENTERTAINMENT

Signal to Noise

For the past 40 years, the British performance collective Forced Entertainment lives through the same social experiences as we do: tragic, hard, dubious, and funny.

In Signal to Noise, we see alienated humans at the borderline between the physical and the artificial; imprisoned in computer-generated phrases, which human bodies seem to reproduce unemotionally, like impersonal societal conventions. How does the body react if voice, language, content, and expression are predetermined?

The Forced Entertainment bodies insist on playing: they put on costumes and wigs; they continuously disorganise and reorganise the stage in ever-new useless and absurd arrangements with unquestionable seriousness – the more absurd the arrangement the more serious they get. A painfully comical choreography of out-of-tune communication between words and body language, resonating sad questions such as: Is this my hand? Is this my voice? To what extent is what we think, what we are, AI-produced? Signal to Noise draws a sublime and disturbing picture of our limited and distorted mental state.

Conceived and devised by Forced Entertainment •Directed byTim Etchells • DramaturgyTyrone Huggins • Lighting design Nigel Edwards • Sound design Tim Etchells,John Avery•Set designRichard Lowdon•Production managementJim Harrison • Devised and performed by (in alphabetical order) Robin Arthur, Seke Chimutengwende, Richard Lowdon, Claire Marshall, Cathy Naden, Terry O’Connor • Tour technical management Alex Fernandes •Production Forced Entertainment • Co-production Athens Epidaurus Festival (Greece), Centre Pompidou (France), Festival d’Automne à Paris, HAU Hebbel Am Ufer (Germany), Holland Festival (The Netherlands), Kunstler*innenhausMousonturm(Germany), PACT Zollverein (Germany), Theatre Garonne (France)

26 June Post-show talk with the artists.

PEIRAIOS 260 E – THEATRE                          METAPOLITEFSI CYCLE

26 – 29 June

Manos Karatzogiannis

50 Years, One Night

Half a century has passed since the Athens Polytechnic Uprising in November 1973. In the aftermath of May 1968, the student movement in Greece raises a powerful voice against the dictatorship. The protest of youths and part of the Greek society that stood by them erupted as a natural and spontaneous need to resist authoritarianism and escalated into three unprecedented days of protest and ideological ferment, but above all of unanimity. What does this collective experience of solidarity and self-denial mean for us today?

On the occasion of the recent anniversary, the performance 50 Years, One Nightattempts a contemporary reading of this defining moment from the perspective of the theatre. The pulsating words of real protagonists comes to life through authentic testimonies of students, pupils, and other citizens –some published, others collected during the dramaturgical research– who took part, willingly or reluctantly, in the drama of History, each from his or her own position. Bringing together older and younger generations of actors and actresses, the performance puts together the puzzle of this volatile, violent, and without a particular outline event –as the American historian Janet Lugo describes the uprisings– in a collective narrative that becomes the raw material for a valuable theatre lesson and a guide in the search for the meaning of democracy.

The production is directed by Manos Karatzogiannis. With a series of performances on historical memory (Gia tin Eleni – For Helen, Xenes Portes – Strange Doors, Martyres ton Athinon – Martyrs of Athens, FylakasMiasEpanastasis – Guardian of A Revolution, Passport) as well as the film Melina Stop Karé–AnazitontastiSyghroniEllinikotita(Melina Stop Frame – Searching for Modern Greekness), thedirector collaborates again in dramaturgy with Dimitra Kondylaki, with whom he co-curated in AEF 2018 the retrospective exhibition – scenic installation Rooms of Memory: Wandering into Loula Anagnostaki’s World.

Directed by Manos Karatzogiannis•Dramaturgy Dimitra Kondylaki, Manos Karatzogiannis•Music Tilemachos Moussas •Movement Zoe Chatziantoniou •Set designLoukia Martha •Costumes Vasiliki Syrma •Lighting Angelos Papadopoulos •Video Art Goran Gagic•Assistant to the Director Dina Debebe •Historical consultantKostis Kornetis•Cast(in alphabetical order)Stratis Hadjistamatiou, YvonniMaltezou, Katerina Maoutsou, Giannis Dalianis, Kalliopi Panagiotidou, Giorgos Nousis, Giorgos Vourdamis, Maria Zorba

With the participation of third-year students at the Drama School, Greek Art Theatre Karolos Koun (Marios Alexandris, Yannis Eskintzoglou, Anastasia Galerou, Anastasia Galerou – Vlassi, Christianna Ginoglou, Yannis Zervos, Dimitris Kakarontzas, Nefeli-VassilikiKaratsoli, Marianthi Koskina, Martha Orfanaki, Kelly Saravanou, Panos Theodorakopoulos, Marios Vertzinis, Natasa Vlysidou, Yannis Zervos).

PEIRAIOS 260 B – DANCE – SPAIN

28 – 30 June

ROGER BERNAT

The Rite of Spring

Based on the choreography by Pina Bausch

Igor Stravinsky’s TheRite of Spring choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky is one of the most seminal ballets of the 20th century, which Pina Bausch reintroduced to us in an iconic 1975 performance. It is her ‘reading’ that inspired the Catalan avant-garde creator Roger Bernat to create this performance, which is a game and a choreography all at once.

The work has been performed in dozens of countries around the world, from Brazil and Canada to Egypt, Finland, and Japan.

Music by Igor Stravinsky • Scenic creation Roger Bernat • In collaboration with Txalo Toloza, María Villalonga, Ray Garduño, José-Manuel López Velarde, Tomás Alzogaray, Brenda Vargas, Diana Cardona, Annel Estrada, Viani Salinas • Technical direction Txalo Toloza • Sound design Rodrigo Espinosa • Sound editing Juan Cristóbal Saavedra Vial • Video design Marie-Klara González • Coordination Helena Febrés• Executive Production Alicia Laguna • Assistants to production Antígona González, Mariana Toledo • Runner Don Moisés

PEIRAIOS 260 H – DANCE– ARGENTINA / BELGIUM

29 & 30 June

AYELEN PAROLIN                                                   

ZONDER

To the sounds of Strauss’ Blue Danube, three performers on stage are trying to find their footing and get in tune with each other in a game of ever-changing rules. Their persistence to completing the work, disregarding a decomposing set, is almost heart-rending.

Employing humour and self-mockery, the award-winning Argentinean choreographer Ayelen Parolin, who has been living and working in Europe since 2000, orchestrates in ZONDER a cheerful nightmare, a choreographic shenanigan that is open to all possibilities. Against the obsession over being goal-focused, finding meaning, a beginning and an end to everything, against contemporary Western society’s logocentrism, Paroline suggests that we defy the fear of failure and firmly embrace our mistakes. With ZONDER she creates an ode to the absurd, the unhelpful, the unintentional –a rare union of contemporary dance with comedy.

Choreographed by Ayelen Parolin • Created and performed by Piet Defrancq, Naomi Gibson, Daan Jaartsveld• Artistic Associate Julie Bougard • Technical direction – Lighting design Laurence Halloy• Sound design Julie Bougard • Set design – Costumes Marie Szersnovicz• Lighting Laurence Halloy• Stage & Sound Manager Ondine Delaunois• Dramatic composition Olivier Hespel• Production Daniel Barkan, Alessandro Bernardeschi, Michael Schmid • Production RUDA • Co-production Théâtre National Wallonie Brussels (Belgium), Charleroi danse (Belgium), SurMars Mons (Belgium), Théâtre de Liège (Belgium), Manège Scène Nationale – Reims (France), Atelier de Paris / CDCN (France) • With the support of the Brussels-Wallonia Federation, Wallonie-Bruxelles International • Set and costume making at the workshops of Théâtre National WallonieBruxelles• Co-produced by La Coop, Shelter Prod. • With the support of the Belgian Federal Government Tax Shelter • Ayelen Parolin has been an associate artist at the Théâtre National de Bruxelles since 2022

29 June Post-show talk with the artists.

PEIRAIOS 260 D – DANCE

3 & 4 July

TZENI ARGYRIOU

MIDATI

In her recent works and research, Tzeni Argyriou has been treating dance as an expression of the human need for contact and as a means of reconnecting with nature and the community –the already-existing one and that created on the spot at each gathering. She is inspired by the legacy of traditional and folk Greek dances as well as contemporary choreographic practices and she also assigns a central role to the relationship between dance and live music. Can dance today express the problems, the questions, and the need of modern humans for sociability? Dancers and musicians shape a visual landscape, making a record of sounds and movements that carry memories of dances from the depths of time but alsofrom the present, and gradually widening the concentric circles of a collective celebration. Can we invent new dances that express us and new rituals that unite us? What would such a celebration look like? Could we all ‘lend a hand’ in creating it? After all, this is what ‘midati’in the villages of Epirus means: the gathering to create, with everyone’s help, somethingneeded by the community. The MIDATI project was born in the light of these questions, putting at the centre the concepts of community, collectivity, and solidarity.

Concept – Choreography TzeniArgyriou •Collaborating visual artist – Set designerVassilis Gerodimos •Original music composition, performance, sound editing on stage GiorgosGargalas, Nikos Tsolis • Dramaturgy Christiana Galanopoulou •Lighting design Nysos Vasilopoulos •CostumesVassilia Rozana •Assistant to the ChoreographerFotini Stamatelopoulou•Cast (in alphabetical order)Sotiria Koutsopetrou, ErmisMalkotsis, Tasos Nikas, Ioanna Paraskevopoulou, Despina Sanida-Krezia, Nancy Stamatopoulou, Sevasti Zafeira•Artistic collaborators Vitoria Kotsalou, Luke Macaronas, Stavroula Siamou•Management–Executive Production Delta Pi • Production AMORFI – AthensEpidaurus Festival

Co-funded by Greece and the European Union

PEIRAIOS 260 – THEATRE– GERMANY

4 & 5 July

SUSANNE KENNEDY –MARKUSSELG

ANGELA (a strange loop)

What is the nature of reality? How is the self constructed? What does it mean to be human? In an attempt to answer these questions, Susanne Kennedy collaborates with the visual artist Markus Selg and puts a woman suffering from a disease under the microscope, scrutinizing every moment in one’s life from birth to death. Here with her signature post-humanist, futuristic aesthetics, Kennedy explores the dynamic relationship between the human body, technology, and art in the post-pandemic age. A darkly poetic approach to the fundamental questions of existence, identity, and consciousness through the lens of illness.

One of the most important creators of her generation, a regular collaborator of Volksbühne, Susanne Kennedy was introduced to the Greek audience at the Athens Epidaurus Festival 2019 with the performance Virgin Suicides.

