A house full of snakes and ghosts. Nevertheless, its inhabitants seem at ease; they welcome whoever knocks at their door, pleasantly, with courtesy. Maybe it’s because they feel a need to share their fears with a stranger; a constant, palpable sense of menace in the air never leaves them at peace.
Inspired by Sophocles’ The Trachiniae, one of the lesser-known ancient Greek dramas, Vangelis Hatziyiannidis’ play is an unexpected, extremely contemporary take on the myth. Director Eleni Skoti will bring this fresh perspective alive on the stage, employing her distinctly realistic style and a stellar cast of performers.
With Greek and English surtitles
New Greek works inspired by ancient drama and commissioned by the Athens and Epidaurus FestivalFour avant-garde Greek writers, Amanda Michalopoulou, Alexandra K*, Yannis Mavritsakis and Vavgelis Hatziyiannidis, have been commissioned by the Festival to author an original work, each in dialogue with an ancient Greek tragedy, namely Euripides’
Hippolytus,
Medea,
Bacchae and Sophocles’
Trachiniae respectively. Each of these original plays will be staged by an acclaimed director (Yannis Kalavrianos, Yannos Perlengas, Eleni Skoti and Giorgos Skevas) at the Little Theatre of Ancient Epidaurus.
In addition to the unique dynamics generated by each work and performance, this is a multifaceted artistic endeavour, with dramaturgical, performative, social and publishing aspects; an experiment aiming to re-ignite the process of making art from scratch. On the one hand, it fosters dialogue between playwriting and Ancient Drama, providing food for thought on the relationship between ancient myths and contemporary identity. On the other hand, in these extremely difficult times for theatre, this project motivates over thirty actors and several other theatre professionals (directors, set designers, musicians, dramaturgs, translators), a company’s worth of artists comprising a unique team in this year’s artistic programme.
With our eyes set to the future, and with a global outreach in mind, a bilingual edition of these four original works will be published in cooperation with Nefeli Publishing, as part of a newly launched theatre book series. An ambitious, highly promising publishing project that is central to the Festival’s initiative of supporting and promoting Greek theatre.
Due to the ongoing pandemic, all performance dates are subject to change Directed by Eleni Skoti
Set design Giorgos Chatzinikolaou
Costume design Giorgos Chatzinikolaou, Maria Anamaterou
Lighting design Antonis Panagiotopoulos
Music Stelios Giannoulakis
Choreography Monika Kolokotroni
Assistant to the director Maria Siamatra
Production manager Maria Anamaterou
Cast Alexia Kaltsiki (Diana), Rania Oikonomidou (First Woman of Trakhis), Arietta Moutousi (Second Woman of Trakhis), Maro Papadopoulou (Naya), Michail Tampakakis (Illos), Iro Pektesi (Ioli), Alexandros Manolidis (Watchman)
