Argyro Chioti – The Frogs, by Aristophanes | Streaming live from the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, Greece

Argyro Chioti The Frogs by Aristophanes

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Streaming live from the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, Greece | www.livefromepidaurus.gr

10 July, 21:00 (GMT +3) | An Athens Epidaurus Festival production

As the world is still reeling from the pandemic and exploring new ways to re-ignite theatre in the COVID-19 era, the Athens Epidaurus Festival invites international audiences to the most beautiful theatre of the ancient world for a live broadcast of Aristophanes’ comic masterpiece The Frogs, by acclaimed director Argyro Chioti in her Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus debut. The play includes a stellar cast of renowned Greek theatre actors and a strikingly original musical performance.

Following last year’s hugely successful live streaming of The Persians by the National Theatre of Greece, watched by over 100,000 viewers worldwide, The Frogs will be streamed live on July 10 at 21:00 Athens time (GMT +3), with the support of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, in collaboration with Google Greece. The performance will be available worldwide (with the exception of Greece) and exclusively through livefromepidaurus.gr and at the Festival’s official YouTube channel, Athens Epidaurus Festival, free of charge, although donations are welcome. The performance will be in Greek, with English subtitles, and lasts approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes.

Written in 405 BC, at the end of the Golden Age of Pericles, The Frogs is one of Aristophanes’ timeless and most beloved masterworks. The play tackles the descent of god Dionysus to the Underworld, where he embarks on a quest to bring the best tragic poet back to the world of the living, in an attempt to restore theatre to its former glory. Thank to this play, culminating in an iconic scene of poetic “duel” between Aeschylus and Euripides, Aristophanes provides a scathing commentary on the bankrupt political values of his time. A delightful gem by a writer whose work remains as relevant as ever.

Artistic Director, Katerina Evangelatos, says:
“We are overjoyed to be able to digitally welcome, for a second year, international audiences to the most iconic ancient theatre. We all have the chance to experience an ancient Greek comedy through the eyes of a young female director, Argyro Chioti, who is making her Epidaurus debut. Aristophanes’ The Frogs is a thoroughly amusing play that also provides food for thought, as it ponders the roles of Poetry during turbulent times”.

Director Argyro Chioti says: “Plunging into a comic Underworld, where everything is light and fluid, the characters in The Frogs dance and sing on tiptoe. Poetry becomes the goal, a means of uplifting their heart and mind”.