Concept, text, and direction Susanne Kennedy • Concept – Set design Markus Selg • Sound design Richard Alexander • Soundtrack Richard Alexander, Diamanda La Berge Dramm• Live music Diamanda La Berge Dramm• Video design Rodrik Biersteker, Markus Selg • Costumes Andra Dumitrascu • Dramaturgy Helena Eckert • Lighting design Rainer Casper • Artistic associate Friederika Kötter • Stage Assistant Lili Süper• Assistants to Costume Designer Anna Jannicke, Anastasia Pilepchuk• Cast Diamanda La Berge Dramm, Ixchel Mendoza Hernández, Kate Strong, Tarren Johnson, Dominic Santia • Voices Ethan Braun, Rita Kahn Chen, Diamanda La Berge Dramm, Ixchel Mendoza Hernández, Tarren Johnson, Susanne Kennedy, Ruth Rosenfeld, Dominic Santia, Rubina Schuth, Cathal Sheerin, Marie Schleef, Kate Strong •Production Ultraworld Productions • Tour management and international distribution Something Great • Co-production Wiener Festwochen. Festival d’Automne à Paris &Odéon – Théâtre de l’Europe, Festival d’Avignon, Holland Festival, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, National Theatre Drama – Prague Crossroads, Romaeuropa Festival, Teatro Nacional de São João, Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz • With the support of StichtingAmmodoandKulturstiftung des Bundesand financed by the Culture and Mass Media Commissioner of the Federal Government of Germany

PEIRAIOS 260 E – DANCE

9 – 11 July

ELIAS HADJIGEORGIOU

Scared – Akinetic allegory about fear

The choreographic work Scared by Elias Hadjigeorgiouaddresses the timeless but always topical issue of fear. The booming of technological advancement and the challenge against traditional ideologies, the unknown is closer to us today than ever before as humanity stands uneasy in the face of tomorrow. Isolating on one’s own screens that shape an increasingly distorted version of reality and absence of physical contact create a new ‘community’lacking actual osmosis between people, empathy, solidarity. The old heroes may be dying but the new ones are also being rapidly dismantled by the mass and social media. And while we coexist, we do not know each other. We are scared of each other but we are scared of ourselves.

Exploring the symptoms of fear, always inspired by and employing street dance kinetic devices, this performance attempts to approach the physical expressions of fear; to feel for the dailymovement of a scared society, that is our society.

Choreographed byElias Hadjigeorgiou• Music Alexis Falantas• DramaturgyDimitra Mitropoulou • Lighting design Nikos Vlassopoulos• Set design – Costumes Elias Hadjigeorgiou• Performed by Sofia Pouchtou, Kostas Phoenix, Dimitris Karageorgos, Haris Chatziandreou, Periklis Petrakis

Co-funded by Greece and the European Union

PEIRAIOS 260 B – DANCE

9 – 11 July

ERMIRA GORO

TELOS

Acclaimed dance-makers join their forces to create a solo each for Ermira Goro, a member of DV8 Physical Theatre and a nominee for Outstanding Performer at the New York City BessieDance and Performance Awards (Bessie Awards).

Drawing inspiration from the concept of ‘telos’ (the end), each creator unfolds his or her own artistic ‘language’in a modular project that highlights the transformative power of collective creation. A multidimensional choreographic experience.

Concept –Idea –Performance Ermira Goro •Choreographers Maria Hassabi, Hannes Langolf, Ioanna Paraskevopoulou, Ermira Goro •MusicAliki Leftherioti• Music composition for Maria Hassabi’s choreography Jeph Vanger • Costumes –Setdesign Venia Polychronaki• Lighting Vangelis Mountrichas•Assistant to the Choreographer Martha Pasakopoulou•ExecutiveProductionVicky Barboka•Kindly supported byJeff Garner • Production Removement

260 PIRAEUS 260 H –DANCE

13 & 14 July

KAT VÁLASTUR

Strong Born

Kat Válastur’sStrong Born comes as a continuation of her previous work, a conversation with the myth of Iphigenia in Aulis, approached from a feminist perspective. Inspired by the origin of the Euripidean heroine’s name (she who was born strong’), the Anastenaria, a northern Greek custom where participants step on burning coals, and also the sacrificial dance from Vaslav Nijinsky’s Rite of Spring. In Strong Born all these elements are intertwined to devise a new ritual, prevailed by the presence of a rhythm. In this ‘ritual’, within the confines of the stage, persistence and continuous interaction between three dancers reverse the demandfor sacrifice. The sound that designates the choreography is produced by percussive surfaces on the dancers’ bodies. The sacrificial ritual becomes the starting point of an act of resistance. Resistance to sacrifice becomes a vital empowerment path. The dancers on stage are accompanied by the percussionist Valentia Magaletti.

Conceived and choreographed by Kat Válastur•Performed by Noémie Ettlin, Xenia Koghilaki, NoumissaSidibé•Music – Live Performance Valentina Magaletti•Lighting design – Technical direction Martin Beeretz•Lighting design collaborator Vito Walter •Sound design – Surround mixing Vagelis Tsatsis•Assistant to Choreographer Michalis Angelidis •Set design Ulrich Leitner •Set design collaboratorLeon Eixenberger •Costumes Marie Gerstenberger / werkstattkollektiv•Porcelain & wooden objects Nina Krainer •Collaboration for porcelain Mercedes Bonzai•The porcelain was made at Ceramic Kingdom studio in Berlin •Scent Design Klara Ravat •Video – EditingEthan Folk, Nadja Krüger •Dramaturgy Filippos Telesto•Production management Marina Agathangelidou, Mascha Euchner-Martinez, Sina Kießling•Tour managementMascha Euchner-Martinez •Distribution Yann Gibert •Production Kat Válastur•Co-production Tanz im August (Germany), HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Germany) •Funded by theBerlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe, Capital Cultural Fund

PEIRAIOS 260 D –THEATRE– HUNGARY

INTERNATIONAL CO-PRODUCTION

14 & 15 July

KORNÉL MUNDRUCZÓ – PROTON THEATRE

Parallax

Having won over the Festival audience with his sharp eye for contemporary social issues and his spectacular on-stage novel of manners, world-renowned Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó,after Imitation of Life in 2018 and Pieces of a Woman in 2021, returns to Athens with his Hungarian independent company Proton Theatre and Parallax. This play too is poignant and extremely topical: taking a Hungarian family as its starting point, it touches on the different approaches to the experience of Jewishness from generation to generation. Grandma, a Holocaust survivor, who in her life has learned to hide her Jewish identity, comes into conflict with her daughter, who, living in Berlin in the 1990s, tries to use this identity to enrol her son in a better school. However, as he grows up, he wants to shed any identity and wishes to belong nowhere else than the gay community he has consciously chosen. But in a society in crisis, with the sharpening of social divisions and the rise of the far right in Europe, is it possible to remain neutral? How can one separate the assertion of one’s own diversity from a broader political stance?

Written by Kata Wéber • Director Kornél Mundruczó • Dramaturg Soma Boronkay, Stefanie Carp • Set Monika Pormale • Costume Melinda Domán • Light András Éltető • Music Asher Goldschmidt • Choreography Csaba Molnár • Assistant to the Director Soma Boronkay • Cast Lili MonoriÉva, Emőke Kiss-VéghLéna, Erik MajorJónás, Roland RábaMárk, Sándor ZsótérLászló, Csaba MolnárGábor, Soma Boronkay Kornél • Light Technician Zoltán Rigó • Sound Technician ZoltánBelényesi • Prop Master Gergely Nagy • Cameramen Máté Takács, Mihály Teleki, Áron Farkas • Stage Master Tamás Hódosy • Stage Hand András Viczkó • Dresser Melinda Domán •Producer Dóra Büki • Assistant to the ProducerHenrietta Horváth • Artist Manager Miklós Kékesi • Technical Director András Éltető • Production Proton Theatre • Co-production Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe, Wiener Festwochen, Comédie de Genève, Piccolo Teatro – Milano, HAU Hebbel am Ufer – Berlin, Athens Epidaurus Festival, Festival d’Automne, Maillon– Théâtrede Strasbourg –Scèneeuropéenne, CNDO Orléans, La Bâtie– Festivalde Genève • Supporters Számlázz.hu, Minorities Talents & Casting, Danubius Hotels

Kata Wéber’s text incorporates the ensemble’s improvisations.

Recommended for 18+.The performance contains sexual scenes.

PEIRAIOS 260 AT THE PLATEA

PROLOGOS

PRE-SHOW TALKS

A foretaste of performances, just before the curtain goes up!

Developed in collaboration with the Postgraduate Studies Programme of the Department of Theatre Studies, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, prologos(prologue) introduces us, in a vivid manner, to the artistic language of Theatre and Dance performances. Young theatre scholars and dance experts, provide us with the keys to contemporary scenic language, half an hour before we enter the hall.

 

PEIRAIOS 260 AT THE HALLS

EXODOS

POST-SHOW TALKS

Discussions with the artists, after the curtain goes down…

The long-standing discussions with directors, choreographers, and other contributors to performances at the Peiraios 260 halls return. The artists meet with the audience to reveal paths and trails of the creative process.This year, participating artists include Forced Entertainment, Serge Aimé Coulibaly, Ioannis Mandafounis, Ayelen Parolin, Katerina Andreou, et al.

LIVE AT THE PLATEA

Curated by Dimitris Tsakas

After two very successful years of Jazz at the Platea at the open-air space of Peiraios 260, the pocket-music festival that has become a meeting point for all the city’s music lovers takes on a new, expanded form. This year, it will host more musical acts showcasing a variety of musical styles, from jazz, funk, and soul to pop, Latin and electronic music.

Live performances will be taking place throughout the artistic programme of Peiraios 260 after performances, free of admission.

Co-funded by Greece and the European Union

Programme

5, 6, & 7 June

MODE PLAGAL

Mode Plagal make their comeback with new compositions and unreleased yet covers of folk songs, in which tradition meets jazz, improvisation spontaneously flirts with sounds we all carry in our musical DNA, and the Mediterranean teams up with blues and Afrobeat.

ThodorisRellossaxophone, vocals, Kleon Antoniou guitar, vocals, Florian Mikuta keyboards, vocals, Takis Kanellos drums, Thodoris Kanellos bass, Angelos Polychronoupercussion, Achilleas Kanellos acoustic piano

17 & 18 June

NEFELI FASOULI QUINTET

Phases

Nefeli Fasouli is a talented young singer who stands out in spite of stylistic constraints and specifications. At the Festival she will be presenting for the first time her new jazz album Phases, for which she wrote the lyrics and music, and had it recorded last year in the US. The Nefeli Fasouli Quintet hovers over Greek music and jazz and is expected to showcase a captivating mosaic of songs both from her Phases album, as well as from O Kosmos Sou.

Nefeli Fasoulivocals • Stavros Manthos saxophone • Costis Christodoulou keyboards • Kimon Karoutzosdouble bass • Jason Wastordrums

26, 27, & 29 June

MISSIGNO

The experimental electronic trio Missigno was formed in Athens in 2020 by Nicholas Wastor (synthesizers), George Constantinou (bass), and Jason Wastor (drums). The band’s core philosophy is largely based on thematic and abstract improvisation combined with original compositions. Their first album, Binary Digit Temple was released in 2020 and followed by Dystopian Reverie in 2022.

Nicholas Wastorsynthesizers • George Constantinou electric bass • Jason Wastordrums • Kyriakos Papadopoulos live audio-visual manipulation, sound engineer

13, 14, & 15 July

MOb

MOb trio’s music can be described as pure escapism that comes in the form of electronic melodious jazz, kraut, filmic, and exploratory post punk. Synthesizers, effects, loops, drones, and frequent change of tone and style share prominent roles in creating the trio’s unparalleled soundscape.

Their compositions are primarily based on open forms, using both tonal and non-tonal linear material, while improvisation parts subtly balance between the generation of melodic material and the creation of multi-textural sonic atmospheres.

Marios Valinakissaxophone & live electronics • Alexandros Delis bass, guitar & effects • Panagiotis Kostopoulos drums

19, 20 & 21 Ιουλίου

19, 20, & 21 July

YOEL SOTO GROUP

• 19/07 Yoel Soto feat. Irini Arabatzí

Irini Arabatzi, a talented Greek singer who grew up in Belgium, will sprinkle the evening with the original versions of vintage tunes from Cuba, Brazil, France, and Greece.

• 20/07 Yoel Soto feat. Ramón Soto

A tribute to the legendary Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club with the authentic Cuban voice of Ramón Soto.

