Category: Performances

21:00

Book now

The Rustaveli Theatre, the largest and one of the oldest theatres of Georgia, presents a gripping and suspenseful adaptation of Sophocles’ tragedy Electra, directed by Robert Sturua, Artistic Director of Rustaveli Theatre and renowned stage director, Grigoris Karantinakis and Nikoloz Heine-Shvelidze.Robert Sturua’s visionary production promises a story that is as old as time and as shocking as today’s headlines. Electra, which represents the last and the most mature creative period of Sophocles, recounts the murder in the palace of Atreides, which reaches its peak with the matricide of Orestes. Focusing on the power of women trapped in a patriarchal system, on the complex family and gender dynamics relevant to today’s world, on the political activism dictating us to raise our voices tirelessly in the name of justice alongside with the sorrow, humor and political intrigues, the Georgian production manages to create a landscape of suspense and tension that propels the play to its inevitable conclusion. The passion and precision of the ancient writing is still in action during the show – a wonderful integrity.

With Greek and English surtitles

Grigoris Karantinakis and Nino Kantidze

Robert Sturua

Grigoris Karantinakis and Nikoloz Heine-Shvelidze

Mirian Shvelidze

Ia Sakandelidze

Kote Purtseladze

Rusudan Barbakadze

Music by Toru Takemitsu, Mark Isham, David Lang, Ólafur Arnalds and Rammstein are used in the performance

Cast:

Irakli Macharashvili

Davit Gotsiridze / Lasha Jukharashvili

Eka Molodinashvili

Lela Akhalaia / Tamta Inashvili

Nino Kasradze

Beso Zanguri

Gagi Svanidze

Chorus

Manana Abramishvili,Lela Akhalaia,Tamta Inashvili,Keti Svanidze,Keti Khitiri,Ana Amilakhvari

www.rustavelitheatre.ge

21:00

Book now

Fresh Target Theatre Ensemble participates at the Festival for the first time and presents one of Euripides’ most intriguing and enigmatic tragedies, Alcestis.
With Apollo’s assistance, Admetus, King of Pherae, has secured an unusual privilege: when his time comes to die, he will be spared, provided he can find someone to take his place in the Underworld. But who loves Admetus enough to give up their life for him? In the end, no one volunteers to die on his behalf except for his young wife, Alcestis, who bids farewell to life and embarks on a journey to the Underworld. Everyone in the palace mourns the loss of their devoted queen, who only one hero can bring back to life, by taking on Death and besting him.
Euripides’ oldest surviving play is characterized as a tragicomedy that rejects physical determinism and challenges deaths dominion, leaving many unanswered questions.

With English surtitles

Konstantinos Christomanos

Paris Erotokritou

Yiorgos Yiannou

Panagiotis Tofi

Vasiliki Anastasiou

Rea Olympiou

Vassilis Petinaris

Yiannis Christofides

Maria Masonou

Nedie Antoniades

Demetris Sotiriou

George M. Ioannou

Cast:

Niovi Charalambous

Andreas Papamichalopoulos

Spyros Stavrinides

Yiannis Karaoulis

Myrsini Christodoulou

Andreas Koutsoftas

Savvas Menoikou

Chorus

The Amalgamation Choir:Vasiliki Anastasiou, Myrto Aristidou, Demetra Hadjiyianni, Argyro Christodoulou, Anastasia Prokopi Taki, Maria Masonou

Alcestis is a play about the presence and absence of love. However, approaching a play from this aspect opens up a vast plain of exploration that is difficult to set boundaries to. Therefore, our approach focuses on love, seen through the lens of loss or the fear of loss, a loss with which love is indivisibly connected – possibly constituting the other side of the same coin. In this way the plain of theatrical exploration and discovery becomes more distinct, concise and widespread.
The play begins a few minutes before Alcestis’ death – specifically during her last moments – and ends with her “reattachment” to Ademtus. It is thus a play that begins with an impending death (separation) and ends with and impending “marriage” in the sense of reconnection.
I regard Alcestis to be a contemporary play which dissects, in detail, a couple’s relationship, posing questions that are constantly present in people, their relationships to others as well as their fragile nature. At the same time, it is a deeply human play, where the tragic co-exists with the comic, the lament with the celebration, the loss with the miracle.
Paris Erotokritou

