Alcestis and Oedipus are brought to the fore in two distinctive performances staged by the Athens Epidaurus Festival after midnight at the Ancient Stadium of Epidaurus, just a few metres from the Ancient Theatre.

The first performance is (Alcestis) Landscape after the Promise, June 26 and 27, 23:59, 90 minutes, by Dimitris Kamarotos. The festival describes it as an “unruly and turbulent” work that “breaks free from Euripides’ text and becomes a dimly lit monologue, in which the heroine” draws “the audience into a wandering through the night-time archaeological site of Epidaurus”. The performance features one performer and a string quintet.

The next production is Oedipus Steps, July 10 and 11, 23:59, 45 minutes, composed by Zisis Seglias. “Like a camera following the hero outside the frame, like lost footage being screened for the first time, this adventurous encounter between music, dance and speech takes us into the back rooms of his mind, shortly before his meeting with the light,” the festival notes.

To provide better service and easier access for spectators, the festival, in cooperation with KTEL Argolida, is running special buses from Athens directly to the Ancient Stadium of Epidaurus and back. Information is available here.

In addition to the late-night performances on the above weekends, theatre lovers will also have the opportunity to see two equally significant works presented through a distinctive lens at the Little Theatre of Ancient Epidaurus, just a few hours before the after-midnight performances. These are Tourné, June 26 and 27, 21:30, by Euripides Laskaridis, a tragicomic performance inspired by the world of summer touring productions, which excavates the unseen aspects of contemporary Greek identity, and Nine Water Lilies from the Dead Bank, July 10 and 11, 21:30, by K. Bhta, a work addressing mass migration from Piraeus to New York, while orchestrating traditional and rebetiko songs through the composer’s own perspective.

Transfers from the Little Theatre of Ancient Epidaurus to the Ancient Stadium will be provided by internal festival services at no extra charge.