AEF2023: Frank Castorf’s Medea

It’s that time of the year again, when Athenians start planning their summer holidays around the programme of the Athens Epidaurus Festival. The leading performing arts festival in Greece, and one of the oldest in Europe, returns between June 1st and August 26th for its 68th edition with a rich programme of events. As always, the main venues are the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, the industrial complex of Pireos 260 and the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus. Click here for our festival picks or head over to the official website for the full programme.

Sometimes it’s better to let someone else talk on your behalf. Same goes for our ancient Greek literary heritage. Surely, there are a lot of established and promising Greek directors who continue to tackle the great tragic and comedic plays of our ancestors, but it’s always oh-so-refreshing to offer an outsider the opportunity to do the same. This was the thought behind AEF’s international commissioning initiative, that started back in 2021, inviting globally recognised European directors to take on classical Greek theatrical plays. Frank Castorf, director of Berlin's Volksbühne, who has left his mark on the so-called "German style" since the 1990s, is one of this year’s guests. Castorf is set to deliver his version on Medea's story, the tragic tale of a mother murdering her two children to take revenge on her unfaithful husband, and he intends to do so in his trademark mix of anarchic acting style, improvisation, and freedom in performance.