The performance “Golden Record” is inspired by the true story of the Golden Record, which NASA sent into space in 1977 on the Voyager missions. The Golden Record contained photographs, drawings, and audio recordings from Earth, as part of a scientific team’s effort to communicate with a potential extraterrestrial civilization and convey an image of human life. Fifty years later, the performance revisits this historic event to pose the question anew: what does “human” mean today? The performance moves between documentary theater, fiction, and music theater, using historical narratives, personal stories, and live music. Starting from the archives of the Golden Record, the work explores how we can speak today about the history of humanity. The Golden Record returns – half a century after its launch into space – at a time when war and destruction overwhelm our daily lives.
A unique performance of music and spoken word, based on the extraordinary life and boundless service to humanity of Aurelia Papagianni (Elder Gavrilia), who was born in Constantinople in 1897 and passed away on the island of Leros in 1992.
If we accept that the most beautiful image of a human being is shaped through continuous and unconditional self-sacrifice for others, whether near or far, then Aurelia embodies the highest expression of beauty and grace that a person can attain. The seven musicians of the in excelsis ensemble and the eight choristers of the Synagma Music Workshop create a dreamlike soundscape woven from Byzantine hymns, compositions of the Ottoman classical tradition, and contemporary musical settings. Within this sonic landscape, Aurelia’s remarkable personality is illuminated and brought to life.
Unexpected literary narratives drawn from episodes of her life evoke surprise and curiosity, admiration and deep emotion. The audience is invited to embark on an unforgettable journey to the farthest reaches of the world—to the places where Aurelia traveled, worked, served, and ultimately attained holiness.
“Land of the Heroes” is a music-theatre performance blending physical theatre and performance art, where six musicians and one performer coexist on stage as a unified scenic organism. Inspired by the historical example of the improvised “Zirkus Konzentrazani,” the piece explores human existence through play, laughter, and failure as acts of resistance and persistence. The stage transforms into a fragile circus world where acts begin, collapse, and restart, revealing human vulnerability. Live music—drawing from historical compositions and classical repertoire—functions as a bridge between memory and the present. Rather than narrating a story, the performance creates an experiential space in which the audience is invited to reflect on what it means to remain human under pressure. It is a poetic and symbolic work that emphasizes presence, endurance, and the fragile dignity of the human condition.
This music-theatre performance is an artistic fusion of music, poetry, and theatrical storytelling, centered on the musical work and personal archive of the musicologist, researcher, and composer Markos Dragoumis. For the first time, his piano compositions and musical settings of poems by Andreas Embirikos and Nanos Valaoritis are presented, revealing the multifaceted nature of his compositional voice, its expressionist character, impressionist influences, references to tradition, and engagement with modal music. This rare material is interwoven with the narratives of Filippos and Natalia Dragoumi, who bring to the stage memories, letters, and diary entries from the world of their father, lending the performance a deeply personal and experiential dimension. Inspired by authenticity and sincerity beyond restrictive social and artistic conventions, Dragoumis offers a liberating source of inspiration for contemporary creation. Pianist Masa Josillo and performer-composer Fenia Christou approach this material through the directorial vision of Penelope Flouri. The work ultimately asks what remains human today, through art and through the act of coming together.
Enter the Storehouse, It Is Safe is a music-theatre performance conceived by Stamatis Pasopoulos. On stage, six performers—a trio of traditional vocalists and a three-member folk ensemble (gaida, kaval, and dahares/drum), led by the composer himself—uncover and reconstruct fragments of the cultural memory of his homeland, the region of Serres. At the same time, they explore the community’s relationship with the supernatural, its connection to the land, the bonds among its members, and the role of music and dance in collective life.
The performance transforms the sounds, movements, and symbols of these ritual traditions into a contemporary artistic event. Through a collective exploration of timbre and sound, it seeks to recreate the moment of language’s birth; traditional songs—both inherited and newly composed—interact with vocal experimentation; local instruments are approached through techniques drawn from contemporary music; and communal dance traditions inform the staging and choreography of the work. By bringing together memory, ritual, and innovation, the performance offers a vivid reflection on cultural identity and the enduring power of collective expression.
