NOTE FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

 

Inclusivity. That is the word that characterises the National Theatre of Greece’s artistic programme for the 2023-2024 season. Our programme includes every theatrical trend, from modern readings of great classic works to plays as yet unperformed, and experimental writing, helmed by directors of all generations and all aesthetic approaches.

This variety on our own stages will be combined this year with a number of productions at other venues. Some of last season’s most successful productions – both artistically and in terms of box office – are transferring to two other theatres in Athens, while we will also – finally – have an independent home for our theatre workshops, a stone’s throw from the Ziller Building in a completely renovated multi-purpose space. We are also turning our attention further afield: this year, the NTG will take Mario Banushi’s Goodbye, Lindita to Belgrade, Dresden, Amsterdam and Adelaide, Australia. This is thanks to our first ever Showcase, which was held with great success last April. This will be an ongoing initiative: a second Showcase for the spring of 2024 is already planned, where curators and directors from foreign theatres, as well as international journalists, will again be invited to watch our productions. The first Residencies of Greek artists abroad will also take place in the spring of 2024, with their foreign counterparts receiving invitations to Athens. The two schemes will be implemented thanks to financial assistance from the Recovery Fund. This opening-up of the NTG to abroad, which is one of my main goals for the future, has already begun, and of course there are many other plans and discussions with foreign theatres that I hope will bear fruit in the year ahead.

This year we have the pleasure of collaborating with some exceptional actors, directors, translators, dramaturgs, choreographers, set designers, costume designers, musicians and lighting designers, who are working hard – in collaboration with the entire staff of the National Theatre of Greece – to bring our productions to the stage. Despite facing a reality that is less than bright, their dreams remain intact and they continue to give their all.

This summer was marked by many distressing events: natural disasters, innocent victims, shocking incidents of violence and racism, a huge rise in hate speech on social media, and the resurgence of the far right. These are signs of a society that is in turmoil, a society that finds it difficult to adapt to the new multicultural reality of the country and that is still frightened of diversity. Within this landscape, the National Theatre of Greece stands alongside every social group that is marginalised because of race, gender, religion, physical difference, or sexual orientation.

When we open our doors, we invite everyone inside.

We are a theatre that is open to everyone and everything.

 

                                                                               Yannis Moschos                                                                                                             Artistic Director

 

 

THE IMPRESARIO FROM SMYRNA
by Carlo Goldoni

Directed by Vasilis Papavasiliou

From 26 October 2023

The Goldonian wit of The impresario from Smyrna, written in 1757, shows that we will never run out of material for a hilarious comedy of manners. The wealthy merchant Ali intends to introduce opera to Smyrna and turns to two agents to help him organise his company. Ali is attracted to three sopranos, but their constant squabbling over who will be the troupe’s prima donna and the ridiculous demands of everyone involved make him regret his decision.

Through this simple premise, Goldoni takes us behind the scenes at the opera, boldly focussing on the artists’ vain pretensions and arrogant outbursts, but also giving us a glimpse of their fragile romanticism, showing how they are consumed by the lifestyle they mythologise. It is precisely this dizzying back-and-forth between lofty ambition and pettiness that has inspired Vasilis Papavasiliou to return to the great reformer of Italian comedy, offering his own vision of the camaraderie of the theatre.

Production team

Translation: Louisa Mitsakou

Production text: Louisa Mitsakou & Vasilis Papavasiliou

Director: Vasilis Papavasiliou  

Associate director: Nikoleta Filosoglou

Sets & costumes: Angelos Mentis

Choreography: Fokas Evagelinos

Music: Giorgos Dousos

Lighting: Lefteris Pavlopoulos

Dramaturg: Erie Kyrgia

First directing assistant: Evi Nakou

Second directing assistant: Panos Apostolopoulos

Design assistant: Alegia Papageorgiou

 

Cast (in alphabetical order):

Antonis Antoniadis, Panos Apostolopoulos, Spyros Bibilas, Stratos Christou, Eva Fraktopoulou, Taxiarhis Hanos, Smaragda Kakkinou, Alexis Kotsopoulos, Daphne Lamprogianni, Laertis Malkotsis, Ioanna Mavrea, Alexandros Mylonas, Agoritsa Oikonomou, Panagiotis Panagopoulos, Themis Panou, Katerina Plexida, Periklis Siountas, Vassia Zacharopoulou, Aliki Zaharopoulou

 

 

KING LEAR
by William Shakespeare

Directed by Yannis Houvardas

From 13 December 2023

Considered by many to be Shakespeare’s greatest work, a tragedy set in a universe where power means everything and challenging it leads nowhere, King Lear needs no introduction. The play charts Lear’s downfall, following his decision to abdicate and divide his kingdom between his three daughters, only to be treated with contempt while burdened by the realisation of his own infirmity. The tragedy that is set in motion will leave none of the main characters unscathed.

