Three of Greece’s foremost cultural institutions – the Athens Epidaurus Festival, the National Theatre of Greece, and the Kalamata International Dance Festival – join forces to inaugurate SYSTEMA – For the Greek Performing Arts, a newly established and expanded platform dedicated to the acquaintance of the international performing arts scene with contemporary Greek creation, as well as its difussion and further promotion to audiences worldwide.

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Conceived as a dynamic interface between artists and the global performing arts landscape, SYSTEMA fosters meaningful connections with theatres, festivals, networks, and audiences worldwide. In broadening the representation of Greece’s performing arts, the initiative incorporates productions from the independent theatre and dance scene – a vital engine of artistic innovation and experimentation – while also amplifying domestic artistic production, offering the opportunity for its international promotion within a coherent forward-looking framework. Its inaugural edition introduces both independent theatre productions and dance works drom Athens and Thessaloniki, as placeholders for the future inclusion of many more, responding to a longstanding need and signalling both immediate ambition and its commitment to a long-term vision.

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SYSTEMA builds upon the strong international foundations established by grape – Greek Agora of Performance 2023– 2025 by the Athens Epidaurus Festival and the NT Showcase 2023– 2025 by the National Theatre of Greece; two initiatives that have welcomed more than 250 artistic directors, curators, and journalists from esteemed cultural organisations and media outlets across 40 countries. Performances presented within these frameworks have toured extensively, reaching approximately 70 stages across Europe, Asia, the United States, and Canada.

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Through the strategic alignment of the two organisations with the Kalamata International Dance Festival – Greece’s leading organisation for contemporary dance, SYSTEMA embodies a tangible gesture of collaborative ethos, a pivotal move in cultural policy through sustained partnerships, aimed at amplifying the resonance of Greek performing arts beyond national borders.

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From 20 to 26 July 2026, SYSTEMA will unfold as a dense seven-day showcase across Athens, Epidaurus, and Kalamata, bringing together international delegates, artists and the wider public. The platform’s programme extends beyond the main programme of performances to encompass networking events, pitching sessions, curated music encounters and special performances, cultivating fertile ground for dialogue and exchange between artists and professionals, while offering insights into Greece’s evolving cultural ecosystem – including small-scale, large-scale, indoor, and open-air productions in three different landmark cities.

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The name systema derived from the Ancient Greek σύστημα (sústēma), denotes the coming together of interrelated components into a unified whole. True to its etymology, the initiative operates as a living mechanism: an alliance of institutions and practitioners working in concert to secure a sustained and visible international presence for Greek performing arts. SYSTEMA thus becomes both a platform and a mission, one that nourishes a shared space of communication, connection and dissemination, a mechanism for cultural stimulation and continuity.

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SYSTEMA 2026

In its first edition, SYSTEMA presents nineteen theatre and dance performances across historic venues in Athens, Epidaurus, and Kalamata. These include the notable Ziller building of the National Theatre of Greece; the landmark industrial complex Peiraios 260, the iconic Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, and the Little Theatre of Ancient Epidaurus of the Athens Epidaurus Festival; and the unique Kalamata Dance Megaron, alongside a constellation of Athens’ vibrant performing arts spaces.

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Carefully curated, SYSTEMA captures both the urgency and the diversity of Greece’s performing arts scene today. The selected works engage with themes of memory and temporality, the feminine experience, and the body as a site of tension and negotiation, while probing questions of collective identity, power, and political resistance. Through a wide spectrum of dramaturgical approaches – including reimagined stagings of texts by Aristophanes, Euripides, Eugène Ionesco, and Guillaume Poix – the performances offer new perspectives and forge non-linear narratives, inviting a dynamic interplay between stage and audience.

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Without shying away from the complexities of our time, the featured artists confront pressing concerns such as consumption, greed, alienation, and existential uncertainty, while opening new avenues for reflecting on humanity’s relationship with nature, the animal world, the necessity of critical and creative thinking and the fragility of life. Bridging local specificity with global concerns, SYSTEMA ultimately affirms the enduring human impulse toward shared experience and coexistence, extending a brave invitation to engage, reflect, and reimagine the conditions of our collective future.

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The artists featured in SYSTEMA 2026 are:

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Zoe Efstathiou (dance), Maria Hassabi (dance), Iris Karayan (dance), Nikos Karathanos & Foivos Delivorias (theatre), Dimitris Karantzas (theatre), Marilena Katranidou (theatre), Lena Kitsopoulou (theatre), Christiana Kosiari (dance), Thanassis Kritsakis (theatre), Panos Malactos (dance), Kornilios Selamsis & Haris Fragoulis (music-theatre), Maria Panourgia (theatre), Konstantinos Papanikolaou (dance), Ioanna Portolou/ Griffón dance co (dance), Garage21 | Mary Rantou & Evangelia Rantou (dance), Christos Theodoridis (theatre), Efthimis Theou (performance-archaeology), Adonis Vais (dance) and Yorgos Vourdamis (theatre).

