Event

Athens Epidaurus Festival - Franck Castorf Medea

From 21st July to 22nd July 2023
Image

The initiative of commissioning internationally acclaimed European directors to stage ancient plays, launched in 2021 with the invitation extended to Thomas Ostermeier and resuming in 2022 with world premieres by Johan Simons and Ulrich Rasche, continues this year. The Festival invites Frank Castorf in Epidaurus for the first time, where he is set to present Medea in a performance that will lend an international flavour to this year’s programme. The avant-garde artist and historic director of Berlin’s Volksbühne, who has left his mark on the so-called “German style” since the 1990s, will collaborate with major Greek theatre actors, bringing together an anarchic mode of acting, improvisation and freedom in performing, and delivering an electrifying directorial perspective.

Castorf was introduced to the Festival audience in 2007 with Nord (1960), the first part of Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s German Trilogy. He returned in 2017 with The Gambler, based on Dostoevsky’s eponymous work, on the occasion of that year’s tribute to Volksbühne.

Castorf’s theatre is extreme and innovative, drawing on an intensely visual language and a strikingly contemporary, intense mode of acting. He frequently weaves together diverse texts regardless of their original era, aiming to highlight the reflections and philosophical confrontations lurking beneath each story.

 

 

 

Updated on
Thursday 6 July 2023 - 13:11 by TV5MONDE