King Lear is a masterful portrayal of a patriarch in physical, social and mental decline, of an impetuous king who loses his crown, and of a man-child who desperately seeks to be reunited with his mother. More than this, though, it is a timeless play about how the world falls apart when the grip on one’s sanity begins to slip.

Production team

Translation: Dionysis Kapsalis

Adaptation and direction: Yannis Houvardas

Dramaturgical advisor/Production dramaturg: Erie Kyrgia

Set design: Eva Manidaki

Costume design: Ioanna Tsami

Music: Gary Salomon

Movement: Markella Manoliadi 

Video: Pantelis Makkas

Lighting design: Eliza Alexandropoulou

Fight choreography: Kris Radanov:

Directing assistants:

Iliana Antoniadou, Despina Lardi, Amalia Tsekoura, Nina Frantzeskaki

Set design assistant: Katerina Vlahbey

Lighting design assistant: Marietta Pavlaki

Costume design: Alexandra Delitheou
Second costume design assistant: Vasiliki Sourri

 

Cast (in alphabetical order):

Michalis Afolayan, Giannis Dalianis, Pantelis Dentakis, Anthi Efstratiadou, Nina Frantzeskaki, Giorgos Giannakakos, Alexia Kaltsiki, Ioanna Kolliopoulou, Errikos Litsis, Kostas Loules, Giorgos Papageorgiou, Kris Radanov, Konstantinos Siozos, Alekos Sissovitis, Minos Theocharis, Giorgos Triantafyllidis, Amalia Tsekoura, Haris Tsitsakis, Argyris Xafis

On-stage musicians: Nikos Liaskos, Vangelis Paraskevaidis, Gary Salomon

Camera: Dimitris Papadopoulos, Sibylle Meder

 

A DREAM PLAY

by August Strindberg

Directed by Georgia Mavragani

From 20 March 2024

Strindberg wrote this deeply poetic work in 1901, bringing to the stage the unorthodox structure of a dream, in which space and time are abrogated and the characters are all different aspects of the dreamer’s personality.

In this dream, Agnes, a daughter of the gods, comes to Earth to learn about human nature and the experiences of this unknown species. The many and varied people she meets each share their own world with her, which Agni sometimes enters as a spectator and sometimes as a participant. As she travels with them, she starts to become more and more human, experiencing for herself the difficulties of life, its hopes and disappointments.

Georgia Mavragani, together with her creative team and a dynamic cast, returns to the National Theatre to direct one of the great Swedish dramatist’s most important works as a choral narrative, a large-scale piece of handcrafted theatre which, like a young child, poses the big questions – why do people suffer? why is the world made this way? and how should one live?

 

Production team

Translation: Giorgos Depastas

Adaptation and direction: Georgia Mavragani

Set design: Artemis Flessa

Costume design: Lily Kyrili

Music: Haris Neilas

Movement: Ermis Malkotsis

Lighting design: Christina Thanasoula

Dramaturg: Aspasia-Maria Alexiou

Directing assistant: Niki Doulgeraki

Set design assistant: Aggeliki Vassiliopoulou-Kampitsi

Costume design assistant: Maria Iliadi

 

Cast (in alphabetical order):

Aliki Alexandraki, Asimina Anastasopoulou, Thanasis Dovris, Korina-Anna Gougouli, Vasilis Karaboulas, Rania Kelaiditi, Melina Kotselou, Ermis Malkotsis, Nikos Manesis, Panagiotis Panagopoulos, Marina Papoulia, Elina Rizou, Mariam Rukhadze, Konstantinos Siozos, Giorgos Skarlatos, Vasilis Tryfoultsanis, Maria Tsima

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second Year

GOODBYE, LINDITA
by Mario Banushi:

Original concept, Director: Mario Banushi

From 20 September 2023

The production that delighted audiences and critics alike returns to the National Theatre of Greece shortly before a world tour visiting Belgrade, Dresden, Amsterdam, and Adelaide (Australia).

 

Goodbye, Lindita focuses on a primal human experience, that of losing a loved one. In a house, a family mourns in silence, until a series of strange events opens a window onto a world in which memory is intertwined with fantasy, reality with dreams; a universe in which the dead and the living can briefly meet before their final farewell. The story that unfolds on stage is made up of familiar ingredients, but here, the everyday and the recognisable take on metaphysical overtones that reveal the characters’ psychological progress.

 

Mario Banushi, a multitalented young artist who brings a personal, handcrafted visual world to the theatre, has been inspired by his own experiences and the burial customs and traditions of the Balkans to create a parable about life after death through a sequence of poetic images. Without ever hearing the characters speak, we become witness to an inner journey that attempts to answer the eternal question of how to say farewell to those we love most. In Goodbye, Lindita this moment of parting is an end but at the same time a new beginning.

