KING LEAR
by William Shakespeare

King Lear

by William Shakespeare

Director: Yannis Houvardas

Main Stage/Ziller Building

First performance: 16 December 2023

Shakespeare's tragedy King Lear comes to the Main Stage of the National Theatre of Greece, with Yannis Houvardas introducing us to a world in which power means everything and challenging it leads nowhere.

The play charts Lear's journey into darkness, inner desolation and madness, following his decision to abdicate and divide his kingdom between his three daughters. The tragedy that unfolds will leave none of the protagonists unscathed.

Written in 1608, Shakespeare's bleakest work deals with the question of power, the decline that comes with its loss, and the complexities of family relationships. Assisted by a multi-layered set design that extends into the bowels of the Ziller Building and embraces the art of cinema with extensive use of live video, the director plunges us into the mind of Lear: a man who has casually surrendered his authority, a child who seeks in vain to be reunited with his mother, and a stiff-necked patriarch who upholds a rigid code not unlike that of a criminal organisation.

Taking the translation of Dionysis Kapsalis as his starting point, and with a band of three musicians and a large company of established and younger actors, Yannis Houvardas offers his own reading of King Lear in a production in which the audience, just like the main characters of the tragedy, will take part in a grim mind game, and in which the boundaries between theatrical experience and cinematic illusion are as blurred as the line that separates reason from madness in the phrases uttered by the deposed king's Fool. The role of Lear is played by Giannis Dalianis.

Production team
Translation: Dionysis Kapsalis
Αdaptation, adaptation in translation, direction: Yannis Houvardas
Associate in dramaturgy/Production dramaturg: Erie Kyrgia
Set design: Eva Manidaki
Costume design: Ioanna Tsami
Music: Gary Salomon
Movement: Markella Manoliadi
Video: Pantelis Makkas
Lighting design: Eliza Alexandropoulou
Fight choreography: Kris Radanov
Directing assistants: Iliana Antoniadou, Despina Lardi, Amalia Tsekoura, Nina Frantzeskaki
Set design assistant: Katerina Vlahbey
Lighting design assistant: Marietta Pavlaki
Costume design assistant: Alexandra Delitheou
Second costume design assistant: Vasiliki Sourri
Hair design: Konstantinos Koliousis
Makeup design: Stella Mpoula

Cast (in alphabetical order):
Michalis Afolayan, Giannis Dalianis, Pantelis Dentakis, Anthi Efstratiadou, Nina Frantzeskaki, Giorgos Giannakakos, Alexia Kaltsiki, Ioanna Kolliopoulou, Errikos Litsis, Kostas Loules, Giorgos Papageorgiou, Kris Radanov, Konstantinos Siozos, Alekos Sissovitis, Christos Sougaris, Minos Theocharis, Giorgos Triantafyllidis, Amalia Tsekoura, Haris Tsitsakis, Argyris Xafis

On-stage musicians: Nikos Liaskos, Vangelis Paraskevaidis, Gary Salomon
Camera: Dimitris Papadopoulos, Sibylle Meder Kindler

Photographs: Karol Jarek
Video and photography concept: Pantelis Makkas

DURATION
180' with intermission

The production is not recommended for under-16s

PRODUCTION SPONSOR