• 21/07 Yoel Soto feat. Rosanna Mailan

The Cuban singer and songwriter Rosanna Mailan will present some of her original compositions as well as contemporary versions of folk songs from Latin America and the Caribbean.

Yoel Soto Group

Costis Christodoulou keyboards • Sotiris Ntouvasdrums • Carlos Menéndez percussion • Dimitris Sevdalispiano • Demian Gómez drums • Yoel Soto bass, vocals

THE SOUL PEANUTS & FRIENDS

The Soul Peanuts are a lively and spirited organ trio that has definitely made a mark in the Athens music scene! Deeply influenced by jazz, funk, Boogaloo, and Afro music of the 1960s and 1970s, they make up a unique style that captivates audiences. In their six-year career, they have given hundreds of concerts and collaborated with select musicians, turning every performance into a unique experience. At Peiraios 260 they will present tracks from their very first album, unreleased works, as well as favourite covers, inviting us to an unforgettable musical journey!

The Soul Peanuts

Rafael Meleteashammond•Eric Panagopoulos guitar •Giannis Papadoulisdrums

Guests

Victor Filippopolitissaxophone (23 & 24/7) •Angelos Polychronoupercussion (23/7) •Alexandros Delisbass(24/7)

25 July

Concert –Party

DATFUNKBAND & GUESTS

Datfunkband masterfully wander around funk, blues, and jazz influences, creating a totally unique sound. At the Peiraios 260 Programme Closing Party at the Platea, Asterios Papastamatakis on hammond organ and Michael Kapilidis on drums join forces with Dimitris Schizas on guitar, Vasilis Xenopoulos on saxophone, and Alexandra Sieti on vocals mingling funk’s sensational drive with the timeless quality of jazz.

DATFUNKBANDAsterios Papastamatakishammond organ • Michael Kapilidisdrums•Guests Dimitris Schizas electric guitar • Vasilis Xenopoulostenor saxophone • Alexandra Sietivocals

Sound design Yannis Tountas, Yannis Damianos • Lights Phil Hills • Management & Executive Production ARTos &Theama / Anastasia Tamouridou

The well-loved artistic hotspot at Petralona, Cafe Nacional, makes its presence felt this year at Peiraios 260, with signature cocktails, fine spirits, and sophisticated street food flavours. The after parties will be accompanied by DJs selecting music mainly from vinyls, creating a breathtaking ambient scenery!

grape

Greek Agora of Performance

OLD PARLIAMENT HOUSE –THEATRE

18 – 22 July

EFTHIMIS FILIPPOU – ANGELIKIPAPOULIA

Etymologies

In a landmark building for Greek history, we attend a lecture where invented etymologies of various Greek words are listed by a lecturer. By means of language and elements from mythology, EfthimisFilippou’s new work explores the relationship between history and History, observing the gap between lies and truth and the thin line that separates the subjective from the objective.

In their new collaboration, the internationally acclaimed and award-winning artists EfthimisFilippou and Angeliki Papoulia co-direct a performance that seeks to highlight the importance of uncertainty, doubt, and ambiguity in relation to language, communication, and national identity.

Text by Efthimis Filippou • Directed by Efthimis Filippou, Angeliki Papoulia • Set design Cleo Boboti• Costume designer Vassilia Rozana • Lighting design Thimios Bakatakis• Music Panagiotis Melidis• Graphic design MNP Athens • Make-up artist Evi Zafiropoulou• Cast Angeliki Papouliaand one more performer• Executive Production Maria Dourou/ Vega Lyra

Co-funded by Greece and the European Union

PEIRAIOS 260 H –THEATRE

19 – 21 July

ANESTIS AZAS

Ta skylia / The dogs

Inspired by Aristophanes’ Birds

A group of ‘dogs’ appears on stage as another ancient comedy Chorus. Their mission is to unravel the events surrounding the brutal abuse and killing of a beautiful pet dog in a rural Greek town, next to an ancient oracle. Which version is true?  Was the killer a human, as was originally rumoured, or was this domestic dog a victim of a pack of other, stray dogs, as the authorities finally concluded?  Will the detective dogs that have been sneaking in from different corners of the world manage to discover the truth? Are dogs capable of delivering justice better than humans? Could abused animals finally find justice in a dog state, freed from human authority?

Having won over the Greek and European audiences with his delightfully poignant TheVRepublic of Baklava, Anestis Azas returns to the Festival with an original text co-written again with Gerasimos Bekas and Michalis Pitidis. This time, the play is inspired by Aristophanes’ Birds with a zoomorphic Chorus of birds, which founds Cloud Cuckoo Land, an ideal state between the world of humans and that of gods. Based on a true story from recent crime news and using the documentary theatre method, a political allegory is developed on stage on the issue of social violence that is increasingly being perpetrated against the weakest.

Just as Aristophanes has the birds rebel in order to punish the human species for its arrogance, so in this original play the dogs, which for many symbolise selfless love, loyalty, and friendship, are here united against humans. The incident of the abuse and killing of an innocent animal becomes the core of a play about the cruelty of human relationships and all it entails.

Conceived and directed by Anestis Azas •Text Michalis Pitidis, Anestis Azas •Collaboration for text developmentGerasimos Bekas •Dramaturgy and Assistant to the DirectorMichalis Pitidis •Music PanúManouilidis •Set design Dido Gogou •Lighting Eleni Choumou •Cast Eleni Rantou, Cem Yiğit Üzümoğlu, Gary Salomon, Giorgos Katsis, Konstantinos Moraitis •ExecutiveProduction Management Zoe Mouschi

Co-funded by Greece and the European Union

 

PEIRAIOS 260 E – DANCE

19 – 21 July

CHARA KOTSALI

Borborygmi

Whereas noise in Western society alludes to something negative, the new work of up-and-coming choreographer Chara Kotsali explores the beneficial power of noise in the way to generate joy, solidarity, and a sense of community. Two bodies on stage, a potential extension of an endless human chain, engage in an unproductive dance, in a counter-concert dedicated to the pleasure of disintegration. Setting off from the political, anthropological, and philosophical aspects of noise and drawing inspiration from the noise music scene, Chara Kotsali invites us to attentively listen to the ‘noisy social bodies’ –those that disrupt the harmony of social consensus. Using noise as an artistic counterexample, the choreographer pays respects to all those noisy – cacophonous, incoherent, paradoxical, discordant, illiterate – voices that, no matter how powerfully articulated, in the end, must always make too much ‘noise’ to be heard.

Chara Kotsali was selected this year by the international dance platform Aerowaves as one of the 20 most promising young creatives of the year. Her first work to be possessed is currently touring all over Europe.

Concept – Choreography– Text– Videoediting – Scenic DesignChara Kotsali • Performance – MaterialDesign Christina Skoutela, Chara Kotsali • Assistant to the Choreographer Vassia Zorbali • Dramaturgy Advisor Konstantina Georgelou • Music – SoundDesign Yannis Kotsonis • Lighting DesignEliza Alexandropoulou • Sound AdvisorBrian Coon •Visual Art DesignPeriklis Pravitas• CostumesErik Annerborn, Chara Kotsali • Artistic & Scientific Collaborators Giorgos Samantas, Dimitris Bourzoukos• ExecutiveProduction Delta Pi

SYCHRONO THEATRO–THEATRE

20 – 22July

ZOE CHATZIANTONIOU

Amalia melancholia, Queen of the Palm Trees

A living exhibit of natural and political history

If she were a plant, she would be called Amalia melancholia. She wished that history would give her the title of Queen of the Palm Trees. A play about the woman who was stigmatized for her childlessness but gave Athens its National Garden.

Modern medical studies attribute Amalia’s infertility to unknown aplasia, which, if known at the time, would have made the first queen of Greece a monster, a bad omen for the great reboot of the state. She was subjected to fertility treatments for sixteen years, and after death to an autopsy. The examination of the fifty-six-year-old woman revealed findings which had to be suppressed.

Her failure to offer a child to the people had political implications. However, from Amalia’s vision, a ‘child’ was indeed born: a garden. Although many busts of illustrious men are found in the garden, there is not a single official reference to this day to the woman who dreamt of the garden and made it come true.

Zoe Chatziantoniou draws material from Amalia’s letters to her father, individual historical testimonies, and the confidential documents of the doctors. Her Amalia is a woman between fiction and history, infertility and fertility, museum exhibit and animal under observation for breeding purposes. She is a body in a state of creative melancholy that finds its own line of flight towards another dimension beyond social imperatives. There, in her true kingdom, Amalia fulfils her mission and perpetuates her species – she becomes a Garden. She is given what she herself truly longed for, the title of Queen of the Palm Trees.

Research – Dramaturgy – Direction Zoe Chatziantoniou • Cast Emily Koliandri, Rita Lytou •Stage design Eva Manidaki•Costumes Ioanna Tsami •Music – Soundscape Stavros Gasparatosin collaboration with Georgios Mizithras •Video Pantelis Makkas •Dramaturgy Advisor Louisa Arkoumanea •Assistant to the Stage Designer Maria Kalofouti •Wigs Konstantinos Savvakis •Stage and Props ManagerDina Debebe •Rigger Yannis Psarros •Production Manager Konstantina Angeletou •ExecutiveProduction Lykofos

The performance premiered in 2022 in the Municipal Theatre of Piraeus.

PEIRAIOS 260 D –THEATRE

23 – 25 July

ARGYRO CHIOTI

Point of Refreshment

Can we reverse our view of the world for a moment? See beyond the world of matter? A special place on the border between myth and reality, inhabited by fantasies and ghosts, is invited to be discovered by the polyphonic composition created for the Festival by Argyro Chioti, with a mixed group of performers, consisting of actors, dancers, and singers.

Metaphysical stories and legends inspire a narrative that claims a return to myth. On stage, an existential place of ‘refreshment’ is generated. A place where souls gather to quench their thirst, amidst visions and spirits of nature, questioning the relationship between the individual and the collective.

Direction Argyro Chioti •Stage design Eva Manidaki•Costumes Angelos Mentis •Music Jan Van Angelopoulos, Dimitra Trypanis•Lighting Eliza Alexandropoulou •Dramaturgy Argyro Chioti, EfthimisTheou, and the team •Assistant to the Director Nefeli Gioti •Cast (in alphabetical order) Georgina Chryskioti, Amalia Kosma, Giorgos Kritharas, Rita Lytou, Evi Saoulidou, Drossos Skotis, Nikos Ziaziaris, and special guests each night •ExecutiveProduction Maria Dourou | VASISTAS

Co-funded by Greece and the European Union

PEIRAIOS 260 H –THEATRE                                                         RERUN

24 & 25 July

MARIO BANUSHI

Taverna Miresia–Mario, Bella, Anastasia

One of the most successful performances of the 2023 artistic programme, Taverna Miresia^* – Mario, Bella, Anastasia, returns to Peiraios 260.

An up-and-coming young artist, born in 1998, the Albanian-born Mario Banushi uses his own memories as dramaturgical means and transforms them into a ritual of purification.

A neon restaurant sign in a Tirana suburb sheds light to the history of a family. An unexpected incident under the light of this sign has a crucial effect on Mario’s life. Years later, now an adult, director Mario Banushi, who had been traveling from Greece to Albania for years to meet his family and return to the family taverna, now carries that same sign from Tirana to Athens, placing it at the center of the world he creates on stage. Through a performance, he welcomes his memories and nostalgia in order to confront the absence of his father who recently passed away; the cook and taverna owner who used to welcome customers every night.

