Plan ahead for the Athens and Epidaurus Festival
Spread across 5 months, the Athens and Epidaurus Festival has always marked the beginning of the summer cultural season. Expect an adrenaline-charged programme with 80 open-air performances, experimental theatre, contemporary dance, classical music, subverted operas and more in 2021’s packed repertoire.
Athens and Epidaurus Festival Highlights in June
MUSIC
Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino – Zubin Mehta
The Athens Concert Hall presents a magnificent concert for the 30 years since its founding at the Odeon of Herod Atticus , with the legendary conductor Zubin Mehta, and the internationally renowned violinist Pinchas Zukerman performing with the acclaimed Orchinos May (Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino). A bucket-list event not to be missed. Book early!
Odeon of Herodes Atticus – 14/06/2021 at 21:00
For ticketing info: www.megaron.gr
VISUAL ARTS
Tassos Vrettos
The Feel. Backstage
An adults-only installation capturing the underground clubbing scene in Athens from 2005 onwards, carrying us to that largely unseen part in the lives of Greek and international clubbing performance artists and those of the BDSM scene, as well as LGBTQI+ activism, as experienced and recorded by well-known Greek photographer Tassos Vrettos. The multimedia installation of The Feel. Backstage, one of the artist’s most original research projects, will be held at Hall A of Peiraios 260, as the starting work of a broader presentation of Vrettos’ body of work across different spaces and times, with the support of the NEON Organization for Culture and Development, in collaboration with the Onassis Foundation for the creation of a bilingual printed edition on Vrettos and his work.
Opening hours: 19:00-24:00
Peiraios 260 (Α) 15/06 until 31/07/2021 at 19:00
DANCE
Breakdance Battle
For the first time in its history, the Athens Festival features a break dance and hip hop battle in its official programme. Battles have been an integral part of breakdance and hip-hop culture in USA since the late 1970s. They were often a way for ghetto gangs to settle their differences. The battles culture was introduced in Greece during the 1990s. Featuring acclaimed dancers from all over Greece and established judges from Greece and abroad, the battles of the Athens Epidaurus Festival Urban Dance Contest will be split into two categories. On the first day, category is Break 1vs1, in which only individual breakdancers (Β-boys & B-girls) are qualified to participate. On the second day, category is Hip Hop (All Style) 1vs1, in which individual dancers from diverse hip hop styles (hip hop, break, popping, locking) will compete against each other.Athens and Epidaurus Festival Highlights in July
VISUAL ARTS
An adults-only installation capturing the underground clubbing scene in Athens from 2005 onwards, carrying us to that largely unseen part in the lives of Greek and international clubbing performance artists and those of the BDSM scene, as well as LGBTQI+ activism, as experienced and recorded by well-known Greek photographer Tassos Vrettos. The multimedia installation of The Feel. Backstage, one of the artist’s most original research projects, will be held at Hall A of Peiraios 260, as the starting work of a broader presentation of Vrettos’ body of work across different spaces and times, with the support of the NEON Organization for Culture and Development, in collaboration with the Onassis Foundation for the creation of a bilingual printed edition on Vrettos and his work.
Opening hours: 19:00-24:00
Peiraios 260 (Α) 15/06 until 31/07/2021 at 19:00
MUSIC
Max Cooper
This summer, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus welcomes one of the most innovative electronic musicians of our time: beloved techno producer Max Cooper, celebrated by his many fans around the world thanks to his unique music and spectacular audio-visual shows. His complex, intricate compositions are inspired by his scientific background in genetics, encompassing subtle, recurring elements culminating in an abstract narrative that emotionally moves audiences. His much-anticipated concert at the Odeon will come complete with breathtaking, visually arresting projections.
Odeon of Herodes Atticus – 06/07/2021 at 21:00
MUSIC
Ólafur Arnalds
Icelander Ólafur Arnalds is a global powerhouse of composition and sound design, widely beloved for his unique compositions,
combining strings and piano with beats in unexpected loops. Arnalds offers a fresh, modern twist on classical music, winning audiences over ever since his first album was released in 2007. His latest album, Some Kind of Peace (2020), is the journey of his personal
and creative growth, set against the backdrop of a chaotic world. In this intriguing work, we’ll hear hints of those private experiences – sometimes even samples of the significant events themselves – woven into an album that is remarkable in its openness and its beauty.