 

 

 

Production team

Original concept, Director: Mario Banushi

Dramaturgical advisor: Sophia Eftychiadou

Sets & Costumes: Sotiris Melanos

Music: Emmanouil Rovithis

Lighting: Tasos Palaioroutas

Dramaturg: Aspasia-Maria Alexiou

Directing assistants: Afroditi Kapokaki, Theodora Patiti

 

Cast (in alphabetical order):

Mario Banushi*, Babis Galiatsatos, Alexandra Hasani, Eriphyle Kitzoglou, Katerina Kristo, Helene Habia Nzanga, Vassiana Skopetea*, Eftychia Stefanou*, Chryssi Vidalaki

 

* From 22 November to 3 December 2023, Mario Banushi will be replaced by Vasilis Vilaras.

* From 1 February 2024, Vassiana Skopetea will be replaced by Eftychia Stefanou.

 

 

BIRDS OF A KIND
by Wajdi Mouawad

Directed by Odysseas Papaspiliopoulos

From 23 December 2023

The award-winning play Birds of a kind, by the Lebanese-Canadian writer, director and actor Wajdi Mouawad, now being staged for the first time in Greece in a production directed by Odysseas Papaspiliopoulos, explores the concept of identity as an aspect of self-definition but also what it means to be trapped within rigid frameworks imposed on us by lineage, religion, tradition, family and ourselves.

 

Eitan, a German-Jewish genetics student at Columbia University, meets and falls in love with Wahida, an American student of Arab descent. Their relationship is met with hostility by Eitan’s Jewish family. The couple’s trip to Israel and a bomb attack that will send Eitan to hospital in a coma will be the starting point for a family’s past to be uncovered, for its secrets to come to the surface, and for the play’s characters to face unexpected and unbearable truths. This is a play about identities, which while ensuring the security of belonging, at the same time create a prison for ourselves.

 

Within this bleak world, Wajdi Mouawad manages to envision a humanity in which ethnic, religious, political or other types of identity do not become a tool for manipulation; a humanity that does not consider it a duty to exterminate that which is other. He envisions human beings who can coexist in harmony with the outside world, but also with their inner contradictions. Beings “burning with desire for the other, the different, and for this desire to be absolute, infinite, spiritual…”.

 

Production team

Translator: Eleni Varopoulou

Director: Odysseas Papaspiliopoulos

Designer: Ilenia Doularidi

Music: Panos Gkinis

Movement: Avgoustinos Koumoulos

Lighting design: Zoi Molyvda-Fameli

Video: Apostolis Koutsianikoulis

Dramaturg: Eva Saraga

Directing assistant: Katerina Louvari Fasoi

Design assistant: Genevieve Athanasopoulou

 

Cast (in alphabetical order):

Babis Alefantis, Anna Mascha, Klearchos Papageorgiou, Dimitris Papanikolaou, Odysseas Petrakis, Melina Polyzoni, Alexandra Sakelaropoulou, Stefania Samara, Penelope Tsilika, Giorgos Ziovas

 

 

 

 

GENERATION LOST
by Grigoris Liakopoulos

Directed by Katerina Giannopoulou

From 28 March 2024

Who are the Millennials*? Are they a self-centred or a lost generation, who saw their dreams dashed before they came of age? Are they consumed by disappointment or inspired by the hope that they might improve the world? Do they find everything easier or more difficult than previous generations? Are they eternal adolescents or conscious defenders of their rights? Will they ever manage to own their own homes? What will they do with all the academic knowledge they have amassed? How do they feel about today’s era of high expectations and crushing realities? And how do they experience the gap between what they have and what they want?

A text resulting from research and interviews with young people in six different European cities will attempt to illuminate the thoughts and anxieties of perhaps the most complex and confused of all generations. The drama combines elements of fiction and documentary and reserves a surprise role for the ultimate Millennial, Britney Spears. A production for Daphne, Ermelina, Nikos, Maria, Giorgos, Petros, and all those who belong to this generation, but also for those who identify with its dreams and disappointments.

*Millennials are generally considered to be those born between 1981 and 1996.

The play was written within the framework of the New Stages Southeast programme, an initiative of the Goethe Institute of Thessaloniki.