As the performance unfolds, the sign unfurls a series of emotions, a melody of unspoken sentiments, fragments and memories, the poetry of things left unsaid. It embodies a profound farewell to the father, the custodian of the taverna’s secrets, and a warm embrace of adulthood, amidst the existential riddles that accompany the passage of years.

* Miresia is Albanian for kindness

Conceived and directed by Mario Banushi • Set – Costumes design Sotiris Melanos • Lighting design Eliza Alexandropoulou • Music Jeph Vanger • Vocals improvisation Savina Yannatou • Associate Dramaturg Aspasia-Maria Alexiou • Assistant to the Director Sofia Antoniou • Assistant to the Costume Designer VassianaSkopetea • Cast (in alphabetical order) Mario Banushi, Savina Giannatou, Katerina Kristo, Eftychia Stefanou, Chryssi Vidalaki • Management – Executive Production TooFarEast • In collaboration with Theatrosti Sala

PEIRAIOS 260 E–DANCE– GREECE / FRANCE

INTERNATIONAL CO-PRODUCTION

23 – 25 July

KATERINA ANDREOU

Bless This Mess

Winner of the European Prix Jardin d’Europe 2016, with a significant career in the European dance scene and loyal fans in Greece, the international Greek choreographer, dancer and musician Katerina Andreou, returns to the Festival with a performance supported by some of the most prestigious institutions of contemporary cultural production, theatres, and festivals.

In an attempt to regain strength but also a space of confidence for indispensable resistance, Katerina Andreou asks herself the question: how can confusion be turned into a tool, a strategy for creation? Bless This Mess, Andreou’s first group piece, expresses a person’s dynamic and irrepressible desire to move with others in order to find a stability of position, a voice that gives courage and energy, a sense of togetherness against chaos and isolation. This work leaves room for play that makes moments of relief and joy emerge.

Conception – ChoreographyKaterina Andreou •Cast Katerina Andreou, Baptiste Cazaux, Melissa Guex, Lily Brieu Nguyen •Sound conception – CreationKaterina Andreou in collaboration withCristián Sotomayor •Sound – LightingYannick Fouassier•DramaturgyAssistant Kostas Kekis•TechnicalDirectorThomas Roulleau Gallais •Production Manager Elodie Perrin •Thanks to Jean-Baptiste Veyret-Logerias, Laura Garnier • Production BARK•Co-production Kunstenfestivaldesarts Bruxelles, Festival d’Automne à Paris, Théâtrede Gennevilliers, KLAP Maison pour la danse à Marseille, Maison de la Danse, CCN de Caen en Normandie, Next Festival, les Subs Lyon, ICI • CCN Montpellier Occitanie, CCN de Grenoble, CCNR, Centre chorégraphique national de Rillieux-la-Pape, ADC Genève • ResidencyEspace Pasolini, Kunstencentrum BUDA • With the support of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels, Mécénat de la Caisse des Dépôts, DRAC Rhône Alpes

The performance was created in part at The Watermill Center– ALaboratory for Performance in April 2023.

23 JulyPost-show talk with the artists.

 

PEIRAIOS 260 B – THEATRE

23 – 25 July

YOLANDA MARKOPOULOU – STATIONATHENS GROUP

Connection Error

Is there a point where real life meets the digital self and the performing arts? The Station Athens group, founded in 2009 in the multicultural neighbourhood of Metaxourgeio, consists of refugees and immigrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Based on their own true stories, their performances have won over the audience for the way they bring documentary and fiction together. Their new production focuses on marriage, family, and companionship, humorously highlighting the catalytic role of technological development in transforming family ties.

The members of the group try to cope with life away from the family home with the help of technology. What they have in common is the need to find solutions that will make their everyday lives easier. Having tried everything, they turn to an artificial intelligence application.They follow its advice with sometimes hilarious and even paradoxical outcomes. To what extent can technology transform our lives for the better? The show uses AI technology, video projections, and a unique sound design in a hybrid performance idiom.

Conceived and directed by Yolanda Markopoulou •Set design – CostumesAlexandra Siafkou, Aristotelis Karananos•Artistic Collaborator in Dramaturgy Margarita Papadopoulou •Artistic Collaborator in Research Konstantina Georgiou •Lighting Angelos Papadopoulos • Video Design Angelos Papadopoulos, Yolanda Markopoulou •Music Composition andSound Design Manolis Manousakis •Cast Chalil Alizada, Ηossein Amiri, Sakina Hashimi, Aidim Joymal, Ramzan Mohammad, Reza Mohammadi, Mahboubeh Tavakali•Executive Production POLYPLANITY Productions / Vicky Strataki, Nikos Charalampidis

Subset Festival

NewMusic Festival at the Athens Conservatoire

10 – 14June

Curated by Stavros Gasparatos

In co-production with the Athens Conservatoire

The Subset Festival, the multifaceted music platform launched last year, held by the Athens Epidaurus Festival in co-production with the Athens Conservatoire, returns refreshed but always with a focus on the dialogue between contemporary music and new media.

Named after a mathematical term (subset ⊆), the Subset Festival together diverse versions of contemporary musical creation, incorporating a wide variety of artistic trends. From 10 to 14 June, the renovated Conservatoire venues will host musical ensembles and soloists, established and up-and-coming alike, both from Greece and around the world, visual and sound installations and performances, as well as open call workshops.

The Subset Festival includes commissions to contemporary Greek ensembles and artists (Andys Skordis, Nefeli Stamatogiannopoulou, Evi Nakou,Vassoula Delli, George Kokkinaris, Thanos Polymeneas, MIZI, Alexandros Drymonitis, Magda Lampropoulou, Dimitra Kousteridou, Giorgos Poulios) who create seven new works-installations especially for the Festival. Other participants comprise renowned contemporary music ensembles and artists from Greece (Jannis Anastasakis and Natalia Manda) and abroad (Arve Henriksen, Raed Yassin, Laurel Halo, Klara Lewis, Nik Colk Void, Pedro Maia, Ben Frost, as well as SolistensembleKaleidoskop for the world premiere of Maya Dunietz’s new work). The highlight of the Festival –which is becoming a valuable locus of artistic dialogue for the international music community– will be the screening of Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus directed by the Japanese-American filmmaker Neo Sora who recorded the final solo piano performance of its namesake composer and musician prior to his death.

Programme

10 June

AMPHITHEATRE 20:30

KLARA LEWIS & NIK COLK VOID                                       GREEK DEBUT

Live visuals PEDRO MAIA 

Klara Lewis and Nik Colk Void have presented their work at numerous international festivals and venues, including the Semibreve Festival (Portugal), Dark MoFo (Tasmania), the Ultima Festival at Henie Onstad Art Centre (Oslo), the L.E.V. Festival (Gijon), the Conflux Festival (Rotterdam), the Donau Festival (Austria), and the Sonar Festival (Barcelona). In this collaboration, Lewis and Void’s unique approaches meet in a playful collage of Pop and Noise with guitars, synths, Eurorack modular systems, voice, sampling, and outboard processing intertwining their own distinct versions of tender techno and brutal ambient.This live presentation is accompanied by the Pedro Maia’s live visuals.

ARVE HENRIKSEN & JANNIS ANASTASAKIS

Live visuals NATALIA MANTA

The acclaimed Norwegian trumpeter and composer Arve Henriksen (trumpet, vocals, electronics) meets the innovative performer Jannis Anastasakis (electric guitar, analogue synthesizer, musical saw, live-electronics).

The two have collaborated on stage before in 2014 (six d.o.g.s) and 2018 (Anglican Church). They are currently working on their first album together, which will be completed in 2024. Their concert will be visually curated by the much-admired sculptor and visual artist Natalia Manta with live analogue and digital visuals.

ARTS LOUNGE 22:00

RAED YASSIN

Phantom Orchestra

The Phantom Orchestra by the Lebanese artist Raed Yassin, distinguished in both visual arts and music, is a collective project that captures and archives a special musical moment in recent history: the solitarily developed sounds of experimental improvisers in isolation due to the not long past pandemic restrictions. The ‘outturns’ are performed, recorded, pressed onto vinyl records, and then played simultaneously, as if by some sort of a turntable orchestra –the disassociated sounds are heard together and rejoin. A project imitating the present; after having emerged from isolation, we are learning how to coexist anew.

11 June

AMPHITHEATRE 20:30

ANDYS SKORDIS

«β»                                                                                    COMMISSIONED

«β», a commission by Subset to Cypriot contemporary music composer Andys Skordis, is a multidisciplinary performance by four musicians, a conductor, electronics, and a VJ in live creation. The music is arranged as a cycle of seven pieces –the four longer ones being separated with short electronic pieces/interludes. The work is defined by the music, lights, text, and moving images as a ritual that unfolds in three stages: preparation – event – catharsis.

In the live video performance, the composer collaborates with Elia Kalogianni who creates the work’s visual context.

NEW STAGE 22:00

ON OFF ENSEMBLE – NEFELISTAMATOGIANNOPOULOU

Iso – thebird. Opus II                                                         COMMISSIONED

Revisiting earlier work, the composer Nefeli Stamatogiannopoulou presents, especially for Subset, Iso – thebird. Opus II, a musical experiment that recreates real-life conditions, is written for eight speakers, recorded material, visuals, flute, birbynė, percussion, Rhodes piano, vocals, viola, double bass, and a conductor. In this musical and stagecomposition, starring Iso, a bird that lived in a cage, the artist takes the relationship between sound composition, movement, and dramaturgy of sound further to a singularly ambient and cinematic approach.

Music –Stagecomposition –ConceptNefeli Stamatogiannopoulou• Poster &VisualsPeriklis Agianozoglou• Live Sound Material Manipulation Philippos Theocharidis• Costume Design Margarita Dosoula•Outside Eye Angelos Mastrantonis•On stage Eirini Sgouridouflute (night / day), Rafal Habelbirbynė(noise / silence), Justine Goussot Rhodes piano(future / past), Haris Pazaroulasdouble bass (darkness / light), Iakovos Pavlopoulospercussion (Time: the Bell), Nefeli Stamatogiannopoulou (Conducting)

GIORGOS POULIOS

trespassing                                                                        COMMISSIONED

Giorgos Poulios has written music for dozens of theatrical and dance theatre performances of artists such as Euripides Laskaridis, Dimitris Papaioannou, Christos Papadopoulos, Roula Pateraki, Katerina Evangelatos, and Dimitris Karantzas, while his musical oeuvre is presented in concerts, theatres, and festivals around the globe since 2004.

Inspired by his collaborations in both Theatre and Dance, the self-taught composer and musician showcases a solo concert-performance as part of the Subset Festival’s programme. On stage, between a sewing machine and a steam press, he attempts to retrace his primary musical references, conveying the beauty in combining disparate elements.

12 June

AMPHITHEATRE 20:30

SOLISTENENSEMBLE KALEIDOSCOPE & MAYA DUNIETZ

Sound of Difference                            GREEK DEBUT / WORLD PREMIERE

Founded in 2006 in Berlin, SolistenensembleKaleidoskophas since been dedicated to developing new forms of experimental music theatre. With an open mindset, the ensemble creates new formats of collaboration with international artists from other music genres and scenes.

They will be performing composer Maya Dunietz’s work which brings to the fore a throbbing musical universe where ghost notes make their appearance. Slow gestures. Long structures. Waves of pitches sliding up and down in a constant dance and an infinite search for equilibrium.