15/07/2021 at 21:00
THEATRE
Michael Marmarinos
TRACKERS by Sophocles
Apollo has tasked the Tracking Satyrs with retrieving his lost cattle, aided by Silenus, in exchange for gold and their freedom. The Satyrs track the animals to a cave, led on by the sound of the lyre that has just been invented by Hermes. Sophocles’ fragmentary, rarely performed satyr play is the only surviving dramatic narrative about how Music first reached the ears of humans. Director Michail Marmarinos returns to the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, with this ‘inconceivable monument of a text’, employing a historic, verse translation.
The text will be published as part of the Festival’s newly launched theatre book series, as an annotated edition with an introduction by Stavros Tsitsiridis.
With Greek and English surtitles
– 23/07 until 25/07/2021 at 00:00
Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus
DANCE
Greek National Opera – Manos Hadjidakis
Dance With My Own Shadow
Konstantinos Rigos choreographed four remarkable works by Manos Hadjidakis for the Greek National Opera Ballet. In Kyklos tou C.N.S (C.N.S Cycle), loss and suffering unfold against the backdrop of the rough sea; in Kapetan Michalis (Captain Michalis), the wet, nocturnal, Southern wind “falls upon women like a man and upon men like a woman”; in Katarameno Fidi (The Accursed Serpent), the iconic figure of Karagiozis epitomises the timelessness of folk art; in Το Chamogelo tis Tzokontas (Gioconda’s Smile), the glamour and hustle and bustle of New York City accentuates loneliness and despair.
Originally presented on November 9, 2019, at the Stavros Niarchos Hall of the Greek National Opera at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, the well-received performance will be repeated this year at the Athens Epidaurus Festival.
Odeon of Herodes Atticus
- 25/07/2021 at 21:00
- 27/07/2021 at 21:00
- 29/07/2021 at 21:00
1821 BICENTENNIALPREMIERETHEATRE
Anestis Azas
The Republic of Baklava
Anestis Azas’ new play, part of the 1821 Bicentennial tribute, is set in modern-day Greece, and can be classified as part-documentary, part-fiction, though it boasts a fictional plot. Featuring a mixed-race couple, a Greek man and a Turkish woman, who decide to form their own nation state using their home and private business as headquarters, this performance theatrically renegotiates tensions that have been active since the Greek Revolution to this day. Through a number of hilarious situations, the heroes are confronted with the contradictions of contemporary Greek society, the problematics of national identity, and the utopian reality of a future, global digital nation, taking us, the audience, along for the ride.
Peiraios 260 (E) – 26/07 until 29/07/2021 at 21:00
Argyro Chioti
The Frogs by Aristophanes
Does Poetry have a place in a seemingly prosperous society? In this hilarious and thoughtful satire, Aristophanes depicts a descent to the Underworld, in quest of the poet that will save the ailing city. The poetic duel between Euripides and Aeschylus is sidesplittingly funny as well as giving us food for thought, especially in our current times of cultural poverty, with poetry more instrumental than ever in securing some form of social unity. The play will be presented in a new, modern Greek translation by poet and translator Nikos A. Panagiotopoulos, in this performance directed by talented Argyro Chioti in her debut at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus.
The text will be published as part of the Festival’s newly launched theatre book series, featuring Nikos A. Panagiotopoulos’ new translation, with an introduction and a complete list of previous productions of the play by Professor Agis Marinis.
With Greek and English surtitles
Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus – 09/07 until 11/07/2021 at 21:00
Athens and Epidaurus Festival Highlights in August
MUSIC
Brian Eno & Roger Eno, Live at the Acropolis
Brothers Brian Eno and Roger Eno have been recording together since 1983. They first collaborated with Daniel Lanois on the soundtrack to For All Mankind, Al Reinert’s epic documentary on the Apollo moon landing and released as the highly acclaimed album, Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks. They have also contributed to soundtracks for the films Dune (1984) and Opera (1987), and were nominated for a BAFTA award for their score to Danny Boyle’s TV series, Mr. Wroe’s Virgins (1993). In 2020. the duo released their first full collaboration album, Mixing Colours, on the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon label. It has received very enthusiastic reviews around the world and was followed by a 6 track EP, Luminous, later in the same year. At the Odeon of Herodes Atticus we will enjoy a spectacular concert with the two brothers creating atmospheric musical landscapes in this iconic Roman site. This will be a unique musical event as the two creators appear together on stage for the first time, one of the very rare occasions that Brian Eno has ever performed live in front of an audience.
