Athens Epidaurus Festival 2021 Programme

THEATRE
CONTEMPORARY ANCIENTS
New Greek plays
inspired by Ancient Drama
An Athens Epidaurus Festival
commission
Four avant-garde Greek writers, Vangelis Hatziyannidis,
Alexandra K*, Yannis Mavritsakis,
and Amanda Michalopoulou, have been commissioned
by the Festival to author an original
work, each in dialogue with an ancient Greek
tragedy: Sophocles’ The Trachiniae and Euripides’
Medea, The Bacchae and Hippolytus respectively.
These original plays will be staged by four
acclaimed directors, Eleni Skoti, Yannos Perlengas,
Giorgos Skevas, and Yannis Kalavrianos at
the Little Theatre of Ancient Epidaurus.
In addition to the unique dynamic generated
by each work and performance, this is a multifaceted
artistic endeavour, with dramaturgical,
performative, social, and publishing dimensions;
an experiment aiming to rekindle 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 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 on the future, and with a
global outreach in mind, a bilingual edition of
these four original plays 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.
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