Nikos Karathanos – Ornithes Aristophanes, 19 & 20 August 2016
The Onassis Cultural Centre - Athens goes to Epidaurus for the first time with a production of Aristophanes’ The Birds (414 BC), directed by Nikos Karathanos. A team of artists bids farewell to fear, bursting with love at the words of a poet who is ‘not ashamed of anything’.
Have you noticed that when the lights go out at Epidaurus, one can hear the steps of the actors approaching the orchestra, and somewhere in the background the sound of an owl? This time you will hear a hooppoe, a nightingale, a cuckoo, a hawk, a goldfinch, a heron... because The Birds are coming, only at Epidaurus!
The Onassis Cultural Centre of the Onassis Foundation goes to Epidaurus for the first time with the most comic birds of Aristophanes, namely The Birds (414 BC), in the context of the Athens and Epidaurus Festival. The Birds essentially talk about man’s need to fly, to create a new world, to come into contact with his innermost desire. Following his breathtaking Golfo, Nikos Karathanos returns to the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus with a remarkable group of actors and a production/feast of the senses, rooted in the unsurpassable poetic power of this remarkable comedy.
The play tells the story of two people, Pisthetaerus and Euelpides, who leave their city, Athens, in search of a new one, ‘soft and plump like a feather mattress, or like the belly of a baby’. They find it in the country of the birds, which they call ‘Cloudckuckooland’. The birds welcome the two strangers. They give them wings. Together, they work with enthusiasm to build a wall up in the sky to stop the communication between gods and humans. The happiness of this new state is based in this newfound idea. Imagination and reality, human, gods, and animals come together in a world that has the seriousness of a game, the fluidity of a dream, and the sweet melancholy of life. This is a production that aims at a clear approach of Aristophanes, wishing for the poetry of the leading comedian of Attica to be heard and loved anew. A theatre group ‘that wants to fly, while falling’, seeking, daring, and confronting ‘an elusive happiness, so big that cannot be uttered or thought of’.
Venue
Ancient Epidavros theatre
Coefficients
Translation: Giannis Asteris
Direction: Nikos Karathanos
Adaptation: Nikos Karathanos, Giannis Asteris
Sets and Costumes: Elli Papageorgakopoulou
Music: Aggelos Triantafillou
Lighting Design: Simos Sarketzis
Movement: Amalia Bennett
Assistant to the Director: Ioanna Bitouni
Assistant Director: Marissa Triantafillidou
Assistant to the Set Designer: Euaggelia Therianou, Myrto Kosmopoulou, Myrto Lambrou
Music assistant: Vassilis Panagiotopoulos
Production assistant: Tzela Christopoulou
Production: Onassis Cultural Centre-Athens
Line Production: Yolanda Markopoulou, Konstantina Georgiou / POLYPLANITY Productions
With
Alexandra Aidini, Aliki Alexandraki, Fotini Baxevani , Konstantinos Bibis, Natassa Bofiliou, Maria Diakopanagiotou, Vasiliki Driva, Galini Hatzipaschali, Nikos Karathanos, Emily Koliandri, Giannis Kotsifas, Ektor Liatsos, Christos Loulis, Aggelos Papadimitriou, Foivos Rimenas, Michalis Sarantis, Aris Servetalis, Aggelos Triantafillou
Live music
Marios Dapergolas, Sofia Eukleidou, Dimitris Klonis, Vasilis Panagiotopoulos, Dimitris Tigkas
Ticket prices
VIP Zone: €45
Zone A: €30
Zone B: €20, €15 (Discount)
Upper Tier: €10, €5 (Discount)
Disabled: €5
Tickets
You can buy the ticket line on here
Box Office
The central ticket Athens & Epidaurus Festival is at 39 Panepistimiou Str (in the arcade Pesmazoglou), opening hours: Monday - Friday: 9: 00-17: 00 Saturday: 9: 00-15: 00.
Air ticket offices operate in all event venues, open two hours before the start of the performances and serve only the show of the day.
Did you know that?
With English surtitles