Fresh Target Theatre is a multi-award-winning, not-for-profit theatre company whose goal it is to create innovative and, above all, vibrant and alive theatre by placing actors as well as their creative process at the forefront. The core concept which runs through all our productions is a commitment towards a dynamic exchange between actor, space and audience while addressing both the emotional and intellectual universe of each audience member through themes which focus and explore various socio-political aspects of contemporary life.
Fresh Target Theatre was founded in March 2008 by Paris Erotokritou, Yiannis Gavrielides and George Ioannou. Since then, the company has worked with actors and artists from Greece, Cyprus, the United Kingdom and Australia in both its national and international productions, having received dithyrambic reviews in the press and as evident by an ever-increasing audience.
Our international partnerships, along with various educational activities concerning the art and techniques of theatre, are yet another area Fresh Target Theatre is moving towards by annually presenting theatre companies and artists from abroad.
www.fresh-target.com

21:00

Book now

The National Theatre of Northern Greece presents Euripides’ tragedy, Orestes, in a new translation by the Greek poet Yorgos Blanas and directed by NTNG’s Artistic Director, Yannis Anastasakis.
After murdering his mother Clytemnestra, Orestes fades away in bed, tormented by the Furies, with his sister Electra by his side. When their uncle Menelaus, returns to Argos from Troy, accompanied by Helen, they hope that he will intervene and persuade the City to overturn the death sentence that has been passed on his nephew. However, neither Menelaus nor their grandfather Tyndareus wish to help him. Orestes then turns to Pylades, who is willing to risk his life to help his friend. The two young men, accompanied by Electra, plan to revenge themselves against Menelaus by killing Helen and her daughter Hermione, a plan that throws them deeper into a vicious circle of blood and violence. Trapped in their own actions, they desperately try to save themselves. The solution is ultimately provided by the intervention of Apollo, performing the role of “deus ex machina”.

With English surtitles

Yorgos Blanas

Yannis Anastasakis

Yannis Thavoris

Babis Papadopoulos

Nikos Voudouris

Alexis Tsiamoglou

Lefteris Pavlopoulos

Samson Fytros

Elina Eftaxia

Marleen Verschuuren

Cast:

Ioanna Kolliopoulou

Dafni Lamprogianni

Nikolas Maragkopoulos

Dimitris Morfakidis

Dimosthenis Papadopoulos

Marianna Pouregka

Kostas Santas

Christos Stergioglou

Christodoulos Stylianou

Christos Stylianou

Chrorus

Eleutheria Agkelitsa,Momo Vlachou,Stellina Vogiatzi,Anastasia Exintaveloni,Pavlina Zachra,Maria Konstanta,Christina Papatriantafillou,Maria Petevi,Elina Rizou,Evi Sarmi,Christina Christodoulou,Styliani Psaroudaki

Euripides wrote Orestes during an anti-heroic era and the context of his play reflects this state of mind.
Nowadays, we live in a period such as this  ̶  and I am not only referring to Europe or the recent years of economic crisis.
Orestes premiers in a world where our values are shaken and the need for survival brings to light our mortal nature. The characters become coarser, the souls agitated and our thoughts blur. How can you be calm and what can you hold on to, when your blood boils and you find the End is nigh as you bound towards it.
Through our performance, we will try to determine the citizen’s place in a tumultuous nation, but also the place of a nation that punishes itself by punishing its people.  And if there is something that sets us apart from Orestes’ Myth, it is that we all know that there is no “Deus ex machina”.
 Yannis Anastasakis

The National Theatre of Northern Greece (NTNG), which has been operating for 57 years, is currently the Greece’s largest theatrical and cultural organization. Comprised of 5 winter venues and 2 open-air theatres, and having organized national and international tours, it has been at the heart of Greek culture since 1961.
Every year, the NTNG puts on in-house productions and co-productions by other theatrical organizations, hosts national and international guest performances, and conducts tours, particularly during the summer months.
The NTNG’s Children’s and Youth Theatres stage high-quality performances for children and teenagers on an annual basis. The NTNG also offers educational programmes and workshops for primary and secondary school pupils. This year, the NTNG has launched performances for infants, as well as Workshops for disabled people and refugees.
The NTNG’s Drama School provides a complete course in drama and theatrical education and has been nurturing young actors since 1973.
As part of its educational policy, the NTNG promotes new playwrights and organizes playwright competitions, day-long tributes, lectures, seminars and exhibitions.
As part of its social policy, the NTNG organizes free events for vulnerable social groups (such as prisons, rehabilitation centres, hospitals etc.), corresponding to the needs of social groups and citizens who do not have access to the theatre for various reasons.
As a member of the Union of Theatres of Europe (www.union-theatres-europe.eu), the NTNG has a strong international presence; it participates at international festivals and collaborates with theatres all over the world.
www.ntng.gr

21:00

Book now

Euripides’ Medea, a tragedy that combines moral complexity with overwhelming emotional impact, is presented by Spectrum Theatre, a Hungarian theatre company based in Transylvania, Romania. In this superb tragedy, which deals with the last act of the passionate affair between Jason and Medea, Jason decides to leave his wife in order to marry the daughter of Creon, king of Corinth. Medea takes the cruelest revenge: she kills their two children. With a minimal scenography, the director Viola Török focuses, through speech, on the inner world of the dramatic persons, highlighting their soul. The use of music, inspired by traditional Hungarian folk songs, aims to combine the old with the contemporary, the diachronic values of morality, justice and Medea’s fight for revenge in a deceiving, unfair and cruel world.

