“Attic drama, a child of democracy, became complete through public discourse and the renegotiation of the myth. Tragedy has also been an educational tool,” observes Simos Kakalas. “What’s happening with tragedy today, given that it is cut off from these parameters?”

A director who has won respect through his devotion to the manual aspect of theatre, Simos Kakalas is staging Orestes in two versions, one for a closed space and one for an open-air one. The first version (for a limited number of performances in Thessaloniki) will pave the way for the performances at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus.

With Orestes, Euripides transforms Sophocles’ tyrant-slaying Orestes and Electra  into “terrorists.” Six days after the murder of Clytemnestra, the two siblings are holed up their family home, while the whole of society is against them.  Their only hope is Menelaus, who will also betray them.

In Greek with English surtitles