Odeon of Herodes Atticus – 04/08/2021 at 21:00
Athens Festival Highlights in September
MUSIC
Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė – Vaiva Grainytė – Lina Lapelytė
Sun and Sea – An Opera-Performance
A sunny day on a dreamy, sandy beach. A host of bodies sunbathing, singing, telling their stories, talking in unison and becoming a Chorus. At the crossroads of theatre, music, and visual arts, the visually stunning opera-performance Sun and Sea highlights the connection between realism and poetry in an emotional manner. The performance represented Lithuania in the 2019 Venice Biennale, where it won the Golden Lion for Best National Participation.
Audiences may freely enter and exit the performance venue at all times
Peiraios 260 (D) – 01/09 until 02/09/2021 at 21:00
THEATRE
TR Warszawa – Kornél Mundruczó
Pieces of a Woman
A traumatic experience marks the beginning of a complete turnaround. Thirty-year-old Maja loses her baby. Will she be able to find the motivation necessary to fight for herself? Will she be able to reclaim her personal freedom? Following his captivating Imitation of Life, presented at the 2018 Athens Festival, internationally acclaimed film and theatre director Kornél Mundruczó and the TR Warszawa’s ensemble deliver an absorbing family drama, centred around a woman in modern-day Warsaw. The story of Pieces of a Woman, based on Kata Wéber’s script, was recently adapted by Mundruczó into a motion picture.
The performance contains strobe lights. With Greek and English surtitles
Duration 2 hours 40 mins
Peiraios 260 (H) – 02/09 until 04/09/2021 at 21:00
THEATRE
PERFORMANCE
Florentina Holzinger
TANZ
How can the cult of beauty inherent in the tradition of dance be reconciled with the cruelty to which female bodies are exposed through this form of art? Third part of a trilogy about body as a spectacle and its disciplining, TANZ by Austrian Florentina Holzinger focuses on the legacy of classical dance.
Performers between the ages of twenty and eighty, under the direction of the first ballerina to dance Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring naked, back in 1972, undergo rigorous training in a ballet d’action. In an operatic setting, the frantic quest for perfection in an ephemeral world comes alive through brutal, parodic images.
Viewer discretion is advised: The performance contains scenes of nudity, self-harm acts, and stroboscopic effects.
Duration 110′
Peiraios 260 (D) – 09/09 until 10/09/2021 at 21:00
DANCE
Martin Zimmermann
Eins Zwei Drei
Museum: a seemingly neutral space, with its own set of rules. What happens when three clowns show up and turn everything upside down? Three virtuoso performers unleash their talents against the backdrop of an impressive setting, a total work of art, a miniature of our society, to the sounds of pianist Colin Vallon. A hilarious spectacle, mirroring the complexity, violence and poetry of contemporary relationships and power struggles. Above all, a clown performance for grown-ups!
Peiraios 260 (H) – 09/09 until 10/09/2021 at 21:00
Nowy Teatr – Krzysztof Warlikowski
Odyssey. A Story for Hollywood
Drawing on the Homeric theme of ‘return home’, renowned Polish director Krzysztof Warlikowski creates a brand-new performance revolving around a woman’s Odyssey of sorts during World War II, inspired by Homer’s epic and two works by Hanna Krall, Chasing the King of Hearts and Story for Hollywood. The main heroine, a modern-day Penelope, risked her life to ensure her husband’s return home; a story that could very well be adapted into a Hollywood movie, as the title suggests.
