The Promised Land

2026 marks the end of the lignite era, as announced in 2019. In this period of transition, the play returns us to where it all began: the Marshall Plan and the onset of lignite expansion in the 1940s; the years of economic growth and DEI’s ‘monoculture’; the thousands of jobs- and the radical transformation of the landscape. It also brings into view the less visible dimensions of this history: the impact on public health, workplace accidents, environmental protests, and today’s uncertainty as delignification steers the region towards an as yet indistinct future.

The Promised Land is the Municipal and Regional Theatre of Kozani’s new production for summer 2026, co-produced with the Athens Epidaurus Festival. It is a theatrical work deeply rooted in the identity and community of Western Macedonia, as well as in the country’s lesser-known energy history.

As Georgia Mavragani notes: “Behind every power cut lie a thousand human lives, forming one of the most significant chapters of modern Greece: the production of electric power by DEI and its pivotal role in shaping the region’s social, economic, and environmental fabric.”

The director, drawing on extensive experience in documentary theatre and community-based work, has developed the piece following months of on-site research. Historical archives, journalistic sources, and testimonies from residents, workers, and officials are woven into the fabric of the performance. On stage, professional actors and members of the local community share the space, bridging the documentary and the lyrical, the personal and the collective.

The Promised Land forms part of DIPETHE Kozani’s strategic orientation, which supports the creation of contemporary works in dialogue with the region’s history and its pressing concerns. Its presentation within the Festival aspires to function as an act of collective cultural dialogue and self-awareness: a direct, living testimony to energy, loss, and a transition that extends beyond a single place or region to encompass the entire country.