“I have nothing on my mind but liberty and language.”

To mark the 200th anniversary of the Exodus of Messolonghi, the National Theatre of Greece presents a co-production with the Municipal and Regional Theatre of Agrinio, in partnership with the Municipality of Messolonghi, The Woman of Zakythos | Dialogue on the Ruins of Messolonghi, directed by Manos Karatzogiannis. Featuring an outstanding cast of actors alongside Mariza Koch, who performs The Free Besieged live on stage, the performance will take place at the Ancient Theatre of Oiniades (5 July), the Agrinio Garden Theatre (7 July), and the Irene Papas School of Athens (29 & 30 August).

Two hundred years have passed since Dionysios Solomos wrote The Dialogue, in which three characters – the Poet, his Friend and the Scholar – discuss the language question against the backdrop of the siege of Messolonghi, the only place in the world designated a “Sacred City” in a non-religious sense. This year is also the 200th anniversary of the Exodus of Messolonghi, a timeless symbol of the struggle for freedom, when the city’s inhabitants, faced with mass starvation, made a heroic effort to break through the siege, most of them perishing in the attempt.

Warriors and women disguised in men’s clothing, cradling children lulled to sleep with opium, staged the breakout on 10 April 1826, in the middle of the night between Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday. It was the final act of a long fight for independence unlike any other in world history. Their fate shocked the whole of Europe, which cried out in unison, “Messolonghi is no more!” The Austrian statesman Metternich responded to the Sultan in a way that leaves the significance of the event in no doubt: “We shall not in future be able to help you… Messolonghi has changed everything.” The Exodus has never been forgotten. Most notably, it was the subject of Solomos’s The Free Besieged, written over more than twenty years from 1828 to 1851, while in the twentieth century, the poet Nikiforos Vrettakos called on all Greeks to reflect on the fortitude of the people of Messolonghi.

The Sacred City invested universal human values with new meaning. It was the foundation on which an emancipated and independent Greece was built. And its history is a beacon for all the world’s “free besieged”, showing how liberty can be preserved as the walls close in and the pressure becomes unendurable. And however dark the times, Dionysios Solomos’s phrase – “Their bodies flagged but never their decency” – echoes as both a national and a worldwide benediction, devoid of dogma and intolerance.

The Woman of Zakythos | Dialogue on the Ruins of Messolonghi explores themes such as sacrifice, language, and freedom. These are national ideals, but does that make them true – and if so, to what extent? True enough to be universal, perhaps? Or do they form part of a Greek identity that is now lost?

The production draws inspiration from three works by Dionysios Solomos: The Woman of Zakythos, The Dialogue, and The Free Besieged. It tells the story of the Exodus through oral testimonies, honouring a deeply felt “debt” – the original title of The Free Besieged – that is collective as well as personal.

After a series of productions about historical memory, Manos Karatzogiannis now tells the story of his birthplace. On hills of salt, an intergenerational chorus gives voice to questions that have shaped the history of the country.