INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF ANCIENT GREEK DRAMA
Various locations
July-August 2024
Tickets - https://www.soldoutticketbox.com/en/event/international-festival-of-ancient-greek-drama-2024
19 July - Orestes by Euripides - Paphos Ancient Odeon - 9pm - arrive by 8.15pm
21 July - Orestes by Euripides - Makarios III Amphitheatre - 9pm - arrive by 8.15pm
Romania’s Tony Bulandra Theatre presents the Euripidean tragedy, Orestes, directed by Yiannis Paraskevopoulos, a production focused on the core element of suspension, where the heroes are constantly between two circumstances, two situations, two decisions.
After murdering his mother Clytemnestra, Orestes fades away in bed, tormented by the Furies, with his sister Electra by his side. When their uncle Menelaus, returns to Argos from Troy, accompanied by Helen, they hope that he will intervene and persuade the City to overturn the death sentence that has been passed on his nephew. However, neither Menelaus nor their grandfather Tyndareus wish to help him. Orestes then turns to Pylades, who is willing to risk his life to help his friend. The two young men, accompanied by Electra, plan to revenge themselves against Menelaus by killing Helen and her daughter Hermione, a plan that throws them deeper into a vicious circle of blood and violence. Trapped in their own actions, they desperately try to save themselves. The solution is ultimately provided by the intervention of Apollo, performing the role of “deus ex machina”.
Euripides deals with the myth previously dramatised by Aeschylus in Eumenides, giving the myth a more human scale while raising questions about the relations of generations, genders, social cohesion and the survival of the young in a world defined by insecurity and uncertainty.
With Greek and English surtitles. Suitable for ages 12+. Duration 95 minutes
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26 July - Plutus by Aristophanaes - Curium Ancient Theatre - 9pm - please arrive by 8pm
27 July - Plutus by Aristophanaes - Curium Ancient Theatre - 9pm - please arrive by 8pm
Aristophanes’ comedy, Plutus, is presented by the National Theatre of Northern Greece (NTNG), directed by Giannis Kakleas. The NTNG’s production, featuring an excellent cast of actors and theatre professionals, presents in an imaginative way the comic poet’s satire on the human dream for wealth.The main character, Chremylus, is a bankrupt farmer who is at a loss to understand why, despite being an honest and pious citizen, he ended up losing all his possessions. Chremylus and his servant, Carion, nurse Plutus to health. Blinded by Zeus, Plutus cannot distinguish the just from the unjust, the honest from the vile. Thanks to the hospitality of Chremylus, Plutus finally regains his sight and justice is accordingly restored. Aristophanes’ comedy is a wink to the audience, indicating what he would consider fair in the ideal polity: every citizen should be rewarded as they deserve.
Almost 2,500 years later, the Aristophanic question on wealth distribution remains relevant with clear references to the present day. Giannis Kakleas, who, in addition to directing, also signs the translation in the new production of the NTNG, 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. Aristophanes however reserves the right to dream!”.
With English and Greek surtitles. Suitable for 12+. Duration 100 minutes
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2 August - Oresteia by Aeschylus - Curium Ancient Theatre - 9pm - please arrive by 8pm
3 August - Oresteia by Aeschylus - Curium Ancient Theatre - 9pm - please arrive by 8pm
The internationally acclaimed Greek director and teacher, Theodoros Terzopoulos, collaborates for the first time with the National Theatre of Greece and directs Aeschylus’ Oresteia, the only surviving trilogy of ancient drama and also the last surviving work of the tragic poet, in a single performance and with an excellent cast of 32 actors on stage.
Aeschylus draws his material from the myth of the House of Atreus and the terrible curse on the family, composing the trilogy Oresteia (Agamemnon, Choephori, Eumenides).
After ten years of war, the Palace of Mycenae is preparing to welcome its king, Agamemnon, the triumphant general of the Greeks. But his return from Troy also means his death at the hands of his wife, Clytemnestra, with the support of Aegisthus. In Choephori (The Libation Bearers), Orestes’ return will bring the revenge longed for by Electra. The Chorus rejoices at the redemption of the royal house and Orestes prepares to flee as a supplicant to Delphi to seek Apollo’s protection, pursued by the Furies. The Eumenides is based on the creative telling of Attic cult myths about Orestes’ flight to Athens and his trial by the gods of Olympus. Aeschylus’ plot is further enriched by the establishment of the Areios Pagos (Supreme Court) on Athena’s initiative and the court’s involvement in breaking the curse. Balance and reconciliation put an end to the cycle of blood and revenge.
Through his famous Method, the great theatre master, Theodoros Terzopoulos, presents another directorial proposal, aiming to “dig deep into the myth of Oresteia and search for the unpredictable, the unusual, and the paradoxical. The aesthetics of the production arise from the dynamic relationship of the Body with Myth, Time and Memory”.
With English and Greek surtitles. Suitable for 12+. Duration 200 minutes
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9 August - The Bacchae by Euripides - Curium Ancient Theatre - 9pm. - please arrive by 8pm
10 August - The Bacchae by Euripides - Curium Ancient Theatre - 9pm - please arrive by 8pm
Thanos Papakonstantinou directs the second summer production of the National Theatre of Greece, Euripides’ The Bacchae, with a remarkable cast of artists.
When the god Dionysus arrives in Thebes, King Pentheus refuses to acknowledge that his first cousin is a god and bans the new religion. His defiance excites the wrath of the god, who, in a tragic reversal of persecutor and persecuted, leads Pentheus to destruction at the hands of his own mother.
This Euripidean tragedy is marked by strict consistency of form and enormous inner strength, while simultaneously revealing the poet’s keen interest in mysticism and ecstasy. The tragedy’s central dramatic themes are the potentialities of the soul, human virtue, self-consciousness, prudence and delusion, the rational and the irrational, all of which emerge from the antithesis between man and God, the same antithesis from which the drama’s tragic conflict arises.
“Euripides writes the Bacchae at the end of the 5th century BC and his lifetime. There he brings back to the stage the god Dionysus, the founder of the genre. 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”.
With English and Greek surtitles. Suitable for ages 12+. Duration 120 minutes
