Athens Epidaurus Festival 2021
Autumn events
As the Peiraios 260 summer season gradually comes to a close, the Athens Epidaurus Festival is about to welcome a series of fascinating international productions coming this September and October, once again bringing the Festival in contact with the global performing arts scene.
International productions typically rank among the most anticipated events held as part of the Athens Epidaurus Festival programme, as they give audiences the opportunity to watch new works by world-renowned artists and keep up to date with emerging artistic trends, as reflected in the productions of up-and-coming artists and ensembles.
The performances that will be presented this September-October at Peiraios 260 explore new artistic “languages” and timely social and political themes. Gender issues and contemporary social contradictions and conflicts take centre stage, as these productions will collectively pose a crucial question for the Festival audience: in what future do we wish to live?
This year, shortly before the world premiere of Maja Zade’s take on Oedipus at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, under the helm of director Thomas Ostermeier / Schaubühne, the Peiraios 260 venue will welcome 13 international productions of theatre, dance and performance, as well as concerts from 11 different countries (Germany, Belgium, Poland, Switzerland, Chile, Canada, Austria, Spain, Israel, Lithuania, Iceland), with 7 of them introducing artists and ensembles in Greece for the very first time.
The Festival autumn programme will be held across various Peiraios 260 halls (D, H, and E), in accordance with the health protocols ensuring the safety of audiences, artists, and the Festival staff.*
You are all invited to book your tickets now as we look forward to seeing you there, sharing yet another uplifting Festival experience.
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Book your tickets at aefestival.gr | tickets.aefestival.gr | www.ticketservices.gr, at +30 210 7234 567 at the Main Box Office (Panepistimiou 39) and the Public stores.
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All international theatre productions with Greek and English surtitles.
All Greek-language productions with English surtitles and Greek surtitles on opening night.
PEIRAIOS 260
September– October 2021
OPERA PERFORMANCE
GREEK DEBUT
Golden Lion for Best National Participation, Venice Biennale 2019
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Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė – Vaiva Grainytė – Lina Lapelytė
Sun & Sea
1 & 2 September / 20:00, 21:30, 23:00
HALL D
A sunny day at a dreamy, sandy beach. A host of bodies sunbathing, singing, telling their stories, bringing their voices together and becoming a Chorus. At the crossroads of theatre, music, and visual arts, the visually stunning opera-performance Sun & Sea highlights the connection between realism and poetry in an emotionally moving manner.
Runtime 4 hours
LITHUANIA – GERMANY
THEATRE
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TR Warszawa – Kornél Mundruczó
Pieces of a Woman
2, 3, 4 September / 21:00
HALL Η
Following his performance Imitation of Life, a riveting experience for the 2018 Festival audience, internationally acclaimed theatre and film director Kornél Mundruczó and the TR Warszawa company deliver an absorbing family drama, based on a text by Kata Wéber, recently adapted by Mundruczó himself as a motion picture. The main heroine is a young woman in modern-day Warsaw. A traumatic experience marks a complete turnaround when 30-year-old Maja loses her baby shortly after giving birth. The performance is a combination of theatre and cinema, with the first 20 minutes of the labour being filmed.
POLAND
PERFORMANCE
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9 & 10 September / 21:00
Florentina Holzinger
TANZ
HALL D
How can the cult of beauty that is inextricably bound with dance tradition be reconciled with the cruelty to which women’s bodies are exposed through this art form? The third part of a trilogy that examines the human 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- to eighty-years old, under the instructions of the first ballerina who danced Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring naked back in 1972, undergo rigorous training in a ballet d’action. An operatic scenery comes alive through violent, parodic images.
The performance contains violence and nudity. Cigarettes and stroboscopic effects are used.
AUSTRIA
DANCE
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Martin Zimmermann
Eins Zwei Drei
9 & 10 September / 21:00
HALL Η
Museum: a seemingly neutral space with its own set of rules. However, what happens when three clowns show up and change everything? Three virtuoso performers display their skills to the sounds of pianist Colin Vallon, against the backdrop of an impressive set, composing a total work of art, a miniature of our times. A hilarious spectacle reflecting on the complexity, poetry, and violence of contemporary relations and power struggles. Above all, a clown performance for grown-ups!
SWITZERLAND
THEATRE
INTERNATIONAL PRODUCTIONS
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Nowy Teatr – Krzysztof Warlikowski
Odyssey. A Story for Hollywood
17 – 19 September / 20:00
HALL D
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.
