The staged adaptation of the short-story collection My Husband will be presented on Friday, 27 March, as part of WOW Athens 2026, marking the opening of the festival and creating a space for collective reflection on gender, relationships, and contemporary female identity. Following the staged reading, the festival's first keynote talk will take place, featuring Rumena Bužarovska-writer, translator, and Professor of American Literature at the University of Skopje.
In Bužarovska's stories, a sharp yet humorous universe of female narratives unfolds. Although the title suggests a focus on men, the stories centre primarily on women: wives, lovers, mothers, daughters, friends. They depict the human condition through the lens of patriarchy, while mapping-both with humour and with stark honesty-the dynamics of relationships within couples and families, set in a contemporary patriarchal Balkan society that closely resembles our own. They reveal both our illusion of female emancipation and the dead ends faced by men: both genders suffocate within the trap of traditional roles.
"I am not my father's, I am not my husband's, I want to be myself," proclaimed Greek feminists of the 1970s and 1980s. The narratives begin with the banal and the familiar, only to move toward an inner, almost archetypal terrain, where secrets, lies, and conflicts become an inseparable part of human coexistence. On stage, female bodies function as carriers of memory and experience, capturing not only failed marriages but also the contradictions of the societies that produce them.
After the staged reading, a talk with Rumena Bužarovska will follow.
Translation: Alexandra Ioannidou
Dramaturgy, Direction: Maria Manganari
Music: Thodoris Oikonomou
Set Design: Maria Manganari, Pavlos Thanopoulos
Costumes: Pavlos Thanopoulos
Lighting: Maria Gozadinou
Movement: Cecile Mikroutsikou
Assistant Director: Paola Kalliga
Assistant Set Designer: Katerina Arianoutsou
Costume Construction: Fani Tsiami, Dora Tembeli
Production: Protses
Photography: Maria Toultsa
Graphic Design: Thodoris Paraskevopoulos
Cast: Maria Skoula, Amalia Kavali, Maria Manganari
This event is not part of the WOW Festival Pass 2026.
SNFCC Lead Donor: Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF)
