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A
s it does every year, the month of July
welcomed theatre friends from around the
world to the Pafos Ancient Odeon, the Curium
Ancient Theatre in Limassol and the Makarios
III Amphitheatre in Nicosia for the 16
th
Interna-
tional Festival of Ancient Greek Drama 2012.
The Festival was presented under the auspices
of the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the
European Union and was organised by the Cy-
prus Centre of the International Theatre Institute
in cooperation with the Cultural Services of the
Ministry of Education and Culture and the Cy-
prus Tourism Organisation. The Festival pro-
gramme was selected by the Festival Selection
Committee.
Agamemnon’s Children
The Festival opened with a production of
Agam-
emnon’s Children
by the Hessian State Theatre
of Wiesbaden, Germany. The adaptation com-
bined Euripides’
Iphigeneiain Aulis
,
Orestes
and
Iphigeneia in Tauris
, and Sophocles’
Electra
into
a single storyline. The synthesis of these four
plays narrates the lives of Agamemnon’s chil-
dren from different points of view. Their actions
and their destinies make them both perpetrators
and victims in the vicious cycle of violence en-
demic to Atreides’ myth.
Direction: Konstanze Lauterbach
Set design: Karen Simon
Costumes: Hannah Hamburger
Music:AchimGieseler
Cast: Doreen Nixdorf (Iphigenia), Sybille Weiser
(Electra), Michael von Bennigsen (Orestes), Su-
sanne Bard (Clytaemnestra), Michael Günther Bard
(Agamemnon, Thoas), Michael von Burg (Pylades),
Uwe Kraus (Menelaus), Jörg Zirnstein (Servant,
Messenger, Phrygian, Apollo, Arcas), Magdalena
Höfner (Hermione)
Chorus: EvelynM. Faber, Magdalena Höfner, Fran-
ziskaWerner
Electra and Orestes, the Trial
The Cyprus Theatre Organisation’s production,
Electra andOrestes, the Trial
,
is an adaptation based
on Sophocles’
Electra,
Euripides’
Orestes
and Ae-
schylus’
Eumenides
. Both the adaptation and the di-
rection are by Israeli stage director Hanan Snir
and
are based on the technique of a “play within a play”.
The outer play dealswithElectra andOrestes on trial
at the Supreme Court for the crime of matricide. In
court, the events that led to the murderous act are
presented against the backdrop of a contemporary
refugee camp.
Translation: Vayos Liapis
Adaptation/Direction: Hanan Snir
Set Design-Costumes: Melita Couta, Harris Kafka-
rides
Music: Demetris Zavros
16
th
International Festival of Ancient Greek Drama
Electra and Orestes, the Trial
Agamemnon’s Children