INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF GREEK DRAMA
Locations- see below
9 July - 2 August - start 9pm, please be at the theatres by 8pm
Book your tickets - https://www.soldoutticketbox.com/en/event/international-festival-of-ancient-greek-drama-2025
https://www.greekdramafest.com/performances-2025/
THE BACCHAE by Euripides
Curium Theatre, Limassol
12 July - starts 9pm, please be there for 8pm [also 8 July Makarios III amphitheatre]
Daniele Salvo, one of the most authoritative Italian directors in the reinterpretation of Greek tragedies, returns to the Festival and directs Euripides’ The Bacchae with a select cast of Italian actors, produced by Dide Cultural Association – Amenanos Festival.
In The Bacchae, Euripides recounts the descent of Dionysus to the city of Thebes to impose the rites of his worship. King Pentheus refuses to recognise this new god and suffers Dionysus’ wrath. Driven mad by the god’s power, Pentheus dies a horrible death on the peaks of Mount Cithaeron, with his mother, Agave, having committed, while in a delirium, the terrible crime. Dionysus establishes his religion by announcing the terrible fate of the royal family.
The Bacchae can be summed up as a ritual of feelings, emotions, rage and unreason. It is the only extant tragedy featuring the god Dionysus as a character, mercilessly punishing all those resisting the force of nature and the transformative experience of divine intoxication.
A directorial perspective that delves into the savage world of Euripides, favouring a linear aesthetic that focuses on the text and the actor’s interpretation through a powerful exploration of ritual, instinct, and the fragile boundary between reason and chaos. The Italian production, in an immersive atmosphere, invites the audience to contemplate the emptiness in the modern world, listen to the echoes of lost gods, and seek catharsis.
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PHILOCTETES by Sophocles
Curium Theatre, Limassol
18 & 19 July - starts 9pm. Please be there by 8pm
Sophocles’ Philoctetes, the tragedy that masterfully deals with the victory of the collective over the individual, is presented by Christos Tripodis’ “Methexis” company, translated and directed by George Kimoulis, who also performs the title role, with Dimitris Gotsopoulos and Thodoris Katsafados also starring.
In Philoctetes, Sophocles brings to the stage an operation of deceit, orchestrated by Odysseus and undertaken by Neoptolemus, the young son of Achilles. The two men arrive in Lemnos, an unpopulated island at what appears to be the end of the World. It is there that ten years ago, the Greeks abandoned Philoctetes, who suffers from a wound that won’t heal. Their mission is to steal the famous bow that Heracles once gave Philoctetes, as, according to the oracle, it is impossible to conquer Troy without it. How can a man who was once abandoned, desolate and sick, be convinced that he must now help his former enemies?
The myth of Philoctetes is reflected in the present day. Two representatives of the old generation – one expelled from the world, committed to the concepts of Utopia and Desirability, the other fully attached to the world, committed to the concepts of Realism and Political Feasibility -attempt, each in his own way, to win over a representative of the younger generation. Who will win him over? The first or the second? Or maybe … neither?
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IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS by Euripides
Paphos Ancient Odeon, Paphos
25/26 July - starts 9pm, please be there for 8pm [also 29 July Makarios III Amphitheatre]
The Euripidean tragedy, Iphigenia in Tauris, a story of redemption and survival, illuminated by the strength of the sibling bond, is the Cypriot production of this year’s Festival, directed by Onisiforos Onisiforou and brought to the stage by a remarkable team of artists from Cyprus’s contemporary theatre scene.
Euripides continues to delve into the suffering of the House of Atreus. Iphigenia, daughter of Agamemnon, who was once destined to be sacrificed so the Greek fleet could sail to Troy, is miraculously saved by the goddess Artemis and transported to Tauris. There, she becomes the priestess of Artemis’s temple, where she is tasked with purifying foreigners who arrive in the barbaric and inhospitable land, to be ritually sacrificed. The once intended victim becomes the perpetrator.
The turning point comes with the arrival of Orestes and his faithful companion Pylades in Tauris. Orestes has been sent by Apollo, who, commanded him in an oracle to steal the sacred statue of Artemis and bring it to Athens, in order to free himself from the relentless torment of the Furies for the murder of his mother When Iphigenia is informed that the new captives are Argives, she decides to rescue one of them so he can deliver a letter to her homeland. Soon after, the siblings, Orestes and Iphigenia, recognise each other, and they devise a plan for their escape and salvation.
Euripides reflects in his characters the many facets of human fate, outlining a struggle for survival in a wild and unwelcoming land, a struggle that transcends the symbolic and archetypal realm, to embody the deeply human, tragic quest for a place in life and the world.
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ELECTRA by Sophocles
Curium Theatre, Limassol
1 & 2 August - starts 9pm, please be there for 8pm
Poreia Theatre returns to the Festival three years later with Sophocles’ Electra under the direction of Dimitris Tarlow, the Artistic Director, and an exceptional cast and artistic team, for a performance of artistic density.
In Electra Sophocles dramatizes one of the grimmest episodes of the myth of the House of Atreus: the revenge of Electra and Orestes for the murder of Agamemnon by Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. The central figure of the drama, Electra, keeps the memory of her father’s assassination alive by pleading with the gods to help punish his murderers. The return of her brother, the exiled Orestes, sets in motion the events that will culminate in the act of double murder.
In a world plagued by totalitarianism and social injustice, in an age where violence and revenge are often presented as a “necessary evil”, Sophocles’ Electra takes on a chilling relevance. This tragedy is not just a revenge narrative; it is a mirror of human dilemmas, of the timeless conflict between justice and morality. This production aims to highlight this complexity, inviting the audience to grapple with crucial questions: What does it mean “to restore justice”? What is the imperative of duty? Can one live with the consequences of violence? Is violence an inevitable solution? Will revenge close the cycle of bloodshed? Is redemption ever possible? And, finally, what is the role of resistance when all seems lost