With Greek and English surtitles

Viola Török

Tímea Takács

László Kelemen

Zsuzsa Medve

Cast:

Emőke-Katinka Márton

Anna Szász

András Korpos

Sándor Tatai

György Kárp

“Backward flow streams of holy rivers and justice and all things are being turned back. For men’s counsels are deceitful, and the pledge taken in the gods’ name is no longer firmly fixed.”(Euripides)
The much-debated story of Medea is the all-time tragedy of the woman, who has no choice, but to fight for justice in the deceiving, unfair and harsh world. Medea’s loneliness is enhanced by her solitude, state of outlander, the rootlessness with which a person who flees her homeland has to deal with.The story of Medea is the tragedy of the woman who takes responsibility in raising her children, who – after being lovelorn and disappointed first in her partner, the love of her life –, is then disappointed in the worldly authorities and the carelessness of the people. She makes the heart-breaking choice to take the life of her sons rather than leaving them in the hands of the enemy, in this malignant and untruthful world.Medea is the tragic heroine who turns against not only with the authorities that try to diminish her, but within herself, with her own frets and fumes, her emotions, her destiny, with the divine impulses in order to better understand why her life turned out the way it did. She seeks justice and swears on revenge, but in her self-reference she recognises some divine approval, especially after she can regard the new opportunity as a gift, the promise of a fresh start in Athens.With this chance, Euripides allows the chance of the mysterious secret for Medea to disappear without a trace with her children who are believed to be dead – but whose bodies weren’t seen by anyone, not even their father. In the eyes of the world Medea remains the murderous monster – with the exception of some individuals, who can see further her actions and can relate to her battle of despair, and who can hope in the chance of a new life.Despite its ancient origin, Medea is a play that is just as relevant in our modern world today as ever. The version of the play showed by the Spectrum Theatre, has as its focus mainly on the inner world of each character – the ever-beautiful soul of each persona that appears on stage.To accentuate this focus, we used minimal scenography. Alongside with this concept the version of Medea directed by Viola Török is unique due to the musical parts that are inserted in the play. The music itself is specially composed and selected for this drama in question, having at its origin an inspiration from traditional Hungarian folk songs at its roots. The concept behind the music used in the drama has to do with marrying true values with seemingly old ones – on one hand Medea’s (seemingly) outdated values alongside with the seemingly old and forgotten local cultural heritage of the Transylvanian region. Just as Medea’s values, the music used in the play seems too “old-school” for the hip-chic modern world we live in today.The questions that might flood one’s mind by meeting Medea could result in a weigh-in about the trueness of such values as ethics, morality and justice – notions which (should not) have an expiration date.”Viola Török

The Spectrum Theater is a private Hungarian company in the heart of Transylvania, Romania which started its activities in 2014. The aim of the alternative theater initiative is to provide space for free artistic development and experimentation. Among its mission is to become a forum for showcasing current social problems, offering a broader point of view and perhaps some solutions.The company’s main goal is the entertainment and education of its audience, the reinterpretation and continuation of traditional values and culture. The theater’s repertoire policy serves this purpose, which results in a diverse range of plays from the great classics of dramatic literature – such as Euripides, Shakespeare, Molière, Chekhov, Gogol – to contemporary drama – like Chowaniec, Cooney, Betti, Vișniec – as well as classical and contemporary Hungarian plays and adaptations.In addition to performing its own productions, Spectrum Theater receives guest performers and companies – mainly from Transylvania and Hungary – in order to bring in foreign performances for the public of their home city, Tîrgu-Mureș. Among the professional connections of the company, Spectrum Theater is in a close partnership with the National Theater of Budapest, Hungary, due to which they are able to successfully welcome various studio performances of the company, several times.For the productions aside of the company’s actors, the Spectrum Theater also employs retired artists on a permanent basis, as well as students of the art of acting from the local University of Arts, aiding them to settle on the field of acting.
www.spectrumszinhaz.ro

