A musical performance inspired by Menander’s famous saying, “How charming is a human being when he is truly human,” reimagined here as: “How admirable is a human being when they remain human while everyone around them has become beast or demon.” The performance explores how, under conditions of extreme violence and brutality, the courage required for an act of solidarity, tenderness, or self-sacrifice can become an island of survival. Its dramaturgy is woven from excerpts of Imre Kertész’s Fatelessness, Anna Seghers’ The Seventh Cross, and poems by Paul Celan.
At the heart of the work stands the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, presented as a symbol of musical humanism. Bach’s music embraces the full spectrum of human emotional experience while continually reminding us of our longing for transcendence. Hidden pearls of humanity, drawn from the writings of these authors and illuminated by Bach’s music—which points simultaneously toward earth and sky, toward dance and prayer—invite us to reflect upon the grace of being human as Menander might have understood it. In a world overshadowed by hatred, this performance seeks moments of compassion, resilience, and dignity, revealing the enduring possibility of humanity even in the darkest of times.
The project “When One Is Human” highlights the learned musical tradition of Constantinople (15th–19th centuries) as a living expression of a multicultural and human-centered world. Within an environment where cultures and religions coexisted, music served as a common ground for experience and communication. Inspired by the reflection of Menander, the performance sheds light on the timeless value of human relationships, love, family, and peaceful coexistence. Classical Eastern music profoundly influenced modern Greek musical creation through the convergence of ecclesiastical and secular traditions. The program culminates with Tsatsaronis’ Oratorio for Peace, conveying a message of remembrance and hope.
The music-theatre performance Beyond, Always, Everywhere is a musical stage work that connects myths, music, and human experiences from around the world, based on five folk tales from different continents. Through storytelling, live music, singing, and interactive engagement with children, it explores shared human experiences across time. Six artists create an original sonic world on stage, blending traditional instruments from diverse cultures with contemporary musical techniques. The performance is accompanied by experiential workshops, encouraging children’s active participation and strengthening their connection to the collective artistic process.
The two most beautiful young people in the world; kings, gods and mortals; governesses and servants; messengers, pirates, grave robbers; triremes and fishing boats; battles, Artaxerxes and the people. Truly, “what poet ever brought to the stage such a strange tale,” where so many different elements
coexist? This is Chaereas and Callirhoe by Chariton — the earliest surviving novel of European literature (1st century AD) — now adapted for the very first time for the stage in Greece as a kids and family performance, directed by Aris Laskos.
Two teenagers fall in love and, because of jealousy, become lost in another kind of Odyssey, crossing lands and seas from Syracuse to Babylon. A moving, years-long journey into adulthood unfolds in 70 minutes, performed by five actors. Through play, song, and constant role-changing, they approach
the text from a contemporary perspective, shedding light on issues such as gender-based violence, misinformation, and self-discovery. Every human being, in a single moment, can behave inhumanely. But every human being also has the power to change and make amends.
Return is a dance and music performance for three female dancers and one musician on stage that explores the contemporary human condition through the concepts of the cycle and the ruin. The work approaches the body as an agent of memory and relation, as part of an ongoing process of return and redefinition. Through movement, sound, and materials, a ruin-like field emerges, shifts, and reassembles itself, tracing a path from the individual to the collective.
The composition unfolds through fragments of movement, sound, and action—small events that appear, transform, and re-emerge in new configurations. Rather than following a linear narrative, the work is built through successive encounters in which singular elements acquire meaning through their relation to a larger whole.
The archaeological site of Maroneia functions as a landscape in dialogue with the performance, rather than as a mere backdrop. Parallel temporalities appear and coexist without merging one another, while the personal is repositioned within the collective. Return is not a search for a mere point of origin, but an encounter with the other, the body and the shared space, where movement, transformation and coexistence become a common experience.
The Trace represents the imprint of human presence in time and space, the accumulation of knowledge, experience, and the evolution of humanity. From a historical perspective, traces emerge through conflicts, movements, and transformations, just as civilizations are born: through fire, ashes, and renegotiation. Human traces have shaped the world geographically, culturally, socially, and politically: on the body, in public space, in memory, and in myths. When an action is completed, the trace remains as testimony. For every human being, there is a set of traces functioning as a mirror of their evolution.
The Trace is the highest form of the human being as a possibility achieved through awareness, knowledge, and responsibility. It has no gender or material form. It is pure consciousness and at the same time political, as it carries the marks of collective history. The trace is a carrier of knowledge without being the absolute truth and always remains open to interpretation.
Parallel Activities
- “Embedded Traces: Interpreting the City”: Workshop with Ioannis Karounis | 7–13 July 2026
- “Embedded Traces: Interpreting the City”: Open Public Discussion at the Archaeological Museum of Drama | Following the performance on 14 July 2026
Admission is free.
Throughout humanity’s ongoing journey, people have ventured into territories entirely foreign to their own nature—and have often chosen to dominate them through the forceful imposition of their “civilization.” Yet the central character of The Tempest, Prospero, ultimately reaches a state of profound maturity through five decisive confrontations. He renounces all forms of violent power and turns instead toward forgiveness.
In Shakespeare’s final play, the wise Prospero—ruler of a domain through the power of his magic—is portrayed as an absolute authority. Like a stage director, he controls nature, human beings, time itself, and the unfolding of events. However, this very power has distanced him from the true nature of humanity, as his knowledge functions primarily as a mechanism of control.
The visual performance Descent initiates a process of self-understanding through a post-anthropocentric perspective, in which human existence is conceived as part of a network of interspecies relationships. These symbiotic structures are neither stable nor balanced; rather, they are shaped by asymmetries, dependencies, and continuous transformations.
The work invites audiences to participate in a collective experience of descent through unseen geological layers, entering a liminal field of experience where social and perceptual conditions become destabilized. It unfolds as a ritual of unlearning, a sequence of unexpected encounters—or confrontations—with the ground, materiality, and non-human forms of life. What would it mean to care for the planet if doing so required the invention of radically new ways of listening, perceiving, and coexisting?
The Kore opens the chest. As she unfolds the rugs, one by one, she recalls everything her mother told her. Each weft, three stories: the story of the world–with wars, harvests, and fairs –, the story of the community–with songs, teasing, fairy tales, and blankets –, and the silent story of the heart.
With expectations, loneliness, and dreams. This is how the weaving hours used to pass under the lamplight. Women’s hands resembled those of the mythical, ageless Weavers. Yet times have changed. The Kore no longer weaves to warm herself and others; she weaves to remember and create. Wefts become voices. And the loom becomes a musical body. The threads are quivering. Through the final weaving, where memories come together, Erchigos is born – a work made of sound.
We thank the ‘To Pleteno’ of Xanthi for the generous donation of the loom.
In an era when time accelerates, the collective spirit is shattered, and lived experiences are replaced by information, the performance Io: On the Mountain of the Great Gods draws inspiration from and begins with the mystery of the island of Samothraki, exploring faith as a realm of ideas, conflicts, and connections. A contemporary rite of passage about the fire of our civilization, humankind’s inhumanity, and solidarity, inspired by Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound. Starting from traditional wedding customs, we encounter a deserted Prometheus. The sacred wedding intended for the bride Io cannot be realized. None of the attendees knows the ritual anymore.
The Chorus leader sings about the failure of human societies and the pain of the Titan who is punished for the gifts he gave humanity. The musical compositions by People of the Wind provide the Chorus members with an opportunity to explore new interpretations of the myth and the story. Are there other ways of making connections beyond the ones we reproduce?