 

Production team

Director: Katerina Giannopoulou

Designer: Niki Psyhogiou

Music: Yannis Veslemes

Movement: Dafni Drakopoulou

Lighting design: Christina Thanasoula

Video: Yorgos Kyvernitis

Dramaturg: Erie Kyrgia

Directing assistant: Tzortzis Hortarias

Design assistant: Penelope Hansen

Second design assistant: Zoe Kelesi

 

Cast (in alphabetical order):

Dafni Drakopoulou, Giorgos Kissandrakis, Gogo Papaioannou, Michalis Pitidis, Vasilis Safos

 

On-stage camera operator: Konstantinos Kardakaris

 

 

 

 

 

 

EVANGELISMOS, THE MUSICAL
with music by Angelos Triantafyllou and libretto by Giannis Asteris

Directed by Angelos Triantafyllou & Dimitris Stavropoulos

From 10 November 2023

In the 1st Pathological Clinic of Evangelismos Hospital, our deepest fantasy becomes a reality: the elimination of death. The Grim Reaper himself is under sedation in a hospital ward, and the inescapable law that requires every human life to be sealed by an end is suspended until further notice.

 

Inside the country's largest general hospital, there is much else going on: the wards and corridors are overflowing with people who are suddenly recovering, the gloves are infected with an unknown fungus, the lifts are still not working, although there seems to be nothing wrong with them: everything is out of kilter and everyone is praying for a solution, surrendering themselves to the relentless rush of omens. Even opposite, in the National Gallery of Art, at Varotsos’s statue of The Runner, up and down the avenues, life seems to be asking for the return of its lost certainties.

 

Evangelismos, the musical is a dream play about love, a metaphysical hymn to life, which because of its unavoidably finite nature, is so beautiful and precious. At Evangelismos, death acquires the dimension of a revelation, gives life its meaning, and defines its value, so that we whisper:

What a piece of work a man is;

You tell him the ship is leaking

And he

Boards and puts out to sea again,

And sings.

 

Production team

Direction: Angelos Triantafyllou & Dimitris Stavropoulos

Music: Angelos Triantafyllou

Libretto: Giannis Asteris

Set design: Eva Manidaki

Costume design: Angelos Mentis

Movement: Amalia Bennett

Lighting: Nikos Vlasopoulos

Video/Associate director: Orestis Stavropoulos

Music coach: Melina Peonidou

Dramaturg: Eva Saraga

Directing assistant: Giorgos Braoudakis

Choreography assistant: Alexandros Vardaxoglou

Set design assistant: Anna Zoulia

Costume design assistant: Alexandra-Anastasia Ftouli

Cast (in alphabetical order):

Leto Ampatzi, Haris Andrianos*, Theodora Baka*, Maria Diakopanagiotou, Maria Georgiadou, Giorgos Giokas, Yorgos Glastras, Evangelia Karakatsani, Erato Karathanasi, Eleni Kokkidou, Marios Kritikopoulos, Christos Loulis, Alkiviadis Maggonas, Lygeri Mitropoulou, Vasilis Papadopoulos, Katerina Papoutsaki, Elli Paspala, Foivos Rimenas, Giannis Sampsalakis

 

Guests: Natassa Bofiliou*, Martha Frintzila*

 

On-stage musicians: Sofia Efkleidou, Andreas Gyftakis, Vassilis Mantzoukis, Giorgos Poulios, Alexis Stenakis, Dimitris Tigkas

 

* Haris Andrianos will appear from 22 November 2023 to 21 January 2024
* Theodora Baka will appear from 10 to 19 November 2023
* Natassa Bofiliou will appear from 10 November to 3 December 2023
* Martha Frintzila will appear from 4 December 2023 to 21 January 2024

 

 

THE MATCHMAKER
by Thornton Wilder

 

Directed by Thomas Moschopoulos

From 14 February 2024

The Matchmaker (1954), by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Thornton Wilder, is an entertaining comedy about people’s need for companionship and how they have to reconcile themselves with difficult realities.

 

Dolly Levi is a meddling, multitasking woman who is determined not to let life slip through her fingers. As she deftly manages the personal affairs of those around her, she enthusiastically undertakes to find the ideal wife for the cantankerous, tight-fisted, but wealthy merchant Horace.

A journey to 19th-century New York begins for the heroes of the play: Dolly, Horace, his two young employees, and his niece, who is pining for the artist that her uncle has forbidden her to marry. The common goal of all the characters on this journey is to break the vicious circle of their loneliness. Unexpected events masterfully staged by the shrewd Dolly create a farcical backdrop with a frenzy of comic set-pieces, all undershot with a seriousness derived from the first version of the play, The Merchant of Yonkers, written in 1938 at the tail-end of the Great Depression. The characters, living in an uncertain world, have no time for extraneous idealising. The pursuit of the absolute and the perfect is a pointless luxury for them. Determined to live as best they can, they enter the game of companionship with realistic expectations, searching for attainable happiness.

