The annual Athens and Epidaurus Festival will reopen to live audience in summer 2021 on June 1, with over 80 scheduled productions.
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Each year the festival presents numerous theatre, dance, and music artists, acclaimed in Greece and worldwide. This year the Athens Epidaurus Festival opens its doors to hip hop and street dance culture, with the cycle "Layers of Street", an original unit of action that will include Battles dance, live street events, acquaintance with distinguished dancers from different aspects of hip hop dance culture, but also contemporary performances in Piraeus 260.
Focusing on Greek artists – 50 of the 80 are Greek productions - the festival will also include performances scheduled in 2020.
In Athens, venues will also include the Pireos 260 building and performances at the Festival overall will include theater performances, music, dance, and visual arts, while some productions will be held in other than the standard venues in Athens.
The Ancient Theater of Epidaurus will premier 10 productions over three days a week (Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays) from June to August.
German theater director Thomas Ostermeier and the Schaubühne will present a version of the greatest of the Greek tragedies, ‘Oedipus Rex’ by Maja Zade. Several Greek directors, independently or collaborating, will present ancient drama as well.
At the Small Theater of Ancient Epidaurus, four Greek authors will each present a commissioned modern version of an ancient tragedy for the ‘Contemporary Ancients’ cycle, while other experimental work will also take place.
The Athens Festival’s main venue, the Odeon of Herod Atticus (Irodio), will host distinguished international musicians Brian Eno with his brother Roger Eno, pianist Zubin Mehta with the Maggio Musicale Orchestra of Florence and violinist Pinchas Zuckerman, the Monteverdi Choir accompanied by the English Baroque Soloists, in a performance conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
On the Greek side, the Athens Festival will also include performances by the National Opera with Tosca , as well as singers Eleftheria Arvanitaki, and Lena Platonos with Nalyssa Green, among others. ■