War, 1914 and 1939 dare to fall in love.
“How dare you?”
Peace dares.
A precious good, yet never a given.
Outside the camp, the father(?) of 1939 dares to reject any reunion with shadows. He will not cross the barbed wire for a handful of hallucinatory moments of peace. His interest lies instead in the action of war rather than the counter-action of peace.
“Who are you, sir?”
“War.”
“How dare you?”
“Easily. I am taken for granted, though I am no blessing.”
A poor counsellor both inside and outside the camp, sound itself becomes distorted as it passes through ruins and fear, transforming silences, words of love, and bullets alike. The courage required for love is different from the courage demanded by battle. For those who fear, another enemy always emerges. It is a bad time for peace if one wishes to become human. It is a bad time for war if one wishes to remain human. Drawing inspiration from Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, the performance explores the fragile boundary between destruction and compassion, questioning whether humanity can survive amid violence and whether love remains the ultimate act of resistance.
“Love prevents death. Love is life.”
“…Yes, it is very likely that I shall be killed tomorrow.”
— Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
The Ascent Within is a stage poem that illuminates the evolution of human nature through the prism of love—an indestructible love understood not as an emotion, but as an ontological state of being. It traces a cyclical journey in which human beings do not evolve in a linear progression but continually return to their origins, fall back, recover, and attempt once more the ascent. The fossilized human skull discovered in the Petralona Cave serves not as a historical artifact but as a poetic catalyst: a trace of existence that initiates a reflection on humanity’s passage through time.
Music, body, voice, and image coexist as carriers of memory and meaning, creating a polyphonic scenic landscape. Rather than narrating the history of human evolution, The Ascent Within contemplates it through music and performance. It offers a poetic experience that places humanity simultaneously at the center, in the background, and at the forefront of its own existence, seeking that point where knowledge encounters love and consciousness becomes an act of humanization.
Inspired by two medieval sacred works—the Messe de Nostre Dame by Guillaume de Machaut and Kecharitomene Chaire (“Hail, Full of Grace”) by Ioannis Koukouzelis—composers Nava Hemyari and Apostolis Kousogiannis create new music for the Oros Ensemble, opening pathways between past and present, individual expression and collective devotional experience. At the same time, dancer Sotiria Koutsopetrou traces the organic thread connecting body and sound, contributing to the performance’s central question: in an age of material individualism, what form might a new humanism take?
The Polis Ensemble presents the music-and-visual performance “Charis Koini…” – A Ritual of Coexistence, an artistic exploration of the threads that connect people across places, languages, and eras. Through music, voice, and image, the performance illuminates forms of collective memory and shared experience that endure through time and are passed down from generation to generation. Drawing on musical traditions from the Mediterranean, the Balkans, the Caucasus, and North Africa, the Polis Ensemble approaches these diverse cultural expressions as manifestations of a common anthropological landscape. Birth, Community, Separation, and Return form the dramaturgical journey of the performance, unfolding through lullabies, prayers, laments, and wedding songs that are creatively transformed through improvisation and collective musical practice.
With the participation of Anna Linardou as vocalist and Dimitris Sylvestros as director and visual artist, live music and video installation are woven together into a unified poetic environment. Within this immersive setting, personal experience meets the collective, and human presence itself becomes a place of encounter, dialogue, and coexistence.
The sparrow with the red vest by Galateia Grigoriadou-Soureli is brought to the stage as a contemporary performance combining theatre, dance and original music, addressed to children, teenagers and adults. Based on a landmark work of Greek children’s literature, the production approaches the sparrow as an allegory of the Other: a vulnerable, different being who becomes the target of fear and exclusion, but also a call for care. Narration, movement and sound create a poetic stage environment in which Contact Improvisation, silence and live music reveal the fragile balance between violence and solidarity. Conceived in direct dialogue with the archaeological site, this 4PLAY production asks a simple yet urgent question: what does it mean to remain human when faced with the defenseless.