21:00

Book now

The renowned Lithuanian director, Cezaris Graužinis, with an outstanding group of actors and artists, directs the first part of Aeschylus’ trilogy, Oresteia, Agamemnon and creates a performance about the origins and future of human violence. King Agamemnon returns to Argos, shortly after the end of the Trojan War. He triumphantly marches into the city and his palace, flaunting the Trojan princess and Apollo priestess Cassandra, as his spoils of war. Clytemnestra welcomes her husband, with effusive praise and honors, however it is quickly revealed that her enthusiasm conceals a well-orchestrated plan. She has decided to take revenge for the murder of their daughter, Iphigenia, sacrificed by Agamemnon to get the Greek ships afloat over ten years ago. The red carpet she rolls out for Agamemnon’s return foreshadows the impending bloodbath, when she and her accomplice/lover, Aegisthus, murder the king and his concubine.

With English surtitles

Yorgos Blanas

Cezaris Graužinis

Kenny MacLellan

Haris Pegiazis

Eddie Lame

Alekos Yiannaros

Sygklitiki Vlahaki

Anastasia Kavalari

Aliki Danezi Knutsen

Cast:

Maria Protopappa

Yannis Stankoglou

Argyris Pantazaras

Iovi Fragatou

Thodoris Katsafados

Chrorus

Markos Gettos, Dimitris Georgiadis, Tasos Theofilatos, Panagos Ioakim, Dimitris Karaviotis, Ilias Menagier, Dimitris Miliotis, Alexandros Moukanos, Alexandros Balamotis, Vasilis Papageorgiou, Klearchos Papageorgiou, Giorgos Papandreou

This story of Aeschylus expresses, with an astonishing power, the absurdity of human destiny.
Indeed, we will be eternally defeated in our battle with fear.
Indeed, we constantly built cities, and become prisoners of the jails we’ve created with our own hands.
Indeed, we wait for our saviours and when they finally arrive, we realise they deserve nothing but our pity. Indeed, what we call “justice”, will sooner or later lead us towards destruction /crime.
We are all guilty.
Punishment is inevitable. 
Happy is the one who has succeeded in getting rid of Hope and Expectation and has learned Patience.
The world of Agamemnon is gloomy. But do permit that our journey into his world be meaningful and exciting, since I believe that our guide – Poetry – knows the way towards joy.
Cezaris Graužinis

Cezaris Graužinis was born in Vilnius, Lithuania, in 1967, and studied acting and directing in Moscow, at the State Institute of Theater (GIATS). In 1993, he was trained in the Suzuki method by Tadashi Suzuki in Japan. Since 2003, he has been a founder and artistic director of the Vilnius independent theater group “cezario grupė”, which has been honoured with several state and other awards. He was the artistic director of the theater “Viirus” in Helsinki.
In 1994, he began to teach acting at the Academy of Theater and Music in Lithuania. He has worked as a visiting professor at the Malmö Theater Academy in Sweden and the Finnish Academy of Theater. He has taught acting in international seminars in Mexico, the Faroe Islands, Poland, Latvia and Romania.
He has directed more than 50 plays with the “cezario grupė” team, some of which are: Winter’s Tale, Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth by W. Skakespeare, Attempts on her Life by A.Crimp, Arabian night by R. Schimmelpfennig, Tree Sisters by A.Chekvoh, Woyzech  by G. Büchner, The second surprise of Love by Marivaux,  as well as his own works The Day of Lithuania, All or Nothing, Kisses, Oscar …, Esplendido Despues, that were presented at festivals around the world.
His first direction in Greece was Daphne and Chloe, Leisure Journey, at Poreia Theater, awarded with the 2007 “Karolos Koun Directing Award”. He then directed Waiting for Godot by S. Beckett for the Athens Festival, 2008.
He directed Zorba, the real story for the National Theater, 2009. In collaboration with the National Theater of Northern Greece he directed Déjà vu, nominated for the “Koun International Repertory Prize” 2010.
He wrote and directed the comic monologue De Sade. To Zustin, presented in Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras and Kaunas (Lithuania) during 2010-2015.
In the summer of 2012, he directed Oedipus Rex, a Municipal Theater of Volos, Epidaurus Festival and Arbitrition co-production, for which he won the Prize of the Theater and Music Critics Association in the Ancient Drama category.
He adapted and directed Plutus by Aristophanes, at the Municipal Theater of Patra, 2012-2013.
In 2015, he directed Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar at the Athens & Epidaurus Festival and the monologue Job with Thanasis Tsaltabasis at Ilisia-Volanakis Theater.
In 2016 and 2017, he directed Seven against Thebes by Aeschylus for the National Theater of Northern Greece, presented at the Epidaurus Festival.
Since 2016 he is the head of theater studies of the Municipal Theater of Patra.