The fall cultural agenda arrives with a September full of theatre and dancing. The Greek ancient theatres welcome audiences with old and new plays, while Athens is buzzing with life from the choreographies and the solos of established and emerging artists.
The Athens & Epidaurus Festival continues. While in the rest of the country there are also events with the Drama International Short Film Festival and a unique play in Delos being the highlights.
Let’s see some of the events coming up in September.
Sacred Tales /Covid-19 at the Little Theatre of Ancient Epidaurus
Artist Aemilia Papaphilippou presents an original piece of visual art commissioned by the Athens & Epidaurus Festival. The work focuses on the pandemic that leads to the oxymoron of the co-existence of separation and connectivity. It takes its name from the text Sacred Tales (Hieroi Logoi) by Aelius Aristides it references, in which he speaks about his healing by the god Asclepius and his attempt to express himself.
Little Theatre of Ancient Epidaurus until September 5, 16:00-21:00 daily apart from Monday.
Ödipus
A different Oedipus Rex, based on the original text by the German playwright Maja Zade, is presented in Epidaurus by the Greek audience’s favourite director Thomas Ostermeier. The play brings the myth of Oedipus to the present, in modern Greece, where a family of German industrialists are spending their holiday. Ödipus is modern, minimal and full of suspense.
Three poet fighters and a composer
The ‘Mikis Theodorakis’ Orchestra presents songs written by the poets Yiannis Ritsos, Tassos Leivaditis, and Manolis Anagnostakis set to music by Mikis Theodorakis. The songs will be performed by Dimitris Basis, Rita Antonopoulou, Saveria Margiola and Panagiotis Petrakis.
Ancient Theatre of Philippi, Kavala, September 5, 20.30
Stories of Greek Women in Ancient Cassope
In ‘Education on housework for young ladies’ three women tell stories. Stories of Greek women from antiquity to today, women that resisted the traditional role of the submissive wife and won, women who tried to resist and were silenced, women who are still struggling. Through the stories a question arises: how would have reality been formed if we were taught history through the eyes of women who, against all stereotypes, let go and stood their own ground?
Ancient Cassope, Preveza, 4 & 5 September, 19:00
Ancient Future Solo for adolescents
The dance workshop Ancient Future Solo for adolescents, that was organised by the Athens & Epidaurus Festival last winter, presents an original team performance. Eight very distinct dance solos lead to a collective choreography, as the creative process invests into coexistence.
The eight teens who participated in the workshop worked on Sophocles’ ‘Antigone’ and Euripides’ ‘Helen’. From the personal aesthetics of their individual work the teens went on to the collective composition, using their idiosyncratic solos.
Peiraios 260 € 9 & 10 September, 20:00
Extraction – Exit, Delos
A unique play in Delos, at the Agora of the Competaliasts. Extractions pays tribute to light, life and the survival instinct through a patient path of discovery. Man’s Exit towards light, the struggle of life’s difficulties, the beauty and love are a timeless musical human pace in Delos.
The audience departs from Mykonos’ Hora at 17:00 on a special boat and after the show will return to Mykonos.
Agora of the Competaliasts, Delos. 10 & 11 September, 19:00
44th Drama International Short Film Festival
This year the Drama International Short Film Festival opens its doors both physically and online to welcome guests, offering a programme that includes 58 films from 50 different countries. This year the festival has a new visual identity, and launches three new departments, in line with our times. It’s aim is to showcase the work of people, regardless of background, religion and sexual orientation, on the big screen.
Drama International Short Film Festival, 9 Agias Varvaras str, Drama, 12- 18 September
‘Summer is Back’: Group Exhibition at E Art Gallery in Paros
E Art Gallery in Paros presents the group exhibition titled ‘Summer is Back’. The participating artists are: Kornilios, Christos Michailidis, Dimitris Dokos, Leonidas Papadopoulos, Christina Papaioannou, Elias Papanikolaou, Konstantinos Stefanou, Aggelos Chaniotis, Cacao Rocks, Thedora D.
Robert McCabe photographs Mykonos in the ’50s
Robert McCabe’s photo exhibition “The Island that Captivated the World: Mykonos of the 50s” is on display at Mykonos Castle until September 30 and at the Archaeological Museum of Mykonos until December 31. McCabe’s lens present, with unique sensitivity, places that have changed and preserves images of our folk culture giving lessons in memory. Portraits of locals and candid photos from the middle of the 20th century give life to the empty shells that remain, offering alternative perspectives of reading and creating a unique experience for the audience.
“By the lights of thine eyes: Faces of ’21” in Hydra
The National Historical Museum, in collaboration with the Municipality of Hydra opens the exhibition ‘By the lights of thine eyes: faces of ’21’, curated by Iris Kritikou and Iphigenia Vogiatzi, at the Municipal Market of Hydra on Saturday, September 4, 2021, at 21:00. Ordinary people in extraordinary situations could be subtitle of this exhibition that attempts to reintroduce us to the faces of 1821. Works from the collections of the National Historical Museum – historic portraits of famous and unknown Greeks of the time of the War of Independence are displayed along creations by established contemporary Greek artists suggesting a new way of approaching the heroes of 1821 above and beyond their ordinary and established image.
