“Aeschylus in Our Days” could be called the play “Persians” directed by Dimitris Karanzas, staged in the Ancient Theater of Epidaurus and the Open Theater of the old olive oil mill in Elefsina.

The destruction of a thousand ships of Xerxes by three hundred ships of the Greeks in the naval battle of Salamis (480 BC) inspired Aeschylus to compose the first ancient tragedy (472 BC), where the historical event of the defeat of the Persians feeds the theatrical performance. an experience. Hybris-Atis-Nemesis is a triptych that also defines in the “Persians” the reference field of dramatic form, the canvas of the story of the lives of “great” personalities experiencing God’s judgment, the punishment of their arrogance, the loss of their power, wealth and glory.

Dimitris Karanzas, in collaboration with Geli Kalambaka, chooses the method of “adaptation”, being consistent in the desire to emphasize the essence of the contemporary political and social problem with simplicity. From the point of view of the destruction that war brings, he examines the arrogance of the power exercised in society and the limits of the individual response to the abuse of this power. It also explores how the Persians dealt with defeat, highlighting evidence of their dignified attitude at this ultimate moment of total destruction. He took advantage of the linguistically and accurately expressive translation of Panagiotis Mullas, through which he also emphasized the intention to modernize Aeschylus’s tragedy. Without this excellent translation, the director’s goal, determined by the aesthetic axes of the current of modernism, could not be realized. The abstract-naked, almost lunar stage landscape, Kleios Bobotis’s elevated slotted loft, Ioanna Tsami’s contemporary costumes, Tassos Karachalios’ curated movement training, Yorgos Poulios’ electronic, psychedelic-infused music emphasize the essence of tragedy through the essence of exploratory adventure.

The news of the collapse of the Persian fleet at Salamis is carried by radio, the news of this horror is heard by parasites, and its echo is carried throughout Asia. Alexia Kaltsikis, Theodora Tsimu, Aineias Tsamatis, Yiannis Klinis revive the tragic dance, consisting not only of Persians, but also of Persians, and some of the refrains have been removed and replaced with poetic compositions of modern authors. An important note: in many parts of the performance, the synchronization of the dance voices required additional rehearsals, and this weakness was noticeable to the audience. The main part of the dance is completed by forty citizens who participate as volunteers and form a crowd seeking purification. After all, not a single mortal can escape from the “God’s painful trap”, determined by the final logic of ancient tragedies. Christos Lulis as the Messenger effectively emphasized in the speech of the text the unrequited suffering of the Persians.

Reni Pittaki offers a special, nuanced interpretation of Atossa, the kind and sensitive mother of Xerxes.

Reni Pittaki returned to the stage of Epidaurus 20 years later (in 2002 she played Antigone in Oedipus at Colon) to offer us a special, nuanced interpretation of Atossa, the kind and sensitive mother of Xerxes, the devoted wife of Darius, the dynamic queen of the Persians. Standing upright in her modern costume, the same throughout the performance, she tells a dream-omen, captures the painful grief of the queen, who wants to save the prestige of the dynasty. Pittaka’s interpretation is a clear asset to Karanza’s performance, as it works structurally between the play’s tragic core and its stylistic modernism. Without this interpretation, the stage composition would be fragmentary and anemic as a whole, would remain meteoric, because there would be no interpretive center of gravity of the speech-body-voice balance.

Key components of the adaptation: intense realism that relieves the burden of tragedy, an interesting scenographic proposal of space that allows actors to come from afar or be placed in the frame at the back of the stage. The moment Giorgos Gallos appears as the dead Darius and the stage dialogue of two husbands chosen by the fate of the kingdom, but at the same time speaking like mere mortal parents, worried about the future of their child, are among the most powerful theatrical scenes of the show. Michalis Oikonomou left his mark on the interpretation of Xerxes, the demystified soldier who returns to Susa in a blue suit and tie, descends from the stands of the ancient theater and, like a “wet cat”, is drawn into the dance. Everyone blames him for “screwing up” with his bold and thoughtless campaign. An earthly and human hero, tragic in his essence, but also slightly comical in his attempts to cope with defeat, to take responsibility for the “black disaster” that he caused to his people due to the overestimation of his strength. Indeed, for the ancients, any violation of the boundaries of man automatically amounted to a violation of the limits of measure, and the price of this violation was very expensive.

* Ms. Rhea Grigoriou is a Doctor of History and Dramaturgy at AUTH and Professor of Greek Culture at EAP.