International Festival of Ancient Greek Drama 2026

The 29th edition of the “International Festival of Ancient Greek Drama” presents five distinguished productions from Cyprus, Greece, Spain and Latvia, featuring prominent theatre companies and organisations that approach ancient Greek drama through contemporary stage interpretations. Performances will be presented at the Curium Ancient Theatre in Limassol, the Ancient Odeon in Paphos and the Makarios III Amphitheatre in Nicosia.

• THE TROJAN WOMEN by Euripides │ COME Y CALLA PRODUCTIONS & MÉRIDA INTERNATIONAL CLASSICAL THEATRE FESTIVAL, Spain
Directed by Carlota Ferrer

•HECUBA by Euripides │ DAUGAVPILS THEATRE, Latvia
Directed by Tatiana Stepančenko-Bogdana

•LYSISTRATA by Aristophanes │ NATIONAL THEATRE OF NORTHERN GREECE
Directed by Asterios Peltekis

•SEVEN AGAINST THEBES by Aeschylus │ PERSONA THEATRE COMPANY, Cyprus
Directed by Lea Maleni

•ALCESTIS by Euripides │ NATIONAL THEATRE OF GREECE
Directed by Dimitris Karantzas

PERFORMANCES START AT 21:00 │ Please arrive at the theatre at 20:00

2026 INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF ANCIENT GREEK DRAMA

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

THE TROJAN WOMEN by Euripides │ COME Y CALLA PRODUCTIONS & MÉRIDA INTERNATIONAL CLASSICAL THEATRE FESTIVAL, Spain

Directed by Carlota Ferrer

▪ Friday, July 3 │ Curium Ancient Theatre

▪ Saturday, July 4 │ Curium Ancient Theatre

Euripides’ The Trojan Women, directed by Carlota Ferrer and produced by Come y Calla Productions in collaboration with the Mérida International Classical Theatre Festival, opens this year’s Festival programme. The acclaimed actress Isabel Ordaz stars as Hecuba, supported by a dynamic ensemble of actors.

After the fall of Troy, the women of the once-glorious city await the fate that the winners have for them: slavery, exile, violence. Amidst a landscape of ruin, the captive Trojan women and their queen, Hecuba, become bearers of a memory that refuses to fade. Pain leads not only to loss, but also to a silent resistance against oblivion.

The Spanish production, which premiered in 2025 at the Mérida International Classical Theatre Festival to critical and audience acclaim, transforms Euripides’ tragedy into a contemporary theatrical experience, where discourse coexists with physicality, music, movement, and visual compositions. Through a dense web of symbolism, projections, and soundscapes, the performance highlights the violence of war and its consequences on the bodies and lives of the defeated, particularly women, as the primary bearers of memory and trauma.

The Trojan Women does not merely recount a story of defeat. It constructs a theatrical landscape of mourning that becomes testimony - an enduring play that, while maintaining its poetic intensity, engages with the modern world, where the violence of war is repeated and human cost remains undiminished.

▪ With Greek and English surtitles
▪ Suitable for ages 12+
▪ Duration: 110 minutes

CREDITS

Adaptation: Isabel Ordaz & Carlota Ferrer

Direction: Carlota Ferrer

Set/Costume design: Carlota Ferrer

Lighting design: David Picazo

Sound design: Tagore González

Video design: Emilio Valenzuela

Choreography: Ana Erdozain & Carlota Ferrer

Assistant Set designer: Isidoro López

Assistant Director: Francesc Galcerán

Production Director: Eva Paniagua

Production Manager: Juanfran García

CAST
Isabel Ordaz (Hecuba), Carlota Ferrer (Andromache), Cristóbal Suárez (Talthybius), Carlos Beluga (Menelaus), Conchi Espejo (Cassandra), Emilia Lazo (Helen of Troy), Selam Ortega (Coryphaeus), Ana Erdozain (Polyxena)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

HECUBA by Euripides │ DAUGAVPILS THEATRE, Latvia

Directed by Tatiana Stepančenko-Bogdana

▪ Friday, July 10 │ Paphos Ancient Odeon

▪ Saturday, July 11 │ Paphos Ancient Odeon

The Daugavpils Theatre, one of the oldest professional theatres in Latvia, presents Euripides’ Hecuba, directed by Tatiana Stepančenko-Bogdana. The production stands out for its use of Latgalian, a regional language of eastern Latvia that is now considered endangered, lending a distinctive, almost primal tone to the stage language.