POLAND
DANCE
GREEK DEBUT
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La Veronal – Marcos Morau
Pasionaria
20 & 21 September / 21:00
HALL Η
Pasionaria, by multi-award-winning Spanish choreographer Marcos Morau, 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.
SPAIN
THEATRE
PERFORMANCE
GREEK DEBUT
INTERNATIONAL CO-PRODUCTION
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Infrarouge – Marie Brassard
Violence
24 & 25 September / 21:00
HALL D
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. A hybrid performance, combining aspects of cinematic realism and expressionist theatre, sound arts and visual arts.
CANADA
THEATRE
GREEK DEBUT
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Teatro La Re-sentida – Marco Layera
Paisajes para no colorear / Non-Colouring Landscapes
27 & 28 September / 21:00
HALL D
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.
CHILE
DANCE
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Serge Aimé Coulibaly
Wakatt
29 & 30 September / 21:00
HALL D
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.
BURKINA FASO – BELGIUM
ELECTRONIC MUSIC
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Chronotopia
Two days of electronic and experimental music
In collaboration with CTM Festival and Goethe-Institut
1 & 2 October
HALL Η
The multifaceted Chronotopia project launches an exciting collaboration between the Athens Festival, Goethe-Institut Athen and Berlin’s CTM Festival του Βερολίνου. World-renowned for its efforts to highlight and promote contemporary experimental and electronic music, for the last 21 years CTM has been established as one of the most avant-garde, pioneering festivals of its kind, encompassing numerous events, running the gamut of club and sound culture. Chronotopia will feature six musical/audiovisual works, created by the participants of the electronic composition lab Chronotopia Echoes / Αντηχήσεις, under the guidance of artists Akis Sinos and Anke Echardt, following research in the archive of the Athens-based Contemporary Music Research Center (CMRC). Five original works of electronic music and an audiovisual installation drawing from past music will be presented at Hall H at Peiraios 260.
Audiences will remain seated throughout the concerts
THEATRE
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Schaubühne – Thomas Ostermeier
History of Violence
Based on the novel by Édouard Louis
5 & 6 October / 21:00
HALL D
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.
GERMANY
DANCE
GREEK DEBUT
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L-E-V – Sharon Eyal – Gai Behar
Chapter 3: The Brutal Journey of the Heart
9 & 10 October / 21:00
HALL D
The third part of a trilogy on love, this production by acclaimed Israeli choreographer Sharon Eyal restores the joie de vivre in dance. Pulsating, humorous and sensual movements, explosive body swirls and flawlessly performed ballet moves are blended with slightly ironic voguing moves. The intricate costumes of Maria Grazia Chiuri, fashion designer and current creative director at Dior, evoke a full-body tattoo aesthetic, further reinforcing the dreamlike, sensual atmosphere. A performance that has been met with enthusiasm around the world.
ISRAEL
MUSIC
CHRONOTOPIA
GREEK DEBUT
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Hildur Guðnadóttir
featuring Chris Watson & Sam Slater
Chernobyl Live
9 & 10 October / 23:00
HALL Η
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.
ICELAND
DANCE
PREMIERE
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Marianna Kavallieratos
Ancient Future Solo
Workshop presentation for adolescents
9 & 10 September / 21:00
HALL Ε
How can eight, very different dance solos lead to a collective choreography? This performance serving as a sequel to Ancient Future Solo, the dance workshop for adolescents held by the Festival during the winter season, as part of the Open Plan initiative. If the eight teenage participants delved into Sophocles’ Antigone and Euripides’ Helen in the first nine workshop meetings, drawing on their personal aesthetics and following the rules dictating the creation of an individual work, they will now work together to create a collective original work.
THEATRE
PREMIERE
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Katerina Giannopoulou
In a Year With 13 Moons
Based on the film by E. W. Fassbinder
24-25-26 September / 21:00
HALL Ε
Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s iconic film is adapted for the stage for the very first time by director Katerina Giannopoulou, presented at the Athens Festival. Elvira wanders through the streets of an unfriendly city, trying to pick up the pieces of her life. Abandoned by everyone, the transgender heroine visits places and people who left their mark on her, struggling to come up with a reason for continuing to live. A performance about the right to love and live, in what is a critical time for human rights and gender issues.
With English surtitles and Greek surtitles on opening night.