 

Production team

Translator and director: Thomas Moschopoulos

Set design: Evaggelia Therianou

Costume design: Claire Bracewell

Movement: Sofia Paschou

Lighting design: Nikos Vlassopoulos

Dramaturg: Eva Saraga

Directing assistant: Giorgos Pavlou:

Set design assistant: Genevieve Athanasopoulou

 

 

Cast (in alphabetical order):

Alkis Bakoyannis, Thanassis Dimou, Vivi Fotopoulou, Galini Hatzipaschali, Simos Kakalas, Ioannis Mistakidis, Rania Oikonomidou, Panos Papadopoulos, Thanasis Raftopoulos, Evdokia Roumelioti, Giannis Sampsalakis, Fotis Stratigos, Melina Vampoula

 

THE YOUNG PEOPLE’S STAGE

BORDER LINES
by Chris Cooper

Directed by Sofia Vgenopoulou

From 25 October 2023

A journey to the limit. But what are the borders of the world, life, societies, humankind and humanity? Who decides them and how do they get set? And what happens when we reach or exceed them? On the one hand, in a world that is collapsing, there are people fighting for their survival and the right to live, while on the other are people full of insecurity and anxiety, living a precarious and fragile existence. Two opposite worlds that are nonetheless similar, aspects of the same universe, made of the same material. 

The new play by writer, director and actor Chris Cooper, a veteran of theatre and education for teenage audiences, is directed by Sofia Vgenopoulou in a new collaboration between the National Theatre of Greece and Unicef as part of the “Theatre for peace" programme. Young refugees from war zones worked with young Greeks but also with drama teachers and actors from the NTG, transforming experiences and turning the personal into a collective whole, while offering lived experience as material for the creation of the production,>

Production team

Translator: Julia Diamantopoulou

Director: Sofia Vgenopoulou

Dramaturgical advisor: Irene Moundraki

Set design: Tina Tzoka

Costume design: Eleni Manolopoulou

Movement: Stavroula Siamou

Music: Alex Drakos Ktistakis

Lighting design: Vassilis Papakonstantinou

Music coach: Melina Peonidou

Dramaturg: Eftichia Charalambaki

Directing assistant: Panos Kougias

Set design assistant: Stavros Balis

Costume design assistant: Emily Koukoutsaki

Music assistant: John Konsolakis 

Cast (in alphabetical order):

Asimina Anastasopoulou, Malamatenia Gotsi, Vasilis Kalfakis, Vasilis Karaboulas, Melina Kotselou, Efstathia Lagiokapa, Michail Melissis, Nancy Sideri, Giorgos Skarlatos, Eleni Zarafidou  

 

 

THE CHILDREN’S THEATRE

PINOCCHIO
Adapted from Carlo Collodi’s story by Chris Cooper

Directed by Vassilis Mavrogeorgiou

From 15 November 2023

On a cold winter's night in a forest where the trees are all gradually being cut down, a small log is suddenly imbued with life. Hearing the sounds made by the log, the carpenter, Geppetto, makes a beautiful wooden puppet out of it and gives it the name Pinocchio! The lovable but mischievous puppet talks, plays, makes friends, and dreams of becoming a real boy. And so Geppetto offers him a precious gift: a book so that he can go to school. But the Fox and the Cat are lying in wait for Pinocchio. They have their own plans for him, luring him away from his father with false promises. They tell him that at school, it takes patience and hard work to succeed, whereas in the school of life, he will be able to do as he pleases. Pinocchio believes them and so embarks on a great adventure.

 

He will have to go through countless ordeals, resist temptation, change, grow stronger, and properly grow up before he can find Geppetto again, no longer as a soulless puppet but as a real human boy. Through his adventure, Pinocchio discovers the value of honesty, friendship and family, and how important it is to believe in yourself.

 

Vassilis Mavrogeorgiou directs Carlo Collodi's exciting and much-loved tale in a modern version by Chris Cooper, so that a story that has enchanted young and old for hundreds of years is sure to delight a new generation of fans.

 

Production team

Translation, Lyrics: Julia Diamantopoulou

Director: Vassilis Mavrogeorgiou

Music: Nikos Kipourgos

Set design: Thalia Melissa

Costume design: Vasiliki Syrma

Movement: Paris Mantopoulos

Lighting design: Stella Kaltsou

Music coach: Melina Peonidou

Fight choreography: Thanos Dermatis

Dramaturg: Maria Karananou

Directing assistant: Vasiliki Asikoglou

Set design assistant: Elli Papadaki

Costume design assistant: Marina Koulouri

 

Cast (in alphabetical order):

Christos Dalkyriadis, Vasilis Darmas, Andromachi Foundoulidou, Antonis Gritsis, Michalis Kilakos, Io Latousaki, Emmanouela Magoni, Titos Pinakas, Dimitra Stavrou, Giorgos Vourdamis

 

 

On-stage musician: Giorgos Fountoukos

YES, WE CAN’T
by Marilena Katranidou

Original concept, Director: Marilena Katranidou

From 8 November 2023

The play’s characters meet in a strange space, a museum of the future in which the people working there gradually become the main exhibit. Humankind's deep desire to rest, even for a moment, is something that is difficult to articulate in public. In the museum is a dwelling, a cemetery for the living. The people there are able to study the state of tiredness and mental stagnation they have fallen into. Since fatigue has been an aspect of human life since the dawn of our species, what happened along the way to make it unbearable? Since when has rest seemed futile? What are all those bags carrying? The characters try to answer these questions in order to have, if only for a while, an honest relationship with themselves.

 

Marilena Katranidou directs a poetic composition for the stage that starts from the ideas of the philosopher Byung-Chul Han about the “fatigue society” and offers a requiem for a modern world that hides its fatigue in a dust-cloud of hyperactivity and productivity. This is a production for tired people everywhere.

Production team

Original concept, Director: Marilena Katranidou

Dramatisation: Iliana Kaladami & Giorgos Kritharas

Sets & costumes: Dido Gkogkou

Lighting: Eleni Houmou

Music: Dimos Vryzas

Movement: Alexis Tsiamoglou

Dramaturg: Aspasia-Maria Alexiou

Directing assistant: Ioanna Kanellopoulou

 

Cast (in alphabetical order):  

Jason Ally, Styliana Ioannou, Vasilis Tryfoultsanis, Alexis Tsiamoglou

On-stage musician:  Dimos Vryzas

 

 

CHORUS: WE ARE HERE PREPARED FOR TRAGEDY  
by Sofia Mavragani

Conceived and directed by Sofia Mavragani

From 2 December 2023

 

A production situated on the dividing line between lecture, chorus, concert and theatre, about tragedies worth living and not worth living. Starting from the dances of ancient tragedies, the show raises contemporary concerns about collective action and its potential to shape critical interventions, press for social change, and demand the impossible. The star of the show is CHORUS.

 

The choreographer Sofia Mavragani, in collaboration with the group of performers, creates a heretical chorusto the music of Larry Gus about modern Greek tragedy. Choral odes and the views of important intellectuals of our time are brought together in a single, collective and at the same time original text. The melding of acting, dance, and performance produces a polyphonic and heterogeneous work that makes claims and accusations, and raises questions and doubts. How can one preserve one’s autonomy at the same time as one is being redefined within a group? How can one function as a member of a social group and who decides who those members will be? Whose tragedy is worthy of mourning?

 

Production team

Original idea, direction and choreography: Sofia Mavragani

Dramaturgical advisor: Irene Moundraki

Academic associate: Elena Tzelepi

Artistic associate: Miranda Manasiadis

Music: Larry Gus (Panagiotis Melidis)

Costume design: Vassilia Rozana

Stage area: Thalia Ioannidou

Lighting design: Tasos Palaioroutas

Music coach: Melina Peonidou

 

Cast (in alphabetical order):

Black Morris (Kevin Zans Ansong), Antonis Antonopoulos, Georgina Chryskioti, Antigoni Fryda, Larry Gus (Panagiotis Melidis), Maria Tsima, Maria Vourou

 

 

 

BATON SALE
Live interviews in a light atmosphere

Conceived by Evdoxia Androulidaki in collaboration with Maria Filini

From 7 January 2024

You've heard of her, you know her work, you might even have seen her on the streets of Athens, but what would you like to ask her? Evdoxia Androulidaki and Maria Filini invite us to a series of “live interviews in a light atmosphere", in which they talk to women they admire and ask them a series of questions about their careers, their choices, how they intersect with what is happening in society but also about their daily habits, in an effort to get to know them better and discuss some of the issues that concern us.

Drawing on the American tradition of live interviews in front of a theatre or TV audience, Bâton salè welcomes us to a modern-day salon where, accompanied by tea and snacks, vaudeville meets chat show, confession meets stand-up comedy, and the different waves of feminism meet the realities of life for women in Athens today.

On five Sundays, at five in the afternoon, with five female guests: what can we find out on a Sunday afternoon from a lawyer, a trans activist, a singer, an immigrant student, and a philosopher? How can we talk about women's experiences of a shared life that permeates and embraces the private and the social, the high and the low, the ordinary questions of everyday life and those that still remain unanswered?