The Trojan War has ended; the heroes of Troy have fallen, the royal line has been extinguished and the city has been burnt to the ground. When war wipes out everything, what is ultimately left? When the gods remain silent, where can justice be sought?

Hecuba has lost everything: her husband, her throne, her freedom, and almost all of her children. As she waits, alongside the other captive women, for a fate to be decided by lot, she is confronted with yet another trial. Crushed by loss and exposed to violence, she experiences the collapse of every stable point in her world. In this liminal time, after the end of the war, violence persists; and there, on this threshold, mourning coexists with the need for justice, blurring the boundaries between morality and vengeance.

The directorial approach focuses on the multi-layered nature of the tragic heroine, while the Chorus functions as an active stage mechanism, propelling the action towards a strongly collective and almost cosmic dimension.

Hecuba transcends the concept of revenge and becomes a reflection on violence, loss, and human endurance, engaging with a world where conflicts continue to leave indelible marks.

▪ With Greek and English surtitles
▪ Suitable for ages 12+
▪ Duration: 120 minutes

CREDITS

Translation: Kristine Veinsteina

Direction: Tatiana Stepančenko-Bogdana

Set design: Marijus Jacovskis

Costume design: Inga Bermaka

Lighting design: Sergejs Vasiļjevs

Music consultant: Alisa May

CAST
Julija Laha (Hecuba), Eduards Belnikovs (Ghost of Polydorus), Agnese Laicane (Polyxena), Marks Selutko (Odysseus), Egils Vilumovs (Talthybius),
Margers Eglinskis (Agamemnon), Kristine Veinsteina (Hecuba’s maidservant), Ritvars Gailums (Polymestor), Zanda Mankopa, Alina Kalina, Inese Ivulane-Mezale, Kristine Veinsteina (Chorus of Trojan Women), Kristaps Saulitens, Kaspars Krauklis (Polymestor’s young sons)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

LYSISTRATA by Aristophanes │ NATIONAL THEATRE OF NORTHERN GREECE

Directed by Asterios Peltekis

▪ Friday, July 17 │ Curium Ancient Theatre

▪ Saturday, July 18 │ Curium Ancient Theatre

The National Theatre of Northern Greece presents Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, directed by Asterios Peltekis and featuring an outstanding cast and creative team, with Elisavet Konstantinidou in the title role. This contemporary stage interpretation employs humour as its vehicle to articulate a discourse of genuine “comic” seriousness on the entropy of a society.

Lysistrata is not merely a comedy about war and love, but a profoundly political, deeply human-centred play that focuses on the moment when a society, exhausted by decay, begins to seek a new way of being. The city-state is in a state of prolonged disintegration: war has become an end in itself, politics has been severed from human experience, and the body has been banished from public discourse. Entropy serves as a central metaphor for a system’s inability to halt its own decline.

The archetypal heroine does not propose reforms or new institutions. She introduces something radically different: the reemergence of the body, desire, and collective responsibility as a political act. Abstaining from love does not function as a punishment, but as an act of suspension - a temporary “freeze” that makes it possible to restart the world.

At the core of the directorial approach lies this very gesture: not imposition, but the conscious refusal to participate in a vicious cycle. The women do not merely occupy the Acropolis; they occupy time itself, the flow of events. Comedy becomes a mechanism of revelation, exposing the cracks in a world teetering between collapse and the need for reinvention.

▪ With English and Greek surtitles
▪ Suitable for ages 12+
▪ Duration: 120 minutes

CREDITS

Translation: Konstantinos Bouras

Direction - Dramaturgical Adaptation - Text Adaptation: Asterios Peltekis

Set design: Froso Lytra

Costume design: Nikos Charlaftis

Music composition: Giorgos Andreou

Choreography: Konstantinos Rigos

Lighting design: Stelios Tzolopoulos

Music coaching: Panagiotis Barlas

Collaborating set - costume designer: Danai Pana

Assistant to the director: Evi Sarmi, Christoforos Mariadis

Assistant to the choreographer: Anastasia Kelesi

Production coordinator: Marina Chatziioannou

Tour Coordinator: Ilias Kotopoulos

Assistants to the director (on an internship): Maria Alexoudi, Angeliki Voutsina, Ilektra Liontou

