Hellenic Festival. June, July, August, 2009
The Hellenic Festival belongs to some of the world's most powerful culture celebration events - not only for the sheer scope of it (theatre and dance performances, recitals, cross-genre events, exhibitions and creative workshops are held throughout the three summer months, bringing together under the same roof the Athens Festival, Festival Epidaurus and Music Juli) but also thanks to the quality of the programme and the choice of participants. During the more than half-century of its existence, the Hellenic Festival has brought to Athens the best accomplishments of contemporary art - at some time or other, most of the living greats have presented their works here. The festival is open both to traditional art forms (for instance, opera, classical music and ballet, the production of Swan Lake by the Mariinsky Theatre being a typical example of the festival bill) and the latest experiments in art. The powerful and diverse German theatre is represented at this summer's festival by the expressive minimalist Michael Thalheimer and his Deutsches Theater Berlin with their production of Gerhart Hauptmann's Rats (Ratten) which unfolds within an extremely original set of optic rules. Last year Thalheimer's take on Rats was rated among the top ten productions in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
One of the youngest winners of the European Theatre Award, the Dutch director Guy Cassiers is interested in technology as a means to expand an actor's abilities; he has previously explored this trend by mounting a cycle of multi-medial theatre productions based on Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time; this year, Cassiers is bringing to Athens his Mefisto for Ever.
Adepts of the visual theatre, famous as creators of powerful images, the Catalan ensemble La Fura dels Baus are presenting their Boris Godunov.
One of the highlights of the programme in July is Riesenbutzbach, the latest work by the brilliant Swiss director Christoph Marthaler and the equally great German set designer Anna Viebrock, which recently premiered at the Wiener Festwochen, with three of the Vienna film studio's garages serving as the venue.
July also sees the great Belgian theatre master Alain Platel visit Athens with his pitié!; also in June, one of the strongest contemporary Dutch directors Johan Simons is bringing over his Kasimir and Karoline, a story of love that proves a challenge in times of economic crisis - the play by Ödön von Horváth was produced at the NT Gent theatre.
Festival Epidaurus offers an opportunity to explore Greece as the birthplace of the theatre: every year a significant place in the programme is taken by new stage versions of classical Greek plays. The performances are held at Epidaurus, one of the world's most beautiful venues; the theatre, built in 4th century BC, saw the ancient tragedies performed at the time when the plays were freshly written and competed among themselves in front of an audience of 14 thousand spectators - that is the number of people for which the open-air amphitheatre with a view of a magnificent mountain landscape and unique acoustic properties - viewers sitting in the last row hear every word spoken on the stage - was originally designed. The programme comprises a selection of classical tragedies and comedies, as well as a number of contemporary sequels to the „Greek cause". One of this year's most exciting offerings is definitely two performances of Jean Racine's Phèdre - a National Theatre production of the classical 17th century tragedy starring the great British actress Dame Helen Mirren (also known, among other things, for her excellent take on the role of Elizabeth II in filmmaker Stephen Frears's The Queen) in the title role.
Festival Programme: www.greekfestival.gr
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