The Athens Epidaurus Festival is one of the oldest festivals in Europe. In its 70 years of operation, it has hosted some of the greatest names in Music, Dance, and Theatre from both the local and international scene, in collaboration with the most important Greek and international artistic organizations, attracting crowds of spectators worldwide.
This summer, the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus will host a series of performances that promise to keep the audience captivated from June to August.
Performances:
June 27 – June 29, 2025
Antigone
This year, the Festival once again invites Ulrich Rasche to direct Sophocles' Antigone, this time with a brilliant cast of Greek actors. The production will be presented exclusively in Epidaurus for three days.
The ecstatic pulse of the performers, as they walked endlessly on the huge motorized rotating stage with live musical accompaniment, remains indelible in the memory of those who witnessed Agamemnon. Developing his subversive stage language, Rasche relies on Nikos Panagiotopoulos’s unsurpassed translation to highlight the timeless figure of Antigone.
This highly anticipated performance will open this year’s festival program.
Direction – Set Design
Ulrich Rasche
Cast
Giorgos Gallos (Kreon), Dimitris Kapouranis (Haemon), Kora Karvouni (Antigone), Filareti Komninou (Tiresias), Kitty Paitazoglou (Ismene), Thanos Tokakis (Guard)
Chorus
Giorgos Ziakas, Dimitris Kapouranis, Marios Kritikopoulos, Ioannis Bastas, Vasilis Boutskikos, Giorgis Partalidis, Thanasis Raftopoulos, Gal Robisa, Giannis Tsoumarakis, Stratis Chatzistamatiou
Live Music Performance
Nefeli Stamatogiannopoulou (double bass), Haris Pazaroulas (double bass), Nikos Papavranousis (percussion), Evangelia Stavrou (percussion)

July 4 – July 5, 2025, 21:00
Electra
What does it mean “to restore justice”? Can one live with the consequences of violence? Is violence inevitable? Will revenge close the cycle of bloodshed? Is redemption ever possible? And ultimately, what is the role of resistance when all seems lost?
Electra, a member of the cursed house of Atreus, a woman trapped in this cycle of blood and horror, is more than a tragic character, as she embodies the dilemma between the need for justice and the moral imperative to avoid violence. She is not just a tragic creature of fate, but also a creation of her character, wholly devoted to the struggle for justice. Is she a victim of her obsession with revenge, or a voice of resistance against the barbarity of power? And why does she not cross the threshold when the palace finally eliminates the tyrants? Does she remain outside the house she hates, or does she refuse to become part of the system she fought passionately against? Is she still captive to the extreme emotions that defined her—her pain over her father’s death, her hatred for her mother, her nostalgia for her lost brother? Her passion—certainly—does not subside even after catharsis.
Director
Dimitris Tarlow
Cast
Giannis Anastasakis (Tutor), Grigoria Metheniti (Chrysothemis), Loukia Michalopoulou (Electra), Nikolas Papagiannis (Aegisthus), Ioanna Pappa (Clytemnestra), Anastasis Roilos (Orestes), Periklis Siountas (Pylades)
Chorus
Margarita Alexiadi, Asimina Anastasopoulou, Eleni Vlachou, Ioanna Demertzidou, Ioanna Lekka, Eleni Kilinkaridou-Sisti, Lydia Stefou, Anna Symeonidou, Chara Tzoka
Live Music Performance
Fotis Siotas, Tasos Misirlis

July 11 – July 12, 2025, 21:00
ζ – η – θ The stranger
Michail Marmarinos returns to the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus with yet another unexpected dramaturgical proposal, leading a return to the sources. A visit to three rhapsodies of the epic that reveals how this endless mystery of oral narration (the deep mystery of theatre) has the power to launch us excitingly “to where history is still happening.”
Director
Michail Marmarinos
Cast
Galatea Aggeli, Klelia Andriolatos, Giannis Varsos, Nikolas Grammatikopoulos, Electra Goniadou, Lenia Zafeiropoulou, Nektarios Theodorou, Nikos Kapelios, Kostis Kapellidis, Nikos Koukás, Titos Makrygiannis, Erato Maria Mandalenaki, Christina Bakastathi, Kleio-Danai Othoneou, Christos Papadimitriou, Stella Papanikolaou, Fotini Timotheou, Yannis Tomazos, Elena Topalidou, Haris Frangoulis, Yannis Harisis

