EVENTS

Katerina Evangelatos, artistic director of the Athens Epidaurus Festival, presented on Wednesday 19 February 2025 the programme of the theatrical performances that will be presented next summer at the Argolic theatre. In the next period, the other artistic activities of the festival will be announced, such as the full programme of the Athens Festival and the musical performances that will be given at the Little Theatre of Ancient Epidaurus in August.

International collaborations, support from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, contemporary readings on Sophocles’ monumental heroines, Antigone and Electra, a return to Homer’s roots and a repeat of Theodoros Terzopoulos’ “reading” of Aeschylus’ Oresteia, which is admittedly a milestone in the performance of the play at Epidaurus. 

The modern look that Katerina Evangelatos and her collaborators wish to bring to the Epidaurus Festival was underlined in her opening speech at the press conference: “Our mission is to connect the heritage of Ancient Drama with contemporary performance forms and dramaturgical quests, and not the museum representation of a speculation on what the form of these plays/performances once was. Our aim is to create theatrical events that engage the contemporary viewer and evolve their perspective – on the world and on art. Towards this end we are making targeted efforts and have undertaken strategic actions to enhance contemporary drama in dialogue with ancient texts. Texts that still resonate today and invite us to be bold in our reading of them.”

EPIDAURUS FESTIVAL-ANCIENT THETRE OF EPIDAURUS

27, 28 & 29 June

Athens Epidaurus Festival – National Theatre Greece 

Ulrich Rasche

Antigone

by Sophocles

The Festival will start earlier than any other year, with the famous German director teaming up with a group of Greek actors for a special interpretation of Sophocles’ play. Ulrich Rasche, in a taped message broadcast at the press conference said: “I have always dreamed of staging Sophocles’ Antigone at Epidaurus. It may sound a bit strange, but my choice had less to do with the character of Antigone itself than with the figure of King Creon. Antigone, as we know, is the heroine of the play. She resists the king’s authoritarian rule. She puts forward her own ideas of what should happen. Her strength and resistance to authority are admirable. But don’t we now live in a society where it is easy for everyone to play the hero or heroine, to speak and act according to their own standards? Do we not often forget that Creon’s mission as king is to defend the state and the laws? I think it is important to take a look at the king and his arguments, so aptly articulated by Sophocles in the tragedy.”

4 & 5 July

Poreia Theatre – Dimitris Tarlow

Electra

by Sophocles

The Poreia Theatre returns to Epidaurus, this time with its Artistic Director Dimitris Tarlow in his first production at the Argolic theatre with the Sophoclean version of  Electra. In the leading role, Loukia Michalopoulou.

In a world plagued by totalitarianism and social injustice and an era where violence and revenge are often portrayed as “necessary evil,” Sophocles’ Electra takes on an eerie relevance. Far from being merely a tale of vengeance, this tragedy becomes a mirror that reflects humanity’s moral dilemmas and, foremost, the eternal conflict between justice and ethics.

Dimitris Tarlow-Poreia Theatre

11 & 12 July

National Theatre of Northern Greece – Cyprus Theatre Organisation Michael Marmarinos

ζ – η – θ

The guest

A return to the sources: a visit to three Odyssey rhapsodies

In the afterglow of two performances that were destined to linger in memory, NEKYIA—presented with the Japanese theatre troupe NOH in 2015—and Sophocles’ Trackers in 2021, Michail Marmarinos revisits the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus with another riveting dramaturgical proposal, this time in collaboration with the National Theatre of Northern Greece and the Cyprus Theatre Organisation. In this new work, he orchestrates a return to the sources through a journey to three rhapsodies of the Homeric epic, confirming once more that the boundless mystery of oral Storytelling (the cavernous mystery of Theatre itself) continues to thrillingly propel us “to where history still happens”.

