Acharnians by Aristophanes

Comedy too can sometimes discern what is right.

 

The Cyprus Theatre Organisation continues its summer season with The Acharnians, the earliest of Aristophanes’ surviving plays (425 BC), directed by Varnavas Kyriazis. All performances are conducted in adherence to all the necessary preventive measures to protect public health. 

 

The play is set during the sixth year of the Peloponnesian War. Let down by his fellow Athenians’ lack of decisiveness to achieve peace for Sparta, a farmer by the name of Dikaiopolis takes initiative to absolve himself and his family from the hardship and grief of war. Determined to enjoy all the things he had been deprived of and reap the benefits of peace, he does not think twice before taking on the world, exposing tendencies of people’s self-interest and vileness and opening the eyes of those who were blinded by arrogance, a false sense of pride and demagogic rhetoric. 

 

The Acharnians are here to teach us valuable lessons, to raise concerns, to sharply criticize any idea that opposes democracy and the people’s best interest, and finally, to offer plenty of laughter. 

 

Director Varnavas Kyriazis, alongside a large cast of actors, has created a performance true to Aristophanes’ nature by bringing together all the elements of a popular festivity, a loud Dionysian feast giving off the scent of soil and wine and underlying the final part of any true celebration: cathartic ecstasy. 

 

Translation: Leonidas Zenakos

Direction: Varnavas Kyriazis

Music: Kostas Kakoyiannis

Set design: Giorgos Giannou

Costume design: Elena Katsouri

Choreography-Movement: Panayiotis Tofi

Songs lyrics/Parabases: Pambos Kouzalis

Lighting design: Georgios Koukoumas

Assistant Director: Andreas Araouzos

Special props: Monica Hadjivassileiou

Assistant to the set designer: Rea Olymbiou

Assistant to the costume designer: Iphigeneia Avraam

 

Musicians on stage: Kostas Kakoyiannis (piano, violin, recorder, flute), Veronica Aloneftou (santouri), Jonathan Betito (percussion, foley artist), Charalambos Panteli (lute)

 

Dikaiopolis: Andreas Tsouris

 

Cast: Charis Attonis, Vasilis Vasilakis, Evros Vasileiou, Thanasis Drakopoulos,

Thanasis Ioannou, Kostas Kazakas, Markos Kallis, Giannis Karaoulis, Charis Kkolos, Valentinos Kokkinos, Diomides Koufteros, Andreas Makris, Panos Makris,

Herodotos Miltiadous, Yiannis Minos, Michalis Moustakas, Alexandros Parisis,

Andreas Tselepos, Vasilis Charalambous

 

Child/Parabases: Georgia Neokleous

 

Participating: David Anastasiou, Pygmalion Neokleous, Maria Chrystostomou

 

The performance is not recommended for audiences under the age of 15.

 

Performances

 

Lefkosia

 

July

Makarios III Amphitheatre

29 July 2020

30 July 2020

31 July 2020

 

All performances begin at 21:00

Due to safety measures for Covid-19, audiences are kindly requested to be at the amphitheatre by 20:15

 

September

Makarios III Amphitheatre

9 September 2020

10 September 2020 with Greek surtitles

11 September 2020 with English and Turkish surtitles

 

All performances begin at 20:30

Due to safety measures for Covid-19, audiences are kindly requested to be at the amphitheatre by 19:45

 

Lemesos

Municipal Garden Theatre  

4 September 2020

5 September 2020 with English and Turkish surtitles

 

Larnaka

Pattichion Municipal Amphitheatre

16 September 2020

 

Deryneia

Municipal Amphitheatre

18 September 2020

 

All performances begin at 20:30

Due to safety measures for Covid-19, audiences are kindly requested to be at the amphitheatre by 19:30

 

Ticket Prices: €17 / €8 (unemployed persons, pensioners with relevant documentation, large-families, persons under 25 years of age providing their national identification card)

Tickets / Information: thoc.org.cy, 77 77 27 17 | tickethour.com.cy, 77 77 70 40

 

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