July 19, 21:00
Songs for the Dead Children
In a unique concert at the Ancient Theater of Epidaurus, the multi-award-winning Greek conductor will lead Utopia, the independent orchestra he founded in 2022, in Mahler's Fourth Symphony, the most popular of the Austrian composer. The song from the fourth part will be performed by the exceptional Swiss soprano Regula Mühlemann, one of the top voices of her generation.
In the second part of the evening, mezzo-soprano Eve-Maud Hubeaux will interpret the poignant Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children), a cycle of songs composed by Mahler (1901-1904) in the form of orchestral lieder, setting to music five poems by Friedrich Rückert.
Music Direction
Theodoros Kourentzis
Mezzo-Soprano
Eve-Maud Hubeaux
Soprano
Regula Mühlemann

July 25 – July 26, 2025, 21:00
Oedipus
Yannis Houvardas translates, adapts, and directs Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus and Oedipus at Colonus into a unified performance. Under the guidance of the renowned Greek director, a team of important actors and contributors will narrate the gripping story of Oedipus with live music, starting from the end and moving backwards to the beginning of the evil. The blind and now elderly Oedipus, along with his close relatives, arrive at a mysterious place scattered with tomb monuments, ancient Colonnus, where they will learn through divine revelation the sacred secrets that will explain why they lived such a tormented life. During this journey, the characters relive the shocking events of The Tyrant and, passing through stages of approaching the divine spirit as outlined in At Colonus, witness the final elevation and ascent of the hero to the heavens.
Adaptation – Direction
Yannis Houvardas
Cast
Stefania Goulioiti, Nikos Karathanas, Karyofyllia Karaberti, Konstantinos Bimpis, Pinelopi Tsiliki, Orestis Chalkias, Nikos Hatzopoulos
Dance
Yannis Kotsifas, Hektor Lygizos (leading), Polyxeni Papakonstantinou, Theobi Styllou, Angelos Triantafyllou

August 1 – August 2, 2025, 21:00
Europa’s pledge / Le Serment d’Europe
Lebanese-Canadian playwright, director, and actor Wajdi Mouawad, artistic director in recent years of the Théâtre National de la, one of the most interesting contemporary dramatists internationally, returns to the Festival this year — for the first time in Epidaurus — with a new work inspired by ancient heroines, written on our commission within the framework of the Contemporary Ancients cycle. It will be presented on the first weekend of August with a multinational cast in a multilingual performance, an international co-production, and one of the highlights of the summer.
Text – Direction
Wajdi Mouawad
Cast
Juliette Binoche, Violette Chauveau, Danea Epithymiadi, Daria Pisareva, Leora Rivlin, Emmanuel Schwartz
Participating
Adèle Réto-Lefort

August 8 – August 9, 2025, 21:00
Andromache
We move far away from the major centers to the Greek countryside. Thessaly, Fthiotida, Thetidion. To the house of Achilles’ son, Neoptolemus. The violent, harsh, irreverent hero of the Iliad, upon whom the Greek victory at Troy was built, is unable to meet the responsibilities of a father, husband, and leader. He leaves to seek healing at the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi. His warlike frenzy has contaminated his bed, home, and city. Before the woman he wronged beyond repair, he will receive the punishment called Neoptolemic Tisis. The country, the province, decimated, is represented by a grotesque chorus of abandoned, frightened, subjugated women, immersed in their own bewilderment.
In an inversion of the heroic Iliad, in Andromache, Euripides condemns the arrogance of the Greeks and the illusion of their cultural superiority. Pre-war promises of a united, strong country are betrayed in a landscape of decay, aging, fear, and envy. The responsibility lies not only with the leaders but also with those who believed in them and contributed to the debasement of values through their tolerance
Direction, Performance, Dramaturgical adaptation
Maria Protopappa
Cast
Maria Protopappa Woman, Argyris Xafis Andromache, Tasos Lekkas Hermione, Yannis Dalianis Menelaus, Dimitris Piatas Pileas, Stella Ghika Thetis
Dance
Dimitris Georgiadis, Nontas Damopoulos, Dimitris Mamios, Yannis Manthos, Konstantinos Passas, Giorgos Fasoulas

