Epidaurus

When Aristophanes first presented "The Clouds" in 423 BC, his comedy was not welcomed with praise. Now, two millennia later, his play is considered one of the greatest examples of high comedy.

With Greek actress Maria Skoula in the title role, the Athens and Epidaurus Festival presents "Phedre," a tragedy written by French dramatist Jean Racine. As Phaedra confides in her nurse her love for her stepson Hippolytus, the latter pines over Aricia, daughter of Pallas, with whom he intends to elope.

"I'd wanted to come to Greece for years, but something always prevented it from happening. But when I got the phone call from Stavros Tsakiris asking me to play Prometheus, I was scared stiff. And then I thought of my parents, who are now gone, telling me: 'Are you kidding Katerina?

Belgian director Ivo van Hove, known for his avant-garde dramatizations, draws upon two Euripides texts, "Orestes" and "Electra," to tell the tale of a brother and sister united in their resentment of their mother, Clytemnestra. In collaboration with the Comedie-Francaise, van Hove is bringing the production to the Ancient Theater of Epidaurus for the Athens and Epidaurus Festival.

The only known love story written by 2nd century Greek novelist Longus, "Daphnis + Chloe" follows the lives of two children who spend their childhood together, only to be separated in adolescence when Daphnis is abducted by pirates and the beautiful Chloe deals with a long line of suitors.

A pinnacle of ancient Greek tragedy, Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex" tells the harrowing tale of a son struck by confounding misfortune when he unknowingly murders his father. The Ancient Theater of Epidaurus will present a new take on the drama, directed by Constantinos Markoulakis with music conducted by Minos Mastsas, as part of the Athens & Epidaurus Festival.

"Kaos," an experimental new piece by Ioanna Portolou's Griffon Dance Company, will be staged for two nights at the Little Theater of Epidaurus as part of the Greek Festival. The brainchild of the acclaimed choreographer, "Kaos" derives from the company's 2018 workshop on "Chaos & Order," which attempts to describe how systems and structures are seemingly created out of disarray.

The Greek National Theater and the Cyprus Theater Organization join forces in a production of Euripides' tragedy "The Suppliants," with a new translation by Giorgos Koropoulis, at the Epidaurus Ancient Theater on July 5 and 6. First performed in 423 BC, "The Suppliants" tells the tale of a group of dead soldiers and the mothers who beg the Athenian King Theseus to properly bury them.

Alfred Hitchcock's psychological thriller and 1958 sensation "Vertigo" is set to light up the Little Theater of Ancient Epidaurus on Saturday, June 22 as part of the Athens Open Air Film Festival. The Hitchcock classic, which features a detective (James Stewart) who suffers from vertigo, was the first film to use the dolly zoom, a camera effect that distorts visual perception.

Acclaimed American director Robert Wilson rings in the start of the Greek Festival's section which draws from the classical playwrights with a bold interpretation of Sophocles' "Oedipus" at the Ancient Theater of Epidaurus.