NEW STAGE 22:00

ALEXANDROS DRYMONITISfeat. ARTEFACTS ENSEMBLE

Techno unplugged                                                   COMMISSIONED

A performance of live acoustic techno, code, and artificial intelligence. Programmer Alexandros Drymonitis writes live music scores through code writing and invites the ARTéfacts ensemble musicians to play techno with acoustic instruments! He interacts with an AI model, prompting it to compose, producing techno musical phrases, while the AI controls the lighting, creating an ambience that matches the music being developed. The live code and the overall musical score are projected onto a screen while the audience navigates around the musicians, and even gets to dance!

Alexandros Drymonitislive coding •Dimitris Tigkaselectric double bass • Kostas Seremetispercussion • Guido De Flaviissaxophone• Spyros TzekosBass clarinet

13 June

AMPHITHEATRE 20:30

EVI NAKOU & VASSULA DELLI

We habitually maintain

We habitually maintain is a work about the automated ways that link architecture, sound, and the labour of maintenance in basement spaces and the human bodies. Field recordings of machinery, live and processed sound, and non-verbal sounds produce a score performed by musicians Evi Nakou and Vassula Delli: a sonic and textual composition about the unseen and unheard machine and human labour that ‘maintain’ us so that we keep on going about our lives.

Concept Evi Nakou •Composition, performance Evi Nakou, Vassula Delli •Sound consultant / collaborator Aris Ntelitheos

LAUREL HALO with LEILA BORDREUIL

Atlas

American composer and pianist Laurel Halo is based in Los Angeles. Her first album Quarantine, released on Hyperdub in 2012, was announced album of the year by ‘The Wire’. At the Subset Festival,alongside Leila Bordreuil on cello, she will be performing Atlas, her new album with which she has been touring the world’s biggest festivals andconcert halls since late 2023.

NEW STAGE 22:00

MAGDA LAMPROPOULOU – DIMITRA KOUSTERIDOU

Twist                                                                                  COMMISSIONED

Twist is a performance that combines the analogue sound of sculptural constructions by Magda Lampropoulou with DIY electronic circuits and live-electronics techniques by Dimitra Kousteridou. Small manual and mechanical sculptures-constructions of objects and shapes with a feminine accent are twisting and turning in a synchronised dance. Light exercises in balancing between the fragile nature of materials, such as glass, ceramics, paper, fabric, and the tenuous dynamics of their sounds.

Combining electroacoustic processes in real time, Dimitra Kousteridou gives a live performance where the unpredictable acoustic events and the gestures involved in the making of the installation are amplified by expanded timbre, time, and splicing techniques in drone layers of sound.

Twist in situ sound installation

The performance is accompanied by an in-situ sound installation, especially designed for the Subset Festival by Magda Lampropoulou, open to the public from 10 to 14 June at the Arts Lounge. Participants navigate among floating ever-changing in shape and sound sculptures, which they can freely touch and are thus led to discovering diverse qualities of sounds emanating from physical contact with the outer shell of metal and paper surfaces and their unseen inner elements as well.

KOKKINARIS – MIZI – POLYMENEAS

MAZA                                                                                COMMISSIONED

George Kokkinaris, MIZI, and Thanos Polymeneas present MAZA. A specially designed and curated sonic experience for Subset and the New Stage at the Athens Conservatoire. The concert venue will be immersed in a dense sonic atmosphere featuring two amplified double basses, a custom feedback double bass, a digital system of 256 pure tones, and a halldorophone, all diffused through an 8-channel speaker arrangement.

The strong amplification of the acoustic instruments will provide a hyperrealistic sonic experience, allowing the listener to hear every single microsound produced by the strings, fretboard, bow, and body of the instrument.

Based on just-intonation tuning, the combination of the double basses’ sonorities and the pure tones produces an otherworldly soundscape. Utilising event and graphic scores alongside improvisational elements, the ensemble explores the boundaries of audibility, psychoacoustic phenomena, microtonal harmonies, and complex spectral masses.

The three artists invite the audience to immerse themselves in the sonic environment, experiencing phantom tones, sonic continuums, fluctuating harmonic formations, microsounds at the threshold of audibility, and the spatial patterns of all these sound structures within the space of the New Stage.

Giorgos Kokkinarisdouble bass, feedback double bass •MIZI (Giorgos Mizithras) electronics•Thanos Polymeneas-Liontirisdouble bass, halldorophone

14 June

AMPHITHEATRE, 20:30

FILM SCREENING

Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus by Neo Sora

On the last day of this year’s edition, the Subset Festival honours the great Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, who passed away a year ago, by screening Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus directed by the Japanese-American filmmaker Neo Sora. Sakamoto mustered all of his energy to leave the world with one final performance: a concert film, featuring just him and his piano. Curated by Sakamoto himself and presented in his chosen order, the twenty pieces performed in the film wordlessly narrate his life through his music.

ARTS LOUNGE, 22:30

BEN FROST feat. GREG KUBACKI & TARIK BARRI

Ben Frost is a musician and composer whose renowned work traverses minimal, experimental, industrial, and noise. Frost has continuously pushed the sonic limits in his live performances, studio albums, and prolific soundtrack work. After working with lauded artists such as Björk, Tim Hecker, Colin Stetson, and Swans, Frost brings to the Subset Festival a new collaboration with Greg Kubacki –guitarist of mathcore band Car Bomb– and Dutch audiovisual artist Tarik Barri.

Together, Frost and Kubacki made Scope Neglect (2023), an album where Frost’s reliable mastery of texture and tone is offset in moments by the visceral power chords of Kubacki’s guitar. Sometimes brashly metal and sometimes wistfully ambient, Scope Neglect is always trailblazing somewhere unexpected, grounded by the sonic fortitude of its collaborators. They promise to bring an all-encompassing wall of sound to audiences at the Subset Festival, accompanied by Barri’s awe-inspiring visuals.

ARTS LOUNGE, 23:30

CLOSING PARTY

OTHER VENUES

1 & 2 June

Hellenic Cosmos Cultural Centre

Indie Playground Festival

The Indie Playground Festival, organised last year by the Athens Epidaurus Festival in collaboration with the Hellenic Cosmos Cultural Centre and United We Fly for the first time, returns this year at the industrial space Playground 260. For two nights, the open-air space behind Peiraios 260 is transformed into a stage and invites us to discover the new blood of contemporary independent Greek music.

The line-up includes well-known and up-and-coming names of the Greek indie and alternative music scene: Larry Gus, Puta Volcano, AMKA, Whereswilder, Prompt, KoobaTercu, Metaman, Vassilina.

Co-funded by Greece and the European Union

Line-up

1 June Whereswilder – AMKA – Kooba Tercu – Puta Volcano

2 June Prompt – Metaman – Vassilina – Larry Gus

Whereswilder

Whereswilder (Giannis Rallis: vocals/electric guitar, Alekos Voulgarakis: electric guitar, Vassilis Nissopoulos: vocals/bass, Manolis Giannikios: drums) is a band from Athens, which kicked off in 2014 with the psychedelic album Yearling. The album was recognized by critics as one of the first efforts in neo-psychedelic rock in Europe. Their follow-up album Hotshot (2016) maintained a similar approach using influences from 1970s classic rock, while their latest album Movement in Place is mostly influenced by pop music genres of the 1970s, such as soft rock, soul and funk. Currently they are working on their next musical venture.

AMKA

AMKA consist of 4 musicians who have been performing all over Europe for 20 years. They meet up at the Dudu Loft studio in Athens creating a unique dance sound, on the border of punk, kraut, noise, disco, jazz, and pop. AMKA’s two founding members, Dimitris Koulentianos (bass) and Dimitris Kalamaras (guitar), first met at the Prins Claus Conservatoire in the Netherlands. On their return to Athens, they joined improviser Chris Scott (vocals, guitar), as well as many talented drummers who gave shape to their sound, which culminated in their second album On Patrol (Pestus Studio Records, 2023). This year they are gearing up for their first European tour, with Jason Wastor on drums.

Kooba Tercu

Kooba Tercu is an Athenian ensemble of six musicians who play loud, noisy, dancy, and exotic futuristic psychedelia. Their live shows are a game of play between compositions and improvisation. They have shared the stage with artists such as Acid Mothers Temple, Circle, Goat, Follakzoid, and more. Their latest album Proto Tekno (Rocket Recordings, 2020) was described as a powerful cyberpunk statement that has something to teach us about the confluence between the sublime and the ridiculous.

Puta Volcano

Known for their punchy sound and intense live performances, the Athenian heavy rockers Puta Volcano were first formed in 2011 by siblings Alex (guitar) and Anna (vocals), who later on were joined by Steve Stefanidis (drums) and Bookies (bass, backing vocals). Their music is a mix of hard rock, stoner, and post-grunge, with an emphasis on intricate instrumentation and vocals. Their latest album titled Amma (2020) is a synthesis of dark and light, gloomy and hopeful elements that evolves their sound in a substantial way. They have toured Europe twice and performed alongside The Black Keys and The Black Angels.

Prompt

Prompt is an electronic audiovisual duo from Athens. Their sound, a fusion of pop forms, explosive rhythms, and ambient soundscapes, is algorithmically tied to interactive visual shows, pushing the boundaries of performance art. The duo has been on an experimental journey since 2022, creating unique experiences in their live-sets inviting the audience to immerse and interact.

ΜΕΤΑΜΑΝ

ΜΕΤΑΜΑΝ is Thomas Gounaropoulos’ personal music project. His debut album Irina was released and sold out in 2020. His second album Mataiosi was released in 2022. He has collaborated with a wide range of artists, both contemporary (such as Pan Pan, Phonoptikon, Vassilina, A.Epitheti, and others) and classics of the Greek music scene (such as Lena Platonos and Georges Pilali). With his –soon to be released– third album, METAMAN combines trip hop with the rave scene. His music features recitations in original Greek lyrics, as well as orchestral pieces. In his live performances he uses his entire collection of synthesizers and drum machines for a live electronics hardware experience.

VASSIŁINA

Originating from Greece and based between London and Athens, VASSIŁINA composes pieces that balance pop aesthetic elements with dark electronic influences. With references from avant-pop, as well as the British and French synth-pop and electro-pop scenes, in her live shows she delivers a punk melancholic soundscape. With intense vocal delays, eerie field-recordings and melancholic polyphonies, VASSIŁINA straddles the line between chaos and the dance scene. Her debut album Fragments (Inner Ear Records) was released in 2021, followed by concerts in Greece and the UK, and appearances in many Greek and international festivals. This year she will release her second album entitled Femmeland (Inner Ear Records).

Larry Gus

Panagiotis Melidis (b.1982) is a Greek musician, producer, and composer who has been writing music as Larry Gus since 2006. A computer engineer, holding an MSc in Sound and Music Computing by MTG in Barcelona, he has been releasing records for various labels since 2009. His work could be described as a constant struggle against coincidences, and in conjunction with his hyperactive and chaotically improvisational concerts he has found himself collaborating with choreographers, architects, scriptwriters and theatre and film directors. He lives and works in Athens.

11 June

Hellenic Cosmos Cultural Centre

MAZOHA

On Tuesday 11 June, Mazoha will take over Playground 260, as part of the Athens Epidaurus Festival, staging his own party with a rip-roaring line-up and unprecedented event actions.