Assistant to the set designer and the costume designer (on an internship): Christos Vaxevanidis, Niki Ledaki, Christina Chasekidou

Assistant production coordinator (on an internship): Maria Gkouma

CAST
Iordanis Aivazoglou (Filidonidis/Eunuch), Antonis Antonakos (Lacon/Eunuch), Nikos Georgakis (Spartan Herald/Strymodorus),
Dimitris Diakosavvas (Kofovoulos/Eunuch), Chrysa Zafeiriadou (Spartodeina), Sofia Kalekmeridou (Lampito/Old woman), Krateros Katsoulis (Cinesias),
Katerina Kafkoula (Skoromache), Anastasia Kelesi (Scythian slave/Diallagi/Kallistrati), Thanos Kontogiorgis (Proktofylax/Eunuch),
Elisavet Konstantinidou (Lysistrata), Tatiana Melidou (Archidamia the Boeotian), Dimitris Morfakidis (Doryvrontis/Dyseidaimona), Chrysi Bachtsevani (Sterissandra the Corinthian), Dimitris Naziris (Prytanes), Alexandra Palaiologou (Cleonice), Katerina Papoutsaki (Myrrhine),
Efthymis Pappas (Neopouros), Vaso Pavlou (Rixydati), Panagiotis Petrakis (Apollo/Lachis), Christina Petroleka (AI “PythiΑΙ”),
Marietta Protopapa (Lanarostrychi/Vrontira), Kostas Santas (Oracle Aristogeron), Evi Sarmi (Androdamas), Giannis Tsemperlidis (Tremopidis/Eunuch),

Giannis Charisis (Provoulos)

Singer: Korina Legaki (Koryfo/Athena)

Dancer: Petros Nikolidis

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

SEVEN AGAINST THEBES by Aeschylus │ PERSONA THEATRE COMPANY, Cyprus

Directed by Lea Maleni

▪ Monday, July 27 │ Makarios III Amphitheatre

▪ Tuesday, July 28 │ Makarios III Amphitheatre

▪ Friday, July 31 │ Curium Ancient Theatre

▪ Saturday, August 1 │ Curium Ancient Theatre

Award-winning director Lea Maleni stages this year’s Cypriot production of the Festival, Seven Against Thebes by Aeschylus, produced by Persona Theatre Company, with a particularly dynamic and aesthetic directorial approach, supported by an outstanding group of artists.

At the heart of Aeschylus’s tragedy lies the fratricidal conflict between Oedipus’s sons. Polynices returns at the head of the Argive army to claim the power denied him by his brother, Eteocles, in violation of their agreement. Thebes is under a suffocating siege, and the confrontation inevitably leads to a conflict with no winners, where power and fraternal bonds clash with devastating consequences.

Drawing on Myth, History, and collective memory, the performance engages with the present day, focusing on fear, trauma, and the heartbreak of civil war. In a world of endless, perpetuating fratricidal conflicts, where the dividing lines between perpetrator and victim grow increasingly blurred, a troupe with diverse ethnic, religious, and political backgrounds unites its voices in a heart-wrenching multicultural coexistence, seeking light amidst the maelstrom of war.

Aeschylus’s iconic anti-war drama, the final play in his Theban cycle, centres on the harrowing experience of civil strife that transcends time, remaining dramatically relevant. Articulating the raw language of war, it speaks with sharpness to contemporary audiences, conveying anguish and despair over the outcome of human folly.

▪ With English and Greek surtitles
▪ Suitable for ages 12+
▪ Duration: 90 minutes

CREDITS

Translation: Yiorgos Blanas

Direction: Lea Maleni

Dramaturgical adaptation: Elena Triantafillopoulou & Lea Maleni

Music composition: Spyros Kallivokas

Set/Costume design: Yiorgos Yiannou

Movement: Panayiotis Tofi

Lighting design: Nicos Mylonas

Assistant to the director: Katerina Papageorgiou

Language Coaches:
Kamal Eldin Salah (Arabic)
Almas Aadan Abdulle (Somali)
Raamaakrisshnan Nenmeli (Hindu)
Afsaneh Fasihi (Persian)
Dragana Constantinou Markov (Serbian)

