“Birds” at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus directed by Aris Biniaris

In Birds, Aristophanes tells the story of how two Athenians, Pisthetaerus and Euelpides, make the decision to leave the world of men in search of a city without pettiness and corruption, where one can live in peace and justice. Together with the Birds, they establish a state in the ether and build a wall between men and the gods.

The staging places the play in a pre-tragic environment, approaching it as a primal ritual. And as with any ritual, a troupe brings the myth to life experientially. The two protagonists ask, allegorically, to be ‘emptied’ of all other human qualities and ‘inhabited’, sometimes voluptuously and sometimes furiously, by the bestial drive of the birds in a performance-concert. Backed by the explosiveness of music and movement, Aris Biniaris creates a contemporary satire, dragging us into an electrifying ‘chant’ that sheds blinding light on the critical issues of the city led at all times by the Aristophanic work.

Factors

Translated by Tassos Roussos

Directed by Aris Biniaris

Dramaturgy – Adaptation Elena Triantafyllopoulou, Aris Biniaris

Set design – Costumes Paris Mexis

Music composition Alexandros Drakos Ktistakis

Kinesiology Alexandros Vardaxoglou

Lighting design Vangelis Mountrichas

Assistant to the Director Nefeli Papanastasopoulou

Assistant to Set and Costume Designer Alegia Papageorgiou

Cast (in alphabetical order) Giorgos Chrysostomou, Stelios Iakovidis, Thanasis Isidorou, Tasos Korkos, Kostas Koronaios, Sofia Koulera, Avgoustinos Koumoulos, Maria Kyrozi, Errikos Miliaris, Marios Panagiotou, Odysseas Papaspiliopoulos, Kyriakos Salis, Alexia Sapranidou, Konstantina Takalou, Eirini Tsellou, Michalis Valassoglou

Production Technichoros Theatrical Productions