_{ANCIENT THEATRE OF EPIDAURUS: 30 & 31 July}

Αfter murdering his mother, Clytemnestra, Orestes languishes in bed, tormented by the Furies, with his sister Electra by his side. When their uncle, Menelaus, returns to Argos from Troy, accompanied by Helen, they hope that he will intervene and persuade the city to overturn the death sentence that has been passed on his nephew by the city. However, neither Menelaus nor Tyndareus (Clytemnestra’s father) wishes to help him. Orestes then turns to Pylades, who is willing to risk his life to help his friend. The two young men, accompanied by Electra, plan to revenge themselves against Meneleus by killing Helen and her daughter, Hermione, which seems as if it will lead them ever more deeply into a vicious circle of blood and violence. Trapped by their own actions, they try desperately to save themselves. The solution is ultimately provided by the intervention of Apollo, performing the role of deus ex machina.

Euripides’ Orestes is a play inextricably linked with its era (it was first performed in 408 BC) and provides a timely comment on Athenian democracy.
At the same time, it is the last of Euripides’ plays to have been performed in Athens before he left the city for Macedonia.

In Orestes, Euripides deals with the fate of the murderer after the crime, a theme also examined in Aeschylus’ Eumenides.

Euripides gives the theme a more human scale. It is a play of conflict, reversals of fortune and a strong political dimension. It raises questions about relations between the generations and the sexes, about social cohesion and about the survival of the young in a world defined by factors beyond their control.

In his fourth production at Epidaurus, and his first as artistic director of the National Theatre of Greece, Yannis Houvardas is working with an impressive cast of actors.