BTA: Javor Gardev’s Production of Euripides’ “The Bacchae” Returns to Athens with Performance at Lycabettus Theatre

The Greek summer tour of Euripides’ The Bacchae, directed by Javor Gardev, continues on Sunday evening with a performance at the Lycabettus Theatre in Athens, according to the tour programme.

The production will be staged at 9:15 p.m. at the Lycabettus Theatre, situated on the hill of the same name in the Greek capital. Sunday’s performance is another stop on the production’s summer tour of Greece.

On August 28, The Bacchae was staged at the Ancient Theatre of Dion as part of the Olympus Festival. According to a hypothesis put forward by a group of historians, the theatre in Dion may have hosted the premiere of The Bacchae 2,431 years ago, Gardev said. The ancient theatre is located in the archaeological site of Dion in Pieria, at the foot of Mount Olympus near Katerini.

Following the Athens performance, the tour continues on September 2 at the Ancient Theatre of Philippi as part of the Philippi Festival in Kavala. The final announced performance of the Greek tour is scheduled for September 4 at the Gis Theatre in Thessaloniki.

The second part of the tour began on August 26 with a performance at the Olympia Theatre in Floka, Ancient Olympia, as part of the International Festival of Ancient Olympia.

The first part of the tour concluded with a performance at the Ancient Theatre of Dodona, which opened the 10th Dodoni Festival. Earlier, the production was staged at the Gis Theatre in Thessaloniki on July 22 and at several venues in the Athens area: the Vrahon Theatre on July 15, the Petra Theatre on July 17 and the Veakeio Theatre in Piraeus on July 18.

The Greek tour followed two premiere performances at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus on July 10 and 11 as part of the Athens Epidaurus Festival. A performance scheduled for the Katrakio Theatre in Nikaia on July 24 was cancelled because of heavy rain and strong winds in the Athens area.

The Bacchae is a Bulgarian-Greek co-production of the Ivan Vazov National Theatre, the Athens Epidaurus Festival and the National Theatre of Northern Greece.

Leonid Yovchev plays Dionysus, Samuel Finzi appears as the seer Tiresias, and Alexandros Mylonas portrays Cadmus. Loukia Michalopoulou plays Agave, while Michail Tabakakis takes on the role of Pentheus. Ivan Yurukov, Martin Dimitrov and Ivan Nikolov also appear in the production, alongside a chorus of Bulgarian and Greek actresses.

Live music by British trio The Tiger Lillies, written especially for the production, forms part of the stage action.

Following the Greek tour, The Bacchae will have two Bulgarian premieres: at Plovdiv’s Ancient Theatre on September 30 and in Hall 1 of Sofia’s National Palace of Culture (NDK) on October 9.