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Additionally, within the framework of SYSTEMA, a parallel program is proposed, consisting of a series of special events, including: a curated series of live music performances after midnight in a celebratory spirit titled AFTER, as well as two distinct experiences in Epidaurus and Kalamata.

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A) Narrative Archaeology: The Body and the Mystery of Healing, at the Archaeological Site of Ancient Epidaurus, presented by the Athens Epidaurus Festival.

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B) The closing performance of the Kalamata International Dance Festival, To Have Been So Close So Many Times, by Giorgos Koumentakis, presented by the Greek National Opera Ballet.

SYSTEMA is supported by the exclusive sponsorship of the National Bank of Greece – Mastercard. Their sponsorship towards SYSTEMA, this joint initiative by the three leading institutions, makes possible the continuation and expansion of a platform of international scope that contributes to strengthening Greece’s cultural footprint on a global level. Their support – first from 2023 to 2025 within the framework of grape – and currently through SYSTEMA reflects a continuous investment in promoting the promotion of contemporary Greek creativity abroad.

Audience Awards by National Bank of Greece – Mastercard

Within the framework of SYSTEMA, the National Bank of Greece—Mastercard continue for a fourth consecutive year the intiative of the Audience Awards, aiming to highlight the audience’s favorite performances. The public will have the opportunity to participate actively by voting for the performances that moved, inspired, or challenged them, turning the voting process into a tool for reflection and personal connection with art. The awarded artists will have the opportunity to participate in international networking and artistic residency programs, as well as educational seminars, professional development initiatives, and more.

International Touring Support Fund by National Bank of Greece – Mastercard

At the same time, the National Bank of Greece—Mastercard Touring Support Fund is being established for the first time. It is addressed to all participating artists in SYSTEMA, regardless of the outcome of the audience vote, and serves as a source of support for the international touring invitations of the platform’s performances.

Performances

THEATRE

Yorgos Vourdamis

Nojaveland

A chamber western

by Giannis Aposkitis

18 – 21 July

THEATRE 104

THEATRE

Marilena Katranidou

The Bald Soprano

– It happens sometimes –

Based on the play by Eugene Ionesco

20 – 23 July

ALKMINI THEATRE

THEATRE

Lena Kitsopoulou

Bacchae

20 – 22 July

PEIRAIOS 260 – HALL D

THEATRE

Thanasis Kritsakis

Michel: Exercises in Mortality

21 – 23 July

SYCHRONO THEATRO

THEATRE

Christos Theodoridis

Sacred

by Guillaume Poix from an idea by Lorraine de Sagazan

22 & 23 July

ZILLER BUILDING – NIKOS KOURKOULOS NEW STAGE

PERFOMANCE-ARCHAEOLOGY

Efthimis Theou

FRAGMENTS: Euripides

22 July

SCHOOL OF ATHENS – IRENE PAPAS

DANCE

Maria Hassabi

Us

22 & 23 July

PEIRAIOS 260 – HALL H

DANCE

Zoi Efstathiou

When Did Silence Get This Loud?

22 – 24 July

PEIRAIOS 260 – HALL E

DANCE

Panos Malactos

Brightest Heroine

22 – 24 July

PEIRAIOS 260 – HALL B

DANCE

Christiana Kosiari

Koliva

22 – 24 July

PEIRAIOS 260 – HALL B

THEATRE

Maria Panourgia

Doll

based on A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen

23 July

ZILLER BUILDING – MAIN STAGE

THEATRE

Dimitris Karantzas

Alcestis

by Euripides

23 July

MELINA MERCOURI VRACHON THEATRE, VIRONAS

THEATRE

Nikos Karathanos

Eirene (Peace)

A revisit to Aristophanes’ work

24 & 25 July

ANCIENT THEATRE OF EPIDAURUS

MUSIC – THEATRE

Kornilios Selamsis – Haris Fragoulis

1961

A sonic excursion to the ruins of the present

One actress, two voices, six instruments

24 & 25 July

LITTLE THEATRE OF ANCIENT EPIDAURUS

DANCE

Konstantinos Papanikolaou

Α User’s Manual

25 July

KALAMATA DANCE MEGARON / ALTERNATIVE STAGE

DANCE

Adonis Vais

Lunar Seaga

25 July

KALAMATA DANCE MEGARON / ALTERNATIVE STAGE

DANCE

GARAGE21

Mountains

25 July

KALAMATA DANCE MEGARON / ALTERNATIVE STAGE

DANCE

Iris Karayan

What are the bodies of our time?

26 July

KALAMATA DANCE MEGARON / ALTERNATIVE STAGE

DANCE

Ioanna Portolou / Griffón Dance co.

Superstar

26 July

KALAMATA DANCE MEGARON / ALTERNATIVE STAGE