A giddy two months of theater
Athenian theater aficionados are in for a rare treat in the next couple of months as the Attica Cultural Society – which has so far brought or helped bring to Greece great figures of the arts including Dean Tavoularis and Francis Ford Coppola, Ravi Shankar, Michel Piccoli, Patrice Chereau, