Sophocles’ Antigone
Directed by Ulrich Rasche
27, 28 & 29 June 2025
Athens Epidaurus Festival | National Theatre of Greece

 

This year’s anniversary programme at the Athens Epidaurus Festival opens with Antigone, a co-production with the National Theatre of Greece (NTG), helmed by one of Germany’s most exciting directors, Ulrich Rasche. Featuring Nikos Panagiotopoulos’s definitive translation and a stellar cast of Greek actors, this staging of Sophocles’ emblematic play will receive its world premiere at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus for three performances only on Friday 27, Saturday 28, and Sunday 29 June.

Τhe Athens Epidaurus Festival involvement in this production is supported by a donation from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).

At a press conference held at the Goethe Institute on 19 May, Katerina Evangelatou and Argyro Chioti, the artistic directors of the festival and the NTG respectively, were joined by Rasche, the cast, and the creative team, to introduce journalists to the German director’s vision for Antigone.

Opening the discussion, the Artistic Director of the Athens Epidaurus Festival, Katerina Evangelatou, stressed the importance of the collaboration with the NTG, the country’s leading theatrical institution and one of the main pillars of the festival. “I feel happy and fortunate that this year’s anniversary festival is opening with such an institutional and artistic partnership, and with this specific cast, which features the finest Greek actors of multiple generations,” she said. She went on to emphasise that the production would be staged exclusively at Epidaurus, noting that from the beginning of her tenure, she and her team have sought to create works that were presented either exclusively – or with a small tour – at the festival, in order to underline its uniqueness. In closing, she referred to the festival’s aim of regularly inviting major international directors with a distinct artistic identity to work with Greek casts. This is the third year that this partnership has taken place, with Ulrich Rasche following in the footsteps of Frank Castorf in 2023 and Timofey Kulyabin in 2024.

For her part, the Artistic Director of the NTG, Argyro Chioti, pointed out that although this co-production of Antigone by the country’s flagship theatre was initiated by the previous Artistic Director, Yannis Moschos, she is delighted to be continuing this excellent collaboration. “In addition to the great actors taking part in the performance, this is a production that is truly worth seeing at Epidaurus. The stage language of Ulrich Rasche is so unique, dynamic and special that it invites us to see the play from a different point of view, to hear the text differently.”

 “I’m honoured to be opening this year’s Athens Epidaurus Festival in its anniversary year. In Greece I feel like I’m returning home,” said Ulrich Rasche. “Antigone has always been presented as a young woman resisting the authoritarian King Creon. Her main goal was to look after her family, ready to sacrifice her own life. But as a dictator, Creon never had a platform; no one wanted to hear his view. Although I understand Antigone’s stance, I think it’s interesting to hear Creon’s arguments and see how we can balance the two positions. I am not taking the side of any authoritarian leader, like Creon. What I believe is that we should, as a society, find our common ground. To communicate, to discuss, to find answers to the burning questions of our time. What we have lost is that we no longer listen to each other.”

In the words of the cast
“I see this job as having three strands: the word, the body and the mental engagement,” commented Giorgos Gallos (Creon) about Rasche’s approach to Antigone. “The one part will support the other so that the spirit of Sophocles emerges.” He compared the director’s physically demanding rehearsal process to competitive sport, while also mentioning the excellent communication that exists between the Greek and German artists. Filareti Komninou (Tiresias) commented: “From the moment I first met Ulrich Rasche at the audition, it was an exciting experience. And it still is.” Regarding the particular degree of difficulty of the rehearsals, she talked about the rotating stage on which the actors will perform Antigone, as well as the constant movement required of everyone, which “creates a sense of ritual that fascinates me”. “It’s a great challenge for us Greek actors to enter Ulrich’s theatrical world, which I call poetic and multi-layered,” said Kora Karvouni (Antigone). “I think audiences will instantly feel a connection and be moved, since they’ll recognise their own existential struggles. The production will create a whole new world around Sophocles’ Antigone.” Thanos Tokakis (Guard) professed himself completely in agreement with Rasche’s concept of the play, as it is important to hear multiple opinions in the times in which we live. “The fact that I have the opportunity to work with this cast and creative team is a gift for me,” commented the youngest actor in Antigone, Dimitris Kapouranis (Haemon). "This is what I want to be like on stage," he concluded.

 

Antigone: the clash of two worlds
Ulrich Rasche returns to Epidaurus three years after his captivating staging of Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, a co-production with Munich’s Residenztheater. Anyone who saw it will long remember the hypnotic intensity of the performers marching endlessly on the huge rotating stage with live music in the background, elements that run through his work.