PERFORMANCE

5 July – Sotiria Hospital

6 July – National Library of Greece

7 July –Keratsini Sea Food Market

MUNICIPAL THEATRE OF PIRAEUS –NIKOSDIAMANTIS

What We Owe Democracy

Three-day platform of actions in co-production with the Municipal Theatre of Piraeus

Ethics, justice, democracy, and the environment are always issues in the contemporary political landscape, shaken by distrust in the public sphere and disbeliefin the potential to represent the ‘I’ within the community. Furthermore, the new realities emerging concerning issues of gender identities, bioethics, and the environment make it imperative to redefine the ‘We’ and to encourage social participation and inclusion. Focusing on the triptych Health –Language –Food, the Municipal Theatre of Piraeus proposes a platform of creative collaboration between about 30 artists aspiring to raise awareness,mobilise citizens, and create synergies. This highly aspiring action engages four social foundations* that address distinct population groups (people on the autism spectrum, people with special skills, children, etc.). The programme will take place in three different landmark venues, each corresponding to its different aspects: the Sotiria Hospital (Health), the National Library of Greece (Language), and the KeratsiniSea Food Market (Food).

The artistic contributors of this ‘dramaturgy of the urgent’, as Nikos Diamantis, artistic director of the Piraeus Municipal Theatre, calls it, will be seven renowned literary authors and playwrights (Glykeria Basdeki, Christos Chryssopoulos, Elias Maglinis, Michalis Makropoulos, Sofia Nikolaidou, Nikitas Siniosoglou, Vivian Stergiou), twelve actors-performers, three visual art curators,and a director.Poets, dancers, visual artists, musicians, and philosophers will contribute to the events that will be produced in these special venues.

^* Piraeus Society for the Protection of Minors O kalos poimin, Hatzikyriakeio Foundation, Special Education WorkshopMargarita, Mental and Social Support OrganisationPyxida.

Direction –Dramaturgy Nikos Diamantis •Set Design – CostumesAssi Dimitrolopoulou•Music Nikos Vasileiou •SoundsMikes Glykas• Participating authorsElias Maglinis, Michalis Makropoulos, Glykeria Basdeki, Sofia Nikolaidou, Nikitas Siniossoglou, Vivian Stergiou, Christos Chryssopoulos,actresses and actorsPeris Michailidis, Mania Papadimitriou, Danai Papoutsi, Omiros Poulakis, Vagelis Rokos, Giannis Tsortekis,Evelina Arapidou,Andreas Kolisoglou, Aris Laskos, Konstantinos Mihos, Elina Papatheodorou, Christos Skourtas,visualartistsBabis Venetopoulos, Filippos Tsitsopoulos, Christina Mitrentse, Eleni Riga,opera singersNikos Spanatis, Danai Beri, Sophia Papadimitropoulou, the groups of Danae Theodoridou, Antonia Vasilakou, Anna Tsihli, Kyriaki Nasioula, Aria Boubaki, Marianna Panourgia, Antigoni Alikakou, Vassia Tsokopoulos, Nikos Kourmoulis, Maria Koulouri, Kostas Vombolos, Thodoris Gonis, et al.•Curationfor visual art exhibitions Dimitris Trikas (Sotiria Hospital), Nikos Paisios (National Library of Greece), Vassilis Zidianakis (Keratsini Sea Food Market) •Photos Stavros Hambakis•Communication Aris Asproulis• Co-production Athens Epidaurus Festival –PiraeusMunicipal Theatre

Co-funded by Greece and the European Union

PALLAS THEATRE

9 – 11 July

INTERNATIONAAL THEATER AMSTERDAM –SIMONSTONE

GREEK DEBUT

Medea

Based on Euripides

It is quite likely that no other Ancient Drama heroine has been as staggering as Medea. What if Medea were alive today? Inspired by the story of a Kansas doctor who killed her husband and two of their three children in the mid-1990s, distinguished Australian filmmaker Simon Stone offers a contemporary reading of the drama, featuring the acting ensemble of the InternationaalTheater Amsterdam, one of the strongest theatre companies in Europe. The core of the myth remains unchanged and is ‘kneaded’ againstthebackdrop of today’s middle-class America.

Having just been discharged from a psychiatric hospital after a difficult divorce, Anna hopes for a reconciliation with her husband Lucas, despite having previously tried to poison him. Their reunion is expected to be disastrous as their home turns into a battlefield.

A world-class artistic event, Simon Stone’s Medea has been performed on the world’s most important stages (London, New York, Amsterdam, Madrid, etc.) to rave reviews. It premiered in 2014 in the Netherlands, with Ivo van Hove’s company ToneelgroepAmsterdam(the predecessor of InternationaalTheater Amsterdam) and Marieke Heebink in the leading role (Theo d’Or award). Although Stone is familiar to the Greek audience as a writer, this is the first time we get to see a performance directed by him.

An avid reader of the classics and one of the world’s most sought-after playwrights, Simon Stone (b. 1984) approaches the plays he chooses using contemporary and everyday means. Starting from the dramatic characters and working with improvisation, he creates, together with the actors, a version of his own, bringing out the brilliance of the original anew. He has directed The Dig for Netflix, among others, and has worked with some of the biggest names in world cinema (Geoffrey Rush, RalphFiennes, etc.). His performances have been presented in the world’s major theatres, operas, and festivals. Most recently, Bohuslav Martinů’s opera The Greek Passion, which he directed, thrilled audiences at the Salzburg Festival and was awarded by Opera Magazine as the best performance of the year.

Written &directedby Simon Stone •Translation / Dramaturgy Peter Van KraaijTranslationVera Hoogstad•Set Design Bob Cousins •Lighting Design Bernie van Velzen•Sound Design Stefan Gregory •Costumes AnD’Huys• Cast Marieke Heebink, Alexander Elmecky, Bart Slegers, Eva Heijnen, Evgenia Brendes, Leon Voorberg, Mente Wijsman, Fedy Bakker

 

SERIES OF DISCUSSIONS

National Museum of Contemporary Art

Future Perfect?

Curatedby Dimitris Papanikolaou

The Athens Epidaurus Festival 2024 presents four roundtable discussions featuring artists who participate in the programme and speakers from across the spectrum of the humanities, the sciences and the arts. The series is curated by Dimitris Papanikolaou, Professor of Modern Greek and Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of Oxford.

In dialogue with central themes of the Festival’sprogramme, this year’s roundtables will focus on the world to come, and the unease it provokes; we will also debate how art, critical discourse and political activism stand against these “new times”, crafting new ways of historical inquiry, democratic citizenship and social mobilization.

If our time feels so liminal, it is today not so much due to the uncertainty or fear about the speed in which change is happening, but because all changes seem to be predetermined and our involvement minimal. Most importantly, what ‘will have happened’ in the coming years appears, more and more, as a string of images we have already seen. What is presented as a ‘perfect’ future, in other words, is also a future already determined, with the main tense in which policy is dictated at a global level being that of the future perfect. In this year’s Festival we want to discuss how contemporary artistic practice and critical discourse in the sciences, the humanities, in social movements and civil society, react to this image of a perfect/determined future. We want to explore the pervasive feeling of bafflement, weirdness and unease and rethink ways of critical intervention and participation.

The four meetings of this cycle follow themes explored in diverse ways in the productions of this year’s festival. We will turn our attention to the world of the digital age, big data, algorithmic realism, and artificial intelligence; to our relationship with history and the archive, and to novel ways of engaging with historical research and assuming historical agency; to the challenges posed, but also faced, by identity movements, to the ‘politics of the body’ and the way life and death are being managed from the level of the individual to that of populations and communities. Finally, we will revisit the old question of ‘how to live together’ in its basic aspects: our relationship with the environment and the planet, the making of community and the built environment, our respect for acts of citizenship, our need for solidarity, our resistance to racism, exclusion, and bigotry. These four meetings do not conceal our bewilderment about the future. They attempt though to rethink the future not as an already settled field, but as an open and agonistic arena, and to underline our need to devise new forms of intervention.

The four roundtables:

1. Common miracles. The poetics of artificial intelligence.
2. Body, community, identity. The politics of care.
3. Archive, history, agency. The grammar of democracy.
4. How to live together. The art of co-existence

ANCIENT THEATRE OF EPIDAURUS

 

5 & 6 July                                             WORLD PREMIERE

TIMOFEY KULYABIN

Iphigenia in Aulis by Euripides

After the masterful Three Sisters (2018), which will always be remembered for the complete rendition of Chekhov’s play in sign language, the internationally acclaimed director Timofey Kulyabin returns to the Athens Epidaurus Festival, which had introduced him to the Greek audience. Worldwide appreciated for his exceptional poetic perspective, the director will be opening this year’s performances at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus with the Festival’s international production of Iphigenia in Aulis by Euripides. Prominent Greek actors and actresses are to give flesh and bone to this stellar artistic project. Iphigenia in Aulis will have its world premiere at Epidaurus. Designed exclusively for the Argolic theatre, this long-awaited production ingeniously brings together a foreign director with Greek performers once again, further consolidating the Festival’s international and extrovert character that is consciously being pursued over the past years.

Translation Pantelis Boukalas• Director Timofey Kulyabin• Dramaturg Roman Dolzhansky• Set Design – Costume DesignOleg Golovko• Lighting DesignOskars Paulins• Sound Design – Composer Timofei Pastukhov• Assistant to the Dramaturg Io Voulgaraki• Assistant to the Director Panos Kougias • Assistant to the Set Designer Anna Zoulia• Assistant to the Costume Designer Margarita Tzannetou • Cast (in alphabetical order) AnthiEfstratiadouIphigenia, Maria NafpliotouClytemnestra, Nikolas Papagiannis Menelaus, Dimitris Papanikolaou Old servant, Nikos Psarras Agamemnon, Thanos TokakisAchilles • Chorus Vassilis Boutsikos,Christos Diamantoudis, Dimitris Georgiadis, Marios Kritikopoulos, Alexandros Piechowiak• Production Managers Ekaterina Yakimova, Irina Paradnaya / FLOW PRODUCTIONS• Executive Production BEE DRAMAQUEENS / Zoe Mouschi, Rena Andreadaki

12 & 13 July

NATIONAL THEATRE OF GREECE– THEODOROS TERZOPOULOS

Oresteia byAeschylus

Why does Oresteia continue to hold suchtremendous attraction? Perhaps this is because there seems to be an intrinsic need within the human being for a profound relationship with Myth. Oresteia’smythis dangerous; it belongs to the world of the uncanny and the strange; it brings terror because it reveals the unbowed, violent, and the untameable deepest laws. Clytemnestra invites us to break the mirror together, so that from its fragments a new nightmarish image may be born, but one that nevertheless retains the dark roots of the myth.Our intention is to study the depth of the myth of Oresteia and to search for the unexpected, the unusual, the paradoxical. The characters offer their bodies on the altar of the unbecoming, posing relentless questions and dilemmas.

The aesthetics of the performance derive from the dynamic relationship of the Body with Myth, Time, and Memory. We raise again the fundamental ontological question ‘what is it all about?’, a question that does not accept definitive answers, but constantly mobilises us towards an ever-deeper investigation of the root of sound, of the word, of the multiple aspects of the human enigma and the reconstruction of a new Myth.