Vocal coaching: Freideriki Tombazou, Spyros Kallivokas

Lighting Operator: Achilleas Mouskis

Set painting: Martin Meason

Stage Technician: Sami Saami

Stage Manager/Line production: Katerina Papageorgiou

ON STAGE
Anna Yiangiozi, Giannis Karaoulis, Semeli Kyriazi, Marina Mandri, Vasilis Michael, Andreas Papamichalopoulos, Freideriki Tombazou, Myrsini Christodoulou (actors), Natasa Hadjiandreou, Annita Skoutella (musicians)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

ALCESTIS by Euripides │ NATIONAL THEATRE OF GREECE

Directed by Dimitris Karantzas

▪ Friday, August 7 │ Curium Ancient Theatre

▪ Saturday, August 8 │ Curium Ancient Theatre

The National Theatre of Greece returns to the Festival with Euripides’ Alcestis, directed by Dimitris Karantzas. A contemporary parable with strong political significance, a dual-natured play, a constant hovering between life and death, playfulness and nightmare, devastating tragedy and unexpected comedy.

In the play, Admetus can only evade Death’s claim if someone else consents to die in his place. His spouse, Alcestis, offers herself in exchange. Her sacrifice unfolds publicly, before the eyes of the citizens, as a preordained killing - an act that can only be read today as a femicide, legitimised by the prevailing societal and political power.

Alcestis is the sole surviving play from the body of ancient Greek tragedy to bring not only Death onto the stage, but also Resurrection. And yet the question remains unresolved: what does it mean to restore life once the sacrifice has already been made? What lies within Alcestis’ deafening silence? And what is the true cost of salvation when it rests upon the self-sacrifice of the most vulnerable?

Dimitris Karantzas orchestrates Alcestis as a stage experiment, in which music, sound, movement, and a balancing act of theatrical style coexist organically, creating a fluid, liminal, and ever-changing world. With a remarkable cast and crew, the production becomes a theatrical argument that does not merely recount the myth, but raises crucial questions about power, gender, sacrifice, and society’s responsibility towards the death of the eponymous - and not only - heroine.

▪ With English and Greek surtitles
▪ Suitable for ages 12+
▪ Duration: 120 minutes

CREDITS

Adaptation - Direction: Dimitris Karantzas

Dramaturgical advisor: Geli Kalabaka

Set design: Konstantinos Skourletis

Costume design: Ioanna Tsami

Music: Panagiotis Manouilidis

Movement: Tassos Karahalios

Lighting design: Eliza Alexandropoulou

Sound design: Angelos Kontaxis

Vocal coach: Melina Peonidou

Production dramaturg: Erie Kyrgia

Directing assistant: Constantina Kaltsiou

Lighting design assistant: Marietta Pavlaki

Costume design assistant: Dimitra Stavridou

CAST
Konstantinos Avarikiotis (Pheres), Dimitra Vlagkopoulou (Maidservant), Giorgos Zygouris (Heracles), Iro Bezou (Alcestis), Giannis Niarros (Admetus), Kostas Nikouli (Apollo), Aineias Tsamatis (Servant), Theodora Tzimou (Thanatos/Death), Antonis Antonopoulos, Elissaios Vlachos, Dimitris Kafkas, Giota Kouitzoglou, Katerina Latta, Ioannis Bastas, Maria Moschouri, Angelos-Prokopios Nerantzis, Giorgos Skarlatos (Chorus)

2026 INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF ANCIENT GREEK DRAMA

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

• Information : 7000 2414 │greekdramafest.com
• Performances start at 21:00 │ Arrival at the theatre at 20:00.
It’s strongly recommended to arrive at least 45 - 60 minutes prior to the beginning of the performance to avoid delay and crowding. Entry after the start of the performance will not be allowed.

Ticket prices :

• €16 regular
• €1 0 concessions (for students, senior citizens, National Guard, large families, unemployed)
• € 70 Festival pass (per person for all five performances . Only valid for non-reduced tickets)
• €13 for group bookings (10+ people per performance) at

Free admission for:

• People with disabilities, after booking their free pass by calling 7000 2414 (at least seven days prior to each performance). Please present the relevant ID at the ticket gate.

• Members of CCOITI, upon early settlement of their 2026 membership fee and booking their free pass with the use of their personal password.