Production team:

Concept, Director: Evdoxia Androulidaki

Collaboration in concept and direction: Maria Filini

Music: George Ramantanis

Set & costume supervision: Elena Skoula

Artistic associate: Zoe Mylona

Dramaturg: Aspasia-Maria Alexiou

 

 

 

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JESSICA BROWN

Conceived and directed by Jeo Pakitsas & Sofia Priovolou

 

Text by Gerasimos Bekas in collaboration with Jeo Pakitsas & Sofia Priovolou

From 25 January 2024

Jeo Pakitsas and Sofia Priovolou direct the most unexpected live event of the season: the last ever appearance of the singer Jessica Brown, which will be talked about for years after her death. Punk rock’s finest hour comes to an end as Jessica is buried on stage in front of the audience in a unique show that will be the final chapter in the history of an iconic band. The big moment is coming. Tension is mounting. But where is Jessica? Why hasn’t she arrived? What do we really know about her before she makes her last world appearance at the National Theatre of Greece? The band’s problems surface as it seems that they might be waiting forever. A complete guide to self-destruction – or how to become the next icon in seven easy steps. 

 

Production team

Original concept, Directors: Jeo Pakitsas & Sofia Priovolou

Dramaturgical advisor: Sophia Eftychiadou

Music: Gary Salomon & Giorgos Chanos

Set design: Dimitris Mairopoulos

Costume design: Elektra Stampoulou

Sound design: Giorgos Chanos

Lighting design: Panayotis Lambis

 

Cast (in alphabetical order):

Jason Ally, Styliana Ioannou, Kristof, Jeo Pakitsas, Sofia Priovolou, Chris Scott, Chrysanthi Tsoukala

 

 

 

 

 

CLOUDBURST
by Vasilis Vilaras

Conceived and directed by Vasilis Vilaras

From 21 March 2024

Inundation visits the gay Greece of the period following the restoration of democracy and conveys the desires, thoughts and anxieties of LGBTQI people of that period, as they expressed them themselves through the letters they sent to the revolutionary magazine Amfi, the first public forum in Greece devoted to the queer experience. Personal testimonies from the past are mixed with the corresponding experiences of the individuals on stage, becoming the material of confessions and disclosures, while unapologetically demanding the right to visibility. Here, space can be given to the stories of people who have immeasurable love within them, but in all kinds of ways are sealed in to loneliness. The testimonies of those who suffer from the dismissive behaviour of parents and relatives, from bullying and all kinds of violence. Stories of outrageous coming-out experiences; of moments of longing, fun and stolen pleasure; of the gay culture fermented in the cinemas around Omonia Square; and of the deep feeling of relief because “there are other people like me out there”. Stories of an entire generation wiped out by the HIV/AIDS epidemic and societal and state indifference.

Following Plague and Earthquake, director and actor Vasilis Vilaras delivers the final part of a trilogy that celebrates life and identity outside the heteronormative and the patriarchal norm, recognising the dangers that this non-conformity involves even today.

Production team

Concept/Writing & adaptation/Direction: Vasilis Vilaras

Archival research/Associate dramaturg: Lemonia Gianniri

Set design: Demos Klimenof

Costume design: Chrysanthos Christodoulou

Music: Ecati

Movement: Efstratios Giannikos

Lighting design: Vasia Attarian

Artistic associate: Thalia Griva

Dramaturg: Aspasia-Maria Alexiou

Cast (in alphabetical order):

Vasilis Vilaras, Andreas Lazarakos, Kristof, Niko Rupllem, Dolly Vara

 

The production features portraits by the artist Thanasis Megkos.

 

 

 

 

THE LINE OF THE HORIZON

by Christos Vakalopoulos

Directed by Giorgos Pavlou

From 16 May 2024

 “A story of escape” was how the prematurely deceased author (but also critic, essayist, director and radio producer) described perhaps his most mature work, which was largely based on his own experiences. A 32-year-old woman, Rea Frantzi, is at a pivotal moment in her life: she has just got divorced – without knowing why – and takes refuge on Patmos, the deeply spiritual island where John the Divine wrote the Book of Revelations, and where she painfully takes stock of her life. This involves not only reckoning up her personal losses, but also bidding farewell to a generation that has given in, an Athens that has lost all sense of itself, a Greece consumed by materialism, and a society that has surrendered its identity to superficiality.

The line of the horizon was written in 1991 in language both aphoristic and disarming, full of vivid images and evocative silences, with substantial use of poetic irony and repetition, characterised by subversive humour and idiosyncrasy. It is a work that brims with prophetic insights, electrifies with its harsh truths, speaks to today in a way that few contemporary texts manage to, and does not hesitate to make all of us face the responsibility we bear for turning this country into a fantasy land where everyone wants to live.