Translated by Helene Varopoulou •Direction – Dramaturgy Theodoros Terzopoulos•Associate director Savvas Stroumpos • Set design – Costumes – Lighting Theodoros Terzopoulos•Original music composition Panayiotis Velianitis•Dramaturgy advisor Maria Sikitano•Dramaturg for the performance Irini Moudraki•Assistant to the Director Theodora Patiti•Set design associate Sokratis Papadopoulos • Costume design collaborator Panagiota Kokkorou•Lighting design collaborator Konstantinos Bethanis•Artistic collaborator Maria Vogiatzi •Cast (in alphabetical order)Evelyn Assouad(Cassandra), Niovi Charalambous (Electra), Nikos Dasis(Apollo),Tasos Dimas (Watchman/Athenian Citizen), Sophia Hill (Clytemnestra/The Ghost of Clytemnestra),Elli Ingliz(Nurse), Kostas Kontogeorgopoulos(Orestes), David Maltese(Aegisthus),Anna Marka Bonisel(Prophetess),Dinos Papageorgiou(Herald), Aglaia Pappa(Athena), Savvas Stroumpos(Agamemnon), Alexandros Tountas(Servant),Konstantinos Zografos (Pylades)•Chorus Babis Alefantis, Aspasia Batatoli, Nikos Dasis, Katerina Dimati, Natalia Georgosopoulou, Katerina Hill, Elli Ingliz, VasilinaKaterini, Thanos Maglaras, ElpinikiMarapidi, Anna Marka Bonisel, Lygeri Mitropoulou, RosyMonaki, Stavros Papadopoulos, Vangelis Papagiannopoulos, Michalis Psalidas, Myrto Rozaki, Yannis Sanidas, Pyrros Theofanopoulos, Alexandros Tountas, Konstantinos Zografos

19 & 20 July

NATIONAL THEATRE OF NORTHERN GREECE – GIANNISKAKLEAS

Plutus by Aristophanes

We are in 388 BC. The Peloponnesian War has ended with the Athenians left crashed and defeated, which marked the end of the Athenian hegemony. The honest Chremylus, a poor Athenian peasant, Aristophanes’ alter ego, is experiencing the new reality in a traumatic way: social values, ideas, and morals have fallen away.

The lack of resources and social justice, as well as the fear of impoverishment,terrify this romantic utopian, especially for his child’s future.He resorts to the Oracle of Delphi posing the agonising question ‘what can I do to ensure a secure future for my child?’. The oracle tells him to take care of the first helpless person he meets on his way. This is none other than the god Plutus, who generously gives away gold, money, and all material goods Chremylus and the whole society has dreamt of! They are all rich now! Their dream has come true. But deep down this dream turns out to be a test: in the absence of social cohesion and solidarity, self-awareness, and social conscience, how can the common good be served?

Almost 2,500 years later, the Aristophanicquestion remains relevant. Giannis Kakleas, who, in addition to directing,is also the translator of the National Theatre of Northern Greece’s production, notes: ‘Our poet, in his own, uniquely satirical manner, shows us a way of managing material goods, but always with the interests of the Polis in mind –a Polis with just, honest, and virtuous citizens. Is this utopian? Possibly. Aristophaneshowever reserves the right to dream!’

Manos Vakousis, recently awarded with the Karolos Koun Grand Prize for Theatre, will be portraying Chremylus. The cast is joined by Alexandra Palaiologou.The musical part of the performance will be joined by Xatzifrageta and Nalyssa Green.The Professor of History at the University of Athens Maria Efthymiou appears on stage in the parabasis.

Text translation/adaptation by Giannis Kakleas• Set designManolis Pantelidakis•Costumes Ilenia Douladiri•Music Vaios Prapas•ChoreographiesStefania Sotiropoulou •Lighting Stella Kaltsou•Assistant to the Director Aris Kakleas•Cast (in alphabetical order) Mary Andreou, ChrysiBachtsevani, Christina Bakastathi, Dimitris Diakosavvas, Anna Efthymiou, Thanos Feretzelis, Giannis Harisis, Maria Hatziioannidou, Faye Kokkinopoulou, Christos Kontogeorgis, Dimitris Morfakidis, Fabricio Muco, Clio-Danae Othoneou, Alexandra Palaiologou, Polyxeni Spyropoulou, Giannis Syrios, Fotini Timotheou, Giannis Tomazos, Christos Tsavos, Giannis Tseberlidis, Manos Vakousis, Alexandros Zouridakis•DancersNikolas Chatzivasileiadis, Marios Hatziantonis, Anastasia Kelesi, Stefania Sotiropoulou • Musician on stage Vaios Prapas•The musical part of the performance will be joined by Xatzifragetaand Nalyssa Green• The performance features Maria Efthymiou, Professor of History at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

26 & 27 July

COMÉDIE-FRANÇAISE – TIAGORODRIGUES –FRANCE / PORTUGAL

Not Hecuba

After the triumphant reception of Electra / Orestes directed by Ivo van Hove in 2019, the leading company of Comédie-Française comes back to Epidaurus, this time with the much talked about Portuguese director Tiago Rodrigues, the new director of the Avignon Festival.

In his first collaboration with Comédie-Française, Tiago Rodriguez takes on the story of Hecuba.Adjusting it in his ‘head-on’ idiom, he intertwines an ancient human being’s drama with that of a modern-day heroinealways on the same ageless canvas –in particular, a Trojan woman’s and a present-day actress and mother’s. Tiago Rodrigues is used to saying that his writing does not have to do with the theatre but the actresses and actors that make up the theatrical play. Here, an actress rehearses Euripides’Hecubaasshe holds the role of Priam’s widow. After the defeat of Troy,Hecuba has lost everything: her husband, her throne, her freedom, and, what’s most tragical, almost all her children – she is a woman seeking for justice.

The tragic myth nonetheless meets the actress’ real life in a gut-wrenching way. Her autistic teenage son suffers abuse in the hands of the staff at the institution he is committed and she trusted. Whereasthe parties responsible try to cover up the case, she goes public. The rehearsals are ambiguously interjected with the judicial investigation.

Within an idiosyncratic, borderline context, the two worlds are being juxtaposed in a harrowing and shattering concoction of myth and reality, theatre and justice.

The performance will be presented in Epidaurus immediately after its premiere in July at the Avignon Festival.

Written and directed byTiago Rodrigues • Translation into French Thomas Resendes • Set design Fernando Ribeiro • Costumes José António Tenente • Lighting Rui Monteiro • Original music and sound Pedro Costa • Artistic collaborator Sophie Bricaire • Cast Eric Génovèse, Denis Podalydès, Elsa Lepoivre, Loïc Corbery, Gaël Kamilindi, Elissa Alloula, Séphora Pondi • Production Comédie-Française • Co-production Festival

2 & 3 August

NATIONAL THEATRE OF GREECE–THANOSPAPAKONSTANTINOU

Bacchae byEuripides

Euripides composes the Bacchae at the dawn of both the fifth century BC and his own life. This is where he puts Dionysus, the founder of the genre, back on the stage. The god of theatre, otherness, dismemberment and fusion, bliss and destruction, sets up a play that Euripides intended to end with a dismembered body that no one collects.

If what becomes dismembered on stage is openness to otherness, does it mean that our prospect of opening up to the Other, our own and the world’s –through some kind of initiation, a collective act–, has been lost? Will our pieces never be connected again? Are we doomed, like Pentheus, to live sequestered in our well-fortified individuality, for otherwise we will be dismembered? Are there no longer any bridges that would unite us with one another, with the Other, with the otherness of our feelings, our ideas, our innermost thoughts, with the absurd within us, with the absurdity of the world? Only inside our skin is there safety. Whatever is either completely outside us, or completely inside us, will forever remain alien, untouchable, unspeakable, unknown, and for this reason will be met with violence. Is violence the only language we can understand? A violence shut, impenetrable, and absolute, a violence which cannot be susceptible to any kind of initiation that would unlock it, understand it, endure it. The barrage of internet images, natural disasters, bombings, mutilated bodies, and dead children in the media, soulless and dead selfies, uncontrolled streams of data, people, products –can we no longer tolerate spirituality, transcendence, upliftment, because the only god we can understand is the god of the Old Testament, the vengeful god, the punitive god? Is this the one we deserve?

Or is the dismembered body also a puzzle that can be filled in, a construct showing us its parts, a spectacle? And is it up to us, the audience, whether and how we should assemble it?

TranslationGiorgos Himonas•DirectedbyThanos Papakonstantinou•Dramaturgy Ioanna Remediaki•Setdesign-Costumes Niki Psychogiou•OriginalmusicDimitris Skyllas•ChoreographyNanti Gogoulou•Lighting designChristina Thanasoula•Musical coaching Melina Paionidou, Dimitris Skyllas • Dramaturg for the performance Eri Kyrgia • AssistanttotheDirectorFanis Sakellariou•AssistanttoSetDesignerYannisSetzas•2ndAssistant to Set DesignerZoeKelesi•Assistant to Costume Designer Penelope Hansen•Cast Konstadinos Avarikiotis(Dionysus), Marianna Dimitriou (Tiresias), Alexia Kaltsiki (Agave), Themis Panou (Cadmus), Argyris Pandazaras (Pentheus) • Messengers Giannis Koravos, DionysisPifeas, Fotis Stratigos • Chorus Margarita Alexiadi, Eirini Boudali, ChrissiannaKarameri, Eleni Koutsioumpa, Maria Konstanta, Kleopatra Markou, Eleni Moleski, Georgina Paleothodorou, Iokasti-Agave Papanikolaou, Thaleia Stamatelou, Danae Tikou, Stellina Vogiatzi • Musicians ThodorisVazakas, Maria Deli, Alexandros Ioannou

9 & 10 August

ARIS BINIARIS

Birds by Aristophanes

In Birds, Aristophanes tells the story of how two Athenians, Pisthetaerus and Euelpides, make the decision to leave the world of men in search of a city without pettiness and corruption, where one can live in peace and justice. Together with the Birds, they establish a state in the ether and build a wall between men and the gods.

The staging places the play in a pre-tragic environment, approaching it as a primal ritual. And as with any ritual, a troupe brings the myth to life experientially. The two protagonists ask, allegorically, to be ‘emptied’ of all other human qualities and ‘inhabited’, sometimes voluptuously and sometimes furiously, by the bestialdrive of the birds in a performance-concert. Backed by the explosiveness of music and movement, Aris Biniaris creates a contemporary satire, dragging us into an electrifying ‘chant’ that sheds blinding light on the critical issues of the city led at all times by the Aristophanic work.

Translated byTassos Roussos • Directed byAris Biniaris • Dramaturgy – AdaptationElena Triantafyllopoulou,Aris Biniaris • Set design – CostumesParis Mexis • Music compositionAlexandros Drakos Ktistakis • KinesiologyAlexandros Vardaxoglou• Lighting designVangelis Mountrichas • Assistant to the DirectorNefeli Papanastasopoulou • Cast (in alphabetical order) Evita Agaitsi, Giorgos Chrysostomou, Stelios Iakovidis, Thanasis Isidorou, Tasos Korkos, Kostas Koronaios, Sofia Koulera, AvgoustinosKoumoulos, Errikos Miliaris, Marios Panagiotou, Odysseas Papaspiliopoulos, Kyriakos Salis, Alexia Sapranidou, Konstantina Takalou, Eirini Tsellou, Michalis Valassoglou

Production Technichoros Theatrical Productions

23 & 24 August

GREEK ART THEATRE KAROLOS KOUN –NEOS KOSMOS THEATRE – MARIANNACALBARI

The Suppliants by Aeschylus

Sixty years after the play’s first staging at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, the Karolos Koun Art Theatre in collaboration with the Neos Kosmos Theatre presents Aeschylus’The Suppliants directed by Marianna Calbari: a poetic and deeply political play at the centre of the modern concern on the concept of asylum in a democratic society –especially when those who are persecuted are women. The play (the first and only surviving play from Aeschylus’Danaid Tetralogy) features a collective female character: the Chorus of the fifty Danaïdes who, together with their father Danaus, abandon Libya and Egypt and seek asylum in the city of Argos. Like their ancestress Io, whom Hera mercilessly persecuted by sending her a bothersomegadfly, the oestrus, to torment her. The Danaïdes now struggle to flee a forced marriage to the fifty sons of Aegyptus. The myth raises the issue of the female identity and place in society, while recounting the chronicle of the settlement and predominance of the Greeks in the land of the Pelasgians, the so-called pre-Greeks.