With Greek and English surtitles
Duration 4 hours
Peiraios 260 (D) – 17/09 until 19/09/2021 at 20:00
DANCE
La Veronal – Marcos Morau
Pasionaria
Joy and pain. Love and death. The dichotomies of life represented through images that will haunt spectators long after this performance by multi-award-winning Spanish choreographer Marcos Morau. Pasionaria refers to a passionless planet. An imaginary, dystopian world, imitating the human world, whose inhabitants move like robots or statues, seemingly oblivious to any feeling. A visually stunning production with a strong theatrical quality and an idiosyncratic choreographic style that draws inspiration from hip hop, popping and animation.
The performance contains strobe lights.
Duration 75′
Peiraios 260 (H) – 20/09 until 21/09/2021 at 21:00
GREEK DEBUT PERFORMANCE THEATRE
Infrarouge – Marie Brassard, Violence
How is children’s innocence transformed by the darkness of adulthood? In her new, strikingly fairytale-like, dreamlike work, Canadian artist Marie Brassard contemplates the notion of time and humans’ gradual exposure to violence as they grow up. Using an imaginative observation of her two-year-old goddaughter as a starting point, the director creates a hybrid performance, combining aspects of cinematic realism and expressionist theatre, sound arts and visual arts.
Peiraios 260 (D) – 24/09 until 25/09/2021 at 21:00
DANCE
Serge Aimé Coulibaly
Wakatt
How can we be open to different visions for the future? For Belgian-Burkinabe choreographer Serge Aimé Coulibaly, the universal language of dance tackles complex issues, calling our certainties into question. Bringing together movement and rhythm, the energy of dance feeds into our hopes and sets them free. In his new, African-inspired piece, Wakatt, Coulibaly focuses on humankind’s endeavours to create a sustainable future, composing a rich, multifaceted work, featuring ten dancers and the three musicians of the Magic Malik Orchestra, performing Afro-jazz live, in what is a truly electrifying performance.
Duration 75′
Peiraios 260 (D) – 29/09 until 30/09/2021 at 21:00
Athens and Epidaurus Festival Highlights in October
MUSIC
Hildur Guðnadóttir
Chernobyl Live
With Chris Watson and Sam Slater
This year’s programme features a huge, world-class surprise concert. Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir (winner of an Academy Award for Best Original Score for the film Joker) invites audiences to Peiraios 260 for a live performance of her Grammy-winning soundtrack for the acclaimed HBO television series Chernobyl. Recorded in a decommissioned nuclear plant in Lithuania, Guðnadóttir’s haunting soundscapes will now be recreated live against the backdrop of the Festival’s beloved industrial venue at Peiraios 260.
The performance contains strobe lights.
Duration 60′
Peiraios 260 (H) – 09/10 until 10/10/2021 at 23:00
THEATRE
Teatro La Re-sentida – Marco Layera
Paisajes para no colorear
Non-Colouring landscapes
Nine adolescent girls from Chile take to the stage and speak out about the violence against women. The Teatro La Re-sentida team draws on interviews with over 100 underage girls and young women who have experienced abuse either as eyewitnesses or as victims. The young actresses narrate these true stories, commenting on them and reconstructing many of the incidents narrated. At once emotional and sensitive, angry and polemical, but also distant and rich with a plurality of voices, this performance begs for a response from audiences.
Duration 90′
Peiraios 260 (D) – 03/10 until 04/10/2021 at 21:00
THEATRE
Schaubühne – Thomas Ostermeier
History of Violence Based on the novel by Édouard Louis
One Christmas night, Édouard meets Reda, a man of Algerian origin, and they end up in the former’s apartment. However, things soon take a turn for the worse.
A remarkable commentary on class hatred, homophobia, xenophobia and self-loathing written in a breathtaking language, young French author Édouard Louis’ autobiographical novella, acclaimed all over Europe, is adapted for the stage by Schaubühne. With gender-based violence one of the most hotly debated issues right now, German director Thomas Ostermeier, a favourite of Athenian audiences, returns to the Festival with a gripping, internationally acclaimed production, that is also expected to make an impact here.
Suitable for audiences 16+. Viewer discretion is advised: Strobe lights, aromatic sticks, and live smoking are used in the performance. With Greek and English surtitles
Duration 135′
Peiraios 260 (D) – 05/10 until 06/10/2021 at 21:00