August 22 – August 23, 2025, 21:00
Oresteia
Terzopoulos’s Oresteia is a work of intellectual and philosophical depth. With its overwhelming energy, it expands the boundaries of art and ultimately narrates the story of humanity itself. As an undeniably political act and a multidimensional spiritual experience, the performance was met with rapturous acclaim by thousands of spectators and domestic and international media.
After its premiere at Epidaurus in 2024, its subsequent tour in Greece and Cyprus, and its presentation in Vicenza, Italy—where it opened the 77th Cycle of Classical Performances at the historic Teatro Olimpico—this unique performance returns to the place where its fascinating journey began, offering all of us the opportunity to experience it once again.
Direction – Dramaturgy
Theodoros Terzopoulos
Cast
Babis Alefantis (Pylades), Evelyn Asouad (Cassandra), Tasos Dimas (Guard / Leader / Herald), Konstantinos Zografos (Orestes), Elli Ingliz (Nurse), David Malteze (Aegisthus), Anna Marka Bonisel (Prophetess), Nikos Dasis (Apollo), Dinos Papageorgiou (Herald), Aglaia Pappa (Athena), Myrto Rozaki (Electra), Savvas Stroumbos (Agamemnon), Alexandros Tountas (Servant), Sophia Hill (Clytemnestra / The Ghost of Clytemnestra)
Chorus
Babis Alefantis, Katerina Amvlianti, Evelyn Asouad, Christoforos Vogiatzis, Natalia Georgosopoulou, Katerina Dimati, Pyrros Theofanopoulos, Elli Ingliz, Vasilina Katerini, Thanos Magklaras, Elpiniki Marapidi, Anna Marka Bonisel, Lygeri Mitropoulou, Rozy Monaki, Aspasia Batatoli, Nikos Dasis, Dinos Papageorgiou, Vangelis Papagiannopoulos, Stavros Papadopoulos, Myrto Rozaki, Giannis Sanidas, Alexandros Tountas, Katerina Hill, Michalis Psalidas

Tips
All performances start at 21:00 and are played with Greek and English surtitles.
The theater's car park has plenty of spaces for cars and coaches.
Wheelchair users are granted vehicular access to the square of the theatre. Special adapted portable toilets are available.
For any inconvenience and delay to be avoided, you are advised to arrive 90΄ before the start of each performance.
Ticketing - Box Office info
Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus - box office operates Monday to Thursday 10:00-14:00 and on performance days (Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays) 10:30-21:00.
Τ. +30 210-7234567 (Monday to Sunday 09:00-21:00).
Purchase online: aefestival.gr
Not permitted
Entry into the theatre after the start of a performance, except during an interval.
The attendance of children under the age of six.
Smoking, and the consumption of food and drink inside the theater.
The use of mobile phones during performances.
Entry into the theater in high heels.
Photography, with or without flash, and sound or video recording during a performance.
The tipping of staff.
Epidaurus Exhibition Space – Temporary Exhibition
"Antigone. Law and Disobedience"
June 27 – August 23, 2025
On the occasion of the world premiere of Antigone, directed by Ulrich Rasche (a co-production of the Athens Epidaurus Festival and the National Theatre), the exhibition space of the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus hosts a new temporary exhibition entitled Antigone. Law and Disobedience.
Open to the public throughout the performances at the Argolic theatre, the exhibition presents the transformations that one of the most emblematic works of ancient drama has undergone over 70 years of the Epidaurus Festival, shaping Western modern consciousness.
Valuable documents (photographs, costumes, models, scores, and audiovisual material) from the archives of the Athens Epidaurus Festival and many other cultural organizations and theatre companies from Greece and abroad are on display.
27 June – 23 August 2025, 20:30
"Little Trackers"
Children’s creative workshop in Epidaurus - For children 5-10 years old.
The successful theatre education programme continues this year, familiarising children with the wonderful and mysterious world of ancient myths. Concurrently with grown-up audiences fully immersed in performances at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, children are creatively engaged, approaching the content of the play watched by the adults.
A team of experienced theatre educators and facilitators of music/movement and aesthetic education are participating in the programme.
Fridays and Saturdays, during the performances at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus.
As part of the International Network of Ancient Drama.
Reservations are required, please click here
Did you know that?
- The ancient Theater of Epidaurus is located in Argolis, at the archaeological site of Asklepieion, half an hour drive from Nafplio and about two hours from Athens.
- Guided tours of the Theater of Epidaurus are held daily. Make your reservation here.