Now, Rasche develops his radical stage language in Antigone, Sophocles’ deeply political play that explores the difference between the individual and the citizen and the limits of personal will within an organised society, as well as the identity of a functioning democracy. Highlighting the archetypal character of Antigone, the German director poses crucial questions about her conflict with Creon, who he views not as an authoritarian but as a genuine protector of the interests of the State, and therefore of democracy.

Faced with the consequences of a civil war, Creon dictates that because Polynices had led a rebellion against Thebes, he should not receive a proper burial. This decision underlines his conviction that loyalty to the state is of paramount importance and that treason must be severely punished in order to maintain social stability. His actions might well be considered justified if seen in the light of pragmatic governance and the need to maintain civil order. But where do the boundaries between moral responsibility and political power lie? How can enduring democracy be ensured?

Having tackled ancient drama at a number of major European theatres as well as Epidaurus over recent years (Seven Against Thebes and Antigone in 2017, The Persians in 2018, The Bacchae and Electra in 2019, Oedipus in 2020, and Agamemnon in 2022), Rasche once again presents his pioneering theatrical vision to audiences at Epidaurus in an Antigone performed by an outstanding cast with a ten-member chorus of talented young actors and four on-stage musicians.

 

Director’s note
I have always dreamed of staging Sophocles’ Antigone at Epidaurus. It may sound rather strange, but my choice had less to do with the character of Antigone herself than with the figure of King Creon. Antigone, as we know, is the heroine of the play. She stands up to the authoritarian power of the king. She puts forward her own ideas about what should happen. Her strength and resistance to authority are admirable. But don’t we live in a society today where it is a simple matter for anyone to play the heroine or the hero, to speak and act according to their own standards? Perhaps we often forget that Creon’s mission as king is to defend the state and its laws? I think it’s important to look at the king and his arguments, which are so well-articulated by Sophocles in his tragedy. As the Greek people are well aware, democracy is hard-won over centuries, founded on individual freedoms as well as obligations. In Antigone, it is Creon who defends this system of government. Even if he ultimately takes the wrong path, even if he proves unable to rise to the occasion in the way that democracy requires in order to function, it is worth examining Sophocles’ arguments more closely, focusing on his character.

In any event, I am incredibly happy to have the opportunity to delve into the complexities of Antigone and the line of reasoning put forward by the tragic poet with a cast of Greek actors at Epidaurus.
 

Ulrich Rasche

 

Ulrich Rasche, a distinctive voice in European theatre

Born in 1969 in Bochum, Germany, and having studied art history and comparative literature, Ulrich Rasche is today one of the most pioneering directors of his generation. In 2013, he was honoured with the Berlin Art Prize, while in addition to ancient tragedies, his repertoire also includes other important works such as Oscar Wilde’s Salome (2009), The Book of Revelation (2013), Georg Büchner’s Danton’s Death (2015) and Woyzeck (2017), and Sarah Kane’s last play, 4.48 Psychosis (2020), all staged in major theatres, mainly in Germany and Austria, but also in the rest of Europe.

 

Credits
Translation Nikos A. Panagiotopoulos • Director & Set designer Ulrich Rasche • Dramaturg Antigone Akgün • Music & Sound design Alfred Brooks • Costume design Angelos Mentis • Lighting design Eleftheria Deko • Chorus training and direction Yannik Stöbener • Assistant director David Moser • Assistant set designer Lukas Kötz • Production dramaturg Erie Kyrgia • Music coach Melina Peonidou • Directing assistant Thomais Triantafyllidou • Set design assistant Evangelos Agatsas • Composition assistant Giannis Arapis • Costume design assistant Stavroula Papapostolou • Lighting design assistant Nasia Lazou

Cast Giorgos Gallos Creon, Dimitris Kapouranis Haemon, Kora Karvouni Antigone, Filareti Komninou Tiresias, Thanos Tokakis Guard
Chorus (in alphabetical order) Ioannis Bastas, Vassilis Boutsikos, Stratis Chatzistamatiou, Dimitris Kapouranis, Marios Kritikopoulos, Yoryis Partalidis, Thanasis Raftopoulos, Gal Robissa, Giannis Tsoumarakis, Giorgos Ziakas

Live music Nefeli Stamatogiannopoulou double bass, Charis Pazaroulas double bass, Nikos Papavranousis percussion, Evangelia Stavrou percussion

 

INFO

Sophocles’ Antigone
by Ulrich Rasche
Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus
27, 28 & 29 June 2025 at 9pm

Language: Greek with Greek and ENglish surtitles

 

Tickets

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Rehearsal photos by: Eleni Katranidi

 

 

Latest updated: 17/06/2025