The Danaid Suppliants speak of the needs that lead people to uproot themselves from their land, the fierce fate of the refugee, the value of justice, the principles of democracy. Above all, they speak of the Woman’s struggle against the Man who seeks to force himself on her.

The performance redemptively unites the voices of the ancient heroines with those of today’s heroines, through an awe-inspiringChorus of fifty young women,composed of members of the CHÓRES female vocal ensemble, young actresses-students of the Art Theatre Drama School, and dancers-acrobats of the ‘Ki omOs kineitai’ group.

Translation by Ioannis Gryparis•Textediting and dramaturgy – Direction Marianna Calbari•Set design – CostumesChristina Calbari•Music composition KharálamposGoyós•Choreography Christina Souyoultzi•Lighting design Stella Kaltsou•Assistant to the Director Marilena Moschou •Assistantsto the Set and Costume designer Kyriaki Forti, Katerina Kyrtatou•Music teachersEirini Patsea, Simela Emmanouilidou •CHÓRES Production coordinationVeroniki Krikoni•Production management Marina Gavriilidou •Cast (in alphabetical order): Lydia Koniordou(Pelasgus), Loukia Michalopoulou (Amymone), Lena Papaligoura(Hypermnestra), Aris Sakellariou (Danaus), Giannis Tsortekis(Herald of Aegyptus) •Soloist Marina Satti •Koryphaia dancerChristina Souyoultzi•Koryphaies CHÓRES (in alphabetical order) Yota Dimitrakopoulou, Konstantina Giannopoulou, Fani Lykou, IonyMoschovakou, Daphne Pagoulatou, Eleni Pouliou, Elina Stamopoulou, Danae Stergiou, Nikolaia Triantafyllou, Eleni Vasilaki•KoryphaiesGreek Art Theatre Drama School (in alphabetical order) Nefeli Dodopoulou, Myrto Kapoli, Renia Kritikou, Anna Morogianni•Co-production Neos KosmosTheatre – KarolosKoun Greek Art Theatre (TheatroTechnis)

5 July – 24 August

PERIODIC EXHIBITION

ANCIENT THEATRE OF EPIDAURUS –EXHIBITIONHALL

Hippolytus – Phaedra

On the occasion of the 70thanniversary of the informal opening of the Epidaurus performances in 1954 with Euripides’Hippolytus directed by Dimitris Rontiris(National Theatre of Greece) with Alekos Alexandrakis in the title role, the Epidaurus exhibition hall, inaugurated in 2023 thanks to the valuable support of the Ministry of Culture, comes to life again this year with a temporary exhibition dedicated to the figures of Hippolytus and Phaedra. Open to the public throughout the performances at the Argolic theatre, the exhibition presents the iconic hero and heroine as we got to know them at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus during its 69 years of operation. According to the myth, Phaedra, wife of King Theseus, a pawn in the revenge plan of the goddess Aphrodite, falls in love with Hippolytus, son of her husband and the Amazon Hippolyta. Dedicated to the worship of the goddess Artemis, Hippolytus denies Phaedra’s love, with dire consequences.

Precious documents from the archives of the Athens Epidaurus Festival and of many other cultural organisations and theatre companies invite the visitor to a journey through costumes, masks, maquettes, scores, and audiovisual material in a modern exhibition environment. A fascinating retrospective of the productions and performances that captured the momentum of unrequited love in all its forms in the national landmark of Ancient Drama, from the 1950s to the present day.

Concept – Supervision Katerina Evangelatos• Academic advisor Panagiotis Michalopoulos• Research – Documentation Konstantina Nikolopoulou • Exhibition design and curation Thaleia Melissa

As part of the International Network of Ancient Drama

5 July – 24 August

“Little Trackers”

Children’s creative workshop in Epidaurus

The successful theatre education programme continues this year, familiarising children with the wonderful and mysterious world of ancient myths. Concurrently with grown-up audiences fully immersed in performances at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, children are creatively engaged, approaching the content of the play watched by the adults. A team of experienced theatre educators and facilitators of music/movement and aesthetic education are participating in the programme.

Fridays and Saturdays during the performancesat the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus

For children 5-12 years old

As part of the International Network of Ancient Drama

LITTLE THEATRE OF ANCIENT EPIDAURUS

PARODOS

17 – 23 June (Athens)

24 – 30 June (Little Theatre of Ancient Epidaurus)

Parodos, the interdisciplinary research programme (studio residency) launched in 2021, aims to aims to allow artists from a diverse artistic spectrum to advance, under ideal conditions, their research on the dramaturgy of Ancient Drama in situ.The research process has a practical character and is developed in two stages: the first stage (research) takes place in Athens and the second stage (application) at the Little Theatre of Ancient Epidaurus.

The overall coordination and guidance this year is entrusted to one of the most talented contemporary theatre-makers, the director Simos Kakalas, who will work with young artists on Euripides’ Orestes translated by Yannis Tsarouchis, using his unique methodological approach emphasizing on chorality. He will be accompanied by his co-director in movement curation, Sophia Paschou.

As part of the International Network of Ancient Drama

THEATRE – PREMIERE                                                      MONOLOGUES

CONTEMPORARY ANCIENTS CYCLE

 

5 & 6 July

NIKOS HATZOPOULOS

I, aservant by Vangelis Hatziyannidis

Inspired by Euripides’ Hecuba

EKATERINI PAPAGEORGIOU

Iphigenia / Prey by Vivian Stergiou

Inspired by Euripides’ Iphigenia in Aulis

As part of its successful Contemporary Ancients Cycle, this year, the Festival commissions the writing of two theatrical monologues inspired by Euripides’ tragedies to Vangelis Hatziyannidis and Vivian Stergiou. Distinguished both in the field of theatre and prose writing, they deliver works that are both exhilarating and taunting, conversing creatively with the Festival’s major productions at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus (Iphigenia in Aulis, Not Hecuba) and subverting the perspective of the tragic heroines with grace and humour. This modular stage production is directed by Nikos Hatzopoulos and Ekaterini Papageorgiou. The roles are performed by Filareti Komninou (I, the servant) and Eliza Skolidi (Iphigenia / Prey).

The theatrical monologues by Vangelis Hatziyannidis and Vivian Stergiou are published in bilingual editions as part of the Athens Epidaurus Festival theatre book series in collaboration with Nefeli Publishing.

I, a servant by Vangelis Hatziyannidis

A beloved author of the contemporary Greek theatre with important works to his credit (Disguise, Mud, La poupée, Wind, Screen Light, Your Intangible Self, Cake, Butterfly in Well, In Heaven), having just been awarded the State Prize for Short Story/Novella 2023, Vangelis Hatziyannidis writes a comic monologue based on Hecuba, starring not the Queen of Troy herself, but a trusted servant of hers. This anonymous Trojan has witnessed all the misfortunes of both Hecuba and her homeland, which now, after the war, is in ashes.

An entertaining and light-hearted text that demystifies the ultimate symbol of grief and despair, Hecuba, through the eyes of a person who lived close to her and perceived things that were never captured in the works of the great poets. The common human gaze, the small human measure, in contrast to the great myth. The path of the tragic Hecuba through an oblique, unexpected perspective.

Directed by Nikos Hatzopoulos • Set design – Costume Ioanna Tsami •Lighting design Alekos Anastasiou •Performed by Filareti Komninou•

Musical interlocutorJan Van Angelopoulos• Management – Executive Production Apparat Athen

Iphigenia / Prey by Vivian Stergiou

Author of the short story collections Liquid Blue(Menis Koumandareas Prize) and Skin, publishedby Polis Editions and adapted for the National Theatre of Greece’s Experimental Stage and the Onassis Foundation (Heatwave, 2024), Vivian Stergiou is inspired by Euripides’Iphigenia in Aulis, centring on the moment right before Iphigenia’s sacrifice, when she accepts her fate. ‘Since it’s Greece’s will and the girl is an obstacle, let her be slaughtered like an animal so the ships sail. It’s ok if I die, but first I shall be heard, she says, spitting out the words –her only weapon. And as long as she soliloquises, she exists in the here and now. Once she stops, she’s dead, in every sense of the way, in any realm. Everywhere and always, the oracle triumphs. Her sacrifice is comic, hardly tragic. She digs her own pit and enters it. Sacrificed for nothing,meat to be eaten.’

Directed by Ekaterini Papageorgiou• Set & Costume designMyrtoStampoulou• Music Diamantis Adamantidis • MovementChrysiisLiatziviri• Lighting designAlekos Anastasiou• Assistant to the directorAlexandros Varthis• 3D projection mapping designEnvitec• PhotographerElina Giounanli• Performed by Eliza Skolidi• Executive ProductionThe Young Quill / Fanis Milleounis

13 July

ALEXIA VOULGARIDOU – JANROELOF WOLTHUIS

Between Eros, Agape, and Thanatos

The internationally renowned soprano Alexia Voulgaridou and the Dutch composer and pianist Jan Roelof Wolthuis will be presenting four song cycles on the themes of love, joy, nature, and death.

The concert of the two distinguished musicians will feature compositions by Claude Debussy, Alban Berg and Otorino Respighi.

20 July

DIMITRIS KALANTZIS

Masters’ Voice: Manos Hadjidakis, Vassilis Tsitsanis

One of the most creative and highly acclaimed jazz musicians in Greece, with important collaborations in the Greek and international jazz scene, Dimitris Kalantzis weaves with ease among musical genres and is often inspired by the ‘classics’ of Greek music, withthree fascinating albums with jazz arrangements of works by Manos Hadjidakis, Mikis Theodorakis, Kostas Giannidis, Kostas Kapnisis, and others. In the concert at the Little Theatre of Ancient Epidaurus, apart from his excellent work on Hadjidakis, we will have the pleasure of hearing for the first time his own jazz ‘translation’ of songs by Vassilis Tsitsanis. An enchanting personal reading in a harmonious musical dialogue.

 

GREEK MUSIC

26 & 27 July

ELEONORA ZOUGANELI

On different paths

Eleonora Zouganeli, one of the most significant performers of the new generation, returns to the Festival, after her excellent concert – tribute to Melina Mercouri, which filled the Odeon of Herodes Atticus to capacity in 2014. With an acoustic mood and a band assembled especially for the performance in the stunningLittle Theatre of Epidaurus, the charismatic singer will this time wander through the paths of the Greek folk song, starting from Giorgos Mouzakis’‘Monopati’, giving new life to select folk, elafra and archontorebetikosongs, under the guidance of the excellent musician Thomas Konstantinou. An evening full of emotion and memories bridgingthe past with the present.

Performer Eleonora Zouganeli•Artistic directionLida Roumani, Eleonora Zouganeli•Music curation- Production Thomas Konstantinou •With a 6-member ensemble of musicians •Sound Yannis Lambropoulos –Antonis Paramythas•Lighting Maria Venetaki•Executive Production Pure Art Productions

 

Artistic Director

Katerina Evangelatos

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

President

Dimitris Passas

Vice President

Alexis Galinos

Members

Panagiotis Michalopoulos

Nadia Nikitea-Theocarakis

Ilias Papageorgiou

Evangelos Papoulias

Nikos Stambolidis

Director General

Ioannis Kaplanis

ARTISTIC ADVISORS

Stefanie Carp

International Theatre

Stavros Gasparatos

Contemporary Music

Mixed Media Projects

Costa Pilavachi

Music

Paraskevi Tektonidou

Dance