Anna is asleep, dreaming of her birthday party and the colourful balloons decorating her home. But, BANG! She is woken by a loud noise. Has one of the balloons burst? No, no, they are all where they should be, but the party will never take place. It is early morning on 21 April 1967 and Anna’s life is about to be turned upside down. Her parents are distraught, friends of the family either go into hiding, are arrested, or run away, while the children have to watch what they say. And her beloved godfather, who she relies on to make sense of her confusion, is put in prison. In the seven years of the colonels’ junta, Anna will live in a regime of illiberality and fear, growing up before her time and experiencing all the consequences of the new political situation. The little girl matures, questions, reacts, resists and becomes a fifteen-year-old who knows what it means to fight for the highest ideals: for freedom and democracy.

One of the greatest works of Greek literature for children and young people, Georges Sari’s The Birthday, now comes to the stage for the first time, revisiting a period that scarred our country like no other from the point of view of an eight-year-old girl. It is a production about the value of freedom, democracy and human dignity, but also about the price paid by those who fight for their ideals against an authoritarian regime.