Are there male and female “purposes,” gender-based inclinations and talents? Are fields like science, pharmaceuticals, architecture, or astrophysics suitable for girls?
Spring 1960, Missolonghi. A group of students from the Girls’ Junior High School crosses the city streets in protest against the establishment of a Practical Junior High School exclusively for boys, which would exclude them from STEM subjects. This is a story about women born in the Greek countryside after World War II and during the outbreak of the Civil War, who envisioned a life equal to that of men for themselves. Self-luminous girls, and therefore strange for their time and ours, in a world where gender roles still define the dominant national narrative, despite their superficial transformation. A work about youth and the talents that nature hides within people, regardless of time, place, gender, or social mores. An original performance inspired by true and (truly Greek) stories.
Where do ideas that have never reached their final form go? The unfinished films, plays, or poems? And what about the people who leave? Where do they go? What happens to incomplete reports? Farewells that never turned into embraces? Can the trace of those absent inhabit our present, opening a window for us to look the future in the eyes? These questions inspired a performance, a piece about unfinished artistic creations that continue to fuel, like combustible materials, both art and life itself.
This work is a poetic stage composition that proposes a metadramatic and transcendent meeting ground for both absent and present creators, their unfinished works, their communities, and humanity. Relying on a fragmentary dramaturgy, the performance employs words – images, sounds, concepts, and reflections – left hanging by great “poets” to challenge itself against the existential, artistic, and political anguish of a life that passes, ends, and is cut, while also touching upon the comforting, humanistic dimension of great art.
Contradictions is a theatrical production that brings together two powerful texts in a bold dramaturgical synthesis: Plato’s Apology of Socrates and Kostas Varnalis’ The True Apology of Socrates. A contemporary Socrates stands before his accusers, answering with the philosophical clarity of Plato and the sharp, ironic voice of Varnalis. Through this staged dialogue, a timeless clash is brought to life—thought against authority, truth against deception, responsibility against apathy. Language reigns supreme on stage: philosophical, poetic, and provocative, supported by original live music that underscores the emotional and intellectual tension. Bridging two millennia of critical thought, Contradictions invites audiences to reflect anew on questions that still resonate today: What is truth? What place does the thinking individual hold in society? And what is the price of truth in our time?
A Sunday family lunch featuring Greek flavours that have endured over the years sparks stories about traditional dishes and their contemporary perception. As different generations meet and interact, we become aware of how our culinary traditions, as well as life itself, have changed. Moussaka, pies, dolmadakia, and the spices of the famous Constantinopolitan cuisine evoke stories of our grandmothers, while bobota, also known as the pie of the poor, transports us back to the challenging period of the Occupation and the Greek people’s struggle to survive. Traditional melodies intertwined with the bustling sounds of frying pans and boiling pots, along with stories about people and recipes we’ve all tried, create a performance that pays tribute to the meals that raised us.
Following a dream that foreshadows disasters for her son, Queen Atossa of Persia is informed that the Persian army has been destroyed. Emerging from the underworld, her dead husband, Darius, explains the reasons that led to the defeat and urges them to stop the attacks against the Greeks.
In this new production, Aeschylus’ ancient drama converses with Samuel Beckett’s play, Happy Days. The performance draws upon Beckett’s masterful conception, creating a striking spectacle that employs Aeschylus’ poetry intact. The Queen of Persia, immobilized by the weight of her memories, gradually immerses herself in the burden of tragic past events. Sitting next to her, her deceased companion reads the devastating news in the newspaper.
This new piece reminds us that our past cannot be cut off from our future; they both co-exist intact within our present.
The performance The Roots of the Orange Tree is an artistic ritual that brings the female experience, as a carrier of memory, resilience, and creation, into the foreground. Traditional and electronic music, live performance, audiovisual media, and shadow puppet theatre intersect to recreate enduring women’s stories, forming a live audiovisual web where silence becomes significant and voice emerges through the body.
The female figure functions not only as a symbol but also as an active subject that reinvents tradition. Inspired by Chrysostomos Tsaprailis’ work Women Who Return and Fotis Varthis’ engravings, this performance transforms individual experiences into a collective narrative, reclaiming space for women in history and art – not as a shadowy memory but as a vibrant breath that propels the future forward, transforming silence into voice and experience into action.
A dramatic idyll in three acts, with Greek songs and dances
The dramatic idyll The Enchanted Shepherd by Spyridon Peresiadis is brought to life through a modern, lyrical interpretation that draws inspiration from memory and oral tradition.
The work serves as a vehicle for returning to rituals, in a long-gone world where nature has a voice and magic tests love. Through musical motifs, grotesque transformations, and folk sounds, this performance becomes a hymn to memory. The past evolves into a place of nostalgia and a tool for reinventing the present, all while remaining an ever-changing part of ourselves.
Three sisters return to the island of their origin to tackle inheritance issues. Their father has passed away; they no longer have any relatives, and all three now live exclusively in Athens. Ever since they were little girls, they have dreamed of the big city, longing to escape so they can study, fall in love, and enjoy better professional prospects. Returning to their family home brings them face to face with the lives they have chosen, their childhood fantasies, and the people from their early years who have shaped them.
Drawing inspiration from Chekhov’s Three Sisters, this new piece attempts to illuminate the concerns of a young generation living in large urban centers, working hard, searching for love, and ultimately striving to find a “Moscow” in which to exist.
ENIGMA is an acrobatic-theatrical performance. Utilizing theatre and aerial acrobatics as valuable tools, three performers bring the myth of Oedipus to light. Through a contemporary stage interpretation, the myth calls for an informed and creative engagement with major existential questions.
Everything begins and unfolds in the thorny realm of the Enigma. The Sphinx hovers continuously, reminding us of the constant conflict between chaos and reason, between unchangeable destiny and human will, and between the painful path of searching for truth and self-awareness. The Sphinx “treads” on Oedipus’ ruins, unless the opposite occurs. Always within the boundaries of the Enigma, which is intertwined with human existence. What are the contemporary Enigmas/Sphinxes that contemporary Individuals/Oedipuses are called upon to solve? Who gives birth to enigmas, the “Monster” or Humanity? Is the solution to the Enigma redemption or hubris?
How does contemporary society perceive the significance of ideas? Can we put a price on an idea and sell it, as a model of life? Under what conditions and by whom can its value be determined?
Following the satirical spirit of Lucian’s original work Vitarum auctio (Βίων πράσις) and assigning the role of the buyer to the audience, this performance contrasts the philosophical theories of ancient thinkers with the culture of modern influencers, exploring the impact of the past’s intellectual legacy on the present, as well as the fate of philosophical concepts in the contemporary world and its future versions. Through stark sarcasm and humour, and a unique fusion of the ancient and modern worlds, this performance transforms into a philosophical journey, inviting us to join in, if not as interlocutors, then at least as observers.