A historic collaboration has just been announced: the summer of 2019 will mark the first – ever – collaboration between Athens & Epidaurus Festival and Comédie-Française, with the latter inviting the celebrated Belgian director Ivo van Hove to present Euripides’ Electra and Orestes, along with the actors of Comédie-Française. A diptych performance that is set to premiere at Salle Richelieu in Paris on April 2019, followed by the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, on 26 & 27 July 2019.
Éric Ruf, general director of Comédie-Française, made the official announcement in Paris. Vangelis Theodoropoulos, artistic director of Athens & Epidaurus Festival, was present for the announcement.
Ivo van Hove fascinated the Athens Festival 2018 audience just a few days ago with his performance After the Rehearsal – Persona, which received a standing ovation. Van Hove has worked together with Comédie-Française in Lucchino Visconti’s The Damned, a huge success that premiered in Festival d’Avignon in 2016 and was repeated at Salle Richelieu of Comédie-Française.
This second collaboration between the great master and Comédie-Française will be a historic first, marking the first time that the oldest active theatre company in the world will perform at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus.