Production team

Director: Giorgos Pavlou

Adaptation, Dramaturg: Erie Kyrgia

Set design: Olga Vlassi & Anna Zisi

Costume design: Ourania Frangea

Music: Angelos Triantafyllou

Movement: Mairi Giannoula

Lighting design: Sakis Birbilis

Adaptation assistant: Gerasimos Giovanakis

 

Cast (in alphabetical order):

Spiros Bosgas, Andromachi Foundoulidou, Nikos Gialelis, Angelos-Prokopios Nerantzis, Athina Papadaki

 

 

 

Kivotos Theatre

MAN FROM PODOLSK
by Dmitry Danilov

Directed by George Koutlis

From 20 September 2023

This season, another NTG hit that was consistently sold-out during the winter gets a transfer to the Kivotos Theatre. Nikolai is arrested on his way from Moscow to Podolsk, and is taken to a police station, where he is subjected to an eccentric interrogation that strains his sanity to its very limits.  After being quizzed on his general knowledge and what he knows of his hometown, tested on his observational and motor skills, and forced to make uncomfortable admissions and unearth buried memories, Nikolai has to face the fact that his humdrum life is not going to change; what must alter, however, is his attitude towards it.

Man from Podolsk is a disturbing satire with Kafkaesque overtones that questions the dominant culture of our age and the obligation to derive pleasure from our surroundings, have positive energy, and live a meaningful existence. At the same time, it sounds a warning about how the imaginative and sophisticated methods used by authoritarian regimes lead us to repress ourselves.

Born in 1969, Dmitry Danilov is a journalist, writer and poet with several awards to his name. His theatrical debut, Man from Podolsk, earned him Russia’s premiere theatre award, the Golden Mask, in 2018.

Production team

Translation, Direction and Adaptation: George Koutlis

Dramaturgical advisor: Vasilis Magouliotis

Designer: Paris Mexis

Music & sound design: Panú (Panagiotis Manouilidis)

Movement: Alexandros Vardaxoglou

Lighting: Alekos Anastasiou

Music coach: Melina Peonidou

Dramaturg: Erie Kyrgia

Directing assistant: Alexandros Siatras

Second directing assistant: Panos Kougias

Design assistant: Alegia Papageorgiou

Cast (in alphabetical order): Aris Balis, Thanasis Dovris, Yilmaz Husmen, Eleni Koutsioumpa, Panagiotis Manouilidis, Alexandros Siatras

 

 

The Theatron, Hellenic Cosmos Cultural Centre

 

CITY LIGHTS
by Charlie Chaplin

Music: Thodoris Economou

Lyrics: Stavros Stavrou

Directed by Amalia Bennett

From 25 October 2023

Another artistic and commercial triumph from last season returns this year to the Theatron at the Hellenic Cosmos Cultural Centre. City Lights is an adaptation of Charlie Chaplin’s iconic film, directed by Amalia Bennett with music by Thodoris Economou and lyrics by Stavros Stavrou. 

 

Chaplin’s ‘Little Tramp’ falls in love with a blind flower girl and does everything he can to raise the money for an operation to restore her sight. This landmark of American cinema about a shabby hero struggling to survive in the unforgiving environment of extreme economic liberalism has now inspired an idiosyncratic musical telling a universal story of a love that transcends linguistic and cultural barriers. Live music, songs, and creative energy come together in a tribute to Chaplin’s genius, the heroism of ordinary people, and the archetypal values of life.

 

Set against the backdrop of the Great Depression, City Lights is both a moving comedy and a modern parable about social injustice and unrequited love. It is a film with arguably the most moving ending in the history of cinema, a work that reflects the fraught period between the wars and extols a life without compromise, generosity without expectations, and love without boundaries.

 

Production team

Adaptation: Amalia Bennett & Thodoris Economou

Director & choreographer: Amalia Bennett

Music: Thodoris Economou

Lyrics: Stavros Stavrou

Adaptation, Dramaturgical advisor: Nikita Milivojevic

Set design: Tina Tzoka

Costume design: Angelos Mentis

Lighting design: Christina Thanasoula

Sound design: Kostas Bokos

Dramaturg: Eva Saraga

Directing assistant: Katerina Gevetzi

Set design assistant: Stavros Balis

Costume design assistant: Alegia Papageorgiou
Llighting design assistant: Semina Papalexandropoulou

 

Cast (in alphabetical order):

Aliki Alexandraki, Filippos Anthis, Stella Antipa, Ioanna Bitouni, Filippos Bouras, Thanassis Dimou, Nikolas Douros, Katerina Gevetzi, Nikos Iatrou, Anna Kalaitzidou, George Kopsidas, Edgen Lame, Mikis Pantelous, Giannis Protopappas, Thanasis Raftopoulos, Mariam Rukhadze, Konstantinos Samaa, Izel Seylani, Fotis Stratigos, Thodoris Vrachas, Savina Yannatou 

On-stage musicians: Dimitris Hountis, Paraskevas Kitsos, Io Le Moller, Dimitris Ventourakis, Dionysis Vervitsiotis

 

 

 

 

 

 

Latest updated: 25/04/2024