Μιχαήλ Μαρμαρινός

19 July

Utopia – Theodoros Kourentzis 

Regula Mühlemann – Eve-Maud Hubeaux

Gustaf Mahler: Symphony No. 4 and Songs for dead children (Kindertotenlieder)

Each concert announcement by Teodor Currentzis stirs high expectations and waves of anticipation as the charismatic conductor’s performances guarantee profound artistic experiences for the audiences of music lovers worldwide. Indeed, those who filled the Odeon Herodes of Atticus in the summer of 2023 for Gustav Mahler’s Third Symphony, conducted by Teodor Currentzis and performed by Utopia, witnessed a concert that remains indelibly etched in their memory. After all, this is not the first time that the profuse musical personality of Currentzis has engaged with the emblematic Austrian composer and “fellow” conductor. However, this evening will involve something unprecedented.

In a unique concert at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, the award-winning Greek conductor will lead Utopia, the independent orchestra he founded in 2022, in Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, the Austrian composer’s most popular symphony. The song in the second movement will be sung by the outstanding Swiss soprano Regula Millemann, one of the top sopranos of her generation. Τέταρτη συμφωνία του Μάλερ, τη δημοφιλέστερη του Αυστριακού μουσουργού. Το τραγούδι του δ΄ μέρους θα ερμηνεύσει η εξαιρετική Ελβετή σοπράνο Ρέγκουλα Μίλεμαν, από τις κορυφαίες της γενιάς της.

In the second part of the evening, mezzo-soprano Ev-Mod Ibo will perform the heartbreaking Songs for Dead Children  (Kindertotenlieder ), the song cycle composed by Mahler (1901-1904) in the form of orchestral lieder, setting five poems by Friedrich Rikert.

Θεόδωρος Κουρεντζής

25 & 26 July

Athens Epidaurus Festival – Lykofos

Yannis Chouvardas 

The two Oedipuses

Celebrating 50 years of continuous professional presence in the theatre, Yannis Chouvardas translates, adapts and directs Sophocles’  Oedipus Rex  and  Oedipus at Colonus  in one performance as a single work. Under the guidance of the experienced Greek director, a group of distinguished actors and cast will tell, with live music, the thrilling story of Oedipus, starting from the end and going backwards to the beginning of the evil.

Yannis Chouvardas

1 & 2 August

Athens Epidaurus Festival – Théâtre national de la Colline 

Wajdi Mouawad 

The Oath of Europe

The Lebanese-Canadian writer, director and actor Wajdi Mouawad, artistic director of the Théâtre National de la Colline in recent years, is best known in Greece as the writer of the Oscar-nominated foreign-language film  Through the Flames (dir. Denis Villeneuve, 2010), based on his play  Incendies. This dark journey through civil war Lebanon, unfolding through a traumatic family history, has at its root a deep connection with ancient tragedy, which is Muawad’s main source of inspiration: the division at the heart of the family, the struggle between the sexes, uprooting, the pernicious legacy of the previous generation to the next, and the search for catharsis are themes that recur in his plays, most of them in dialogue with heroes of Ancient Drama. The performance will star  Juliette Binoche.

Ζυλιέτ Μπινός

8 & 9 August

Μaria Protopappa

Andromache

by Euripides

In an inversion of the heroic Iliad, Euripides in Andromache lays bare the arrogance of the Greeks and the illusion of their cultural superiority. The pre-war promises of a united and mighty nation are dispelled amid a landscape ripe with decay, ageing, fear, and envy. The burden of responsibility falls not only on the architects of destruction but also on those who placed their beliefs in them and played a part in the collapse of values through their complacency. It is the next generation that must pay the price.

Μaria Protopappa

RE-OCCURRENCE

22 & 23 Αugust

National Theatre Greece – Theodoros Terzopoulos

Oresteia

by Aeschylus

Aeschylus’ iconic trilogy, Oresteia, directed by Theodoros Terzopoulos—in the first collaboration of the internationally celebrated director and teacher with the National Theatre—stands as one of the most remarkable achievements in recent Greek theatre history. Following its triumphant tourat select locations, this landmark performance returns to the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus on August 22 & 23, drawing the curtain for this year’s Epidaurus cycle.

In the hands of Theodoros Terzopoulos, Oresteia becomes a performance of profound intellectual and philosophical depth that, through its astonishing energy, broadens the boundaries of art and, ultimately, recounts the history of humanity itself. Both a political gesture and a multidimensional spiritual experience, the play was enthusiastically embraced by the thousands of spectators who witnessed it, as well as by national and international media.

Theodoros Terzopoulos

EXHIBITION SPACE OF THE FESTIVAL

27 June– 23 August

Antigone. Rule and Disobedience

Periodical Exhibition

On the occasion of the world premiere of Antigone directed by Ulrich Rasche (co-production of the Athens Epidaurus Festival and the National Theatre), the exhibition space of the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus hosts a new temporary exhibition, entitled Antigone. Rule and Disobedience

Open to the public alongside the performances at the Argolic theatre, the exhibition traces the transformations of one of ancient drama’s most iconic works—a play that has profoundly shaped Western modern consciousness—through its multiple iterations over the seventy-year history of the Epidaurus Festival.

27 June– 23 August

“The Little Trackers”

Children’s creative workshop in Epidaurus

The successful theatrical education programme “Little Inventors” continues this year, bringing children closer to the wonderful and mysterious universe of ancient myths. While the adults watch the performance at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus uninhibited, the children are creatively engaged in approaching the content of the same play. A team of experienced theatre educators and teachers of music and aesthetic education participate in the programme.

STUDIO RESIDENCY 

15 – 28 June

Parodos

Parodos, the interdisciplinary research programme (studio residency), seeks to grant artists from a diverse artistic spectrum the opportunity to advanceunder ideal conditions their research on the dramaturgy of Ancient Drama in situ. The research process has a practical character and is developed in two stages: the first (research) takes place in Athens and the second (application) at the Little Theatre of Ancient Epidaurus. This year, director Dimitris Karantzas has been tasked with the general coordination and supervision of the programme.

4 & 5 July

Olia Lazaridou

A lonely Thebes

by Kyriakos Charitos

Inspired by Sophocles’  Antigone

Award-winning writer and screenwriter Kiriakos Charitos (recipient of the State Award for Children’s Literature 2023) forges a folk fable inspired by the myth of Antigone, directed by Olia Lazaridou. Eschewing the linearity of a work that the audience knows by heart, Thēbae Desertaemoves both forwards and backwards, possessing the form of a murmur and the shape of a song.

11 & 12 July

Christos Stergioglou – Alexandros Drakos Ktistakis

CRIES

The ΙCries  is a performance that, based on slavery, uprooting and migration throughout the centuries, explores the points of intersection and the organic affinity between poetry, Ancient Drama and its member,, music.Excerpts from ancient tragedies, lyrics from popular and modern Greek and world poetry and original texts are combined and integrated into an original musical work composed by Alexandros Drakos Ktistakis. The work is performed by the Alex Drakos Quartet, in an on-stage musical conversation with charismatic performers Christos Stergioglou, who directs the performance, and lyric singer George Iatrou.

Χρήστος Στέργιογλου

18 July

Hellenic Film Academy –Athens Epidaurus Festival

Electra 7 

A collective film inspired by  Sophocles’ Electra 

Part of the successful Contemporary Ancients cycle, which this year opens in the art of cinema, the film, written by Panagiotis Christopoulos, will consist of 7 chapters, each directed by a different director, male or female. Seven distinguished and distinguished filmmakers, with participations in film festivals in Greece and abroad, have been selected to represent the wide spectrum of contemporary Greek cinema and to contribute with their own perspective to this original cinematic relay. They are (in alphabetical order): Alexandros Voulgaris, Sophia Exarchou, Nerytan Zinziaria, Christina Ioakeimidi, Babis Makridis, Argyris Papadimitropoulos and Elina Psykou.

25 & 26 July

Giannis Skourletis—bijoux de kant

To the Right of the Creek

by Yannis Palavos

Inspired by Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus

War session 

by Aris Alexandris 

Inspired by Aristophanes’ Lysistrata

Γιάννης Παλαβός

The Contemporary Ancients Cycle presents two female monologues inspired by Ancient Drama, directed by Giannis Skourletis, and acquaints us with their creators—Greek authors Giannis Palavos and Aris Alexandris. Commissioned by the Festival, they both turn to the well of ancient myths for guidance and succeed in unearthing their contemporary dimensions through a pair of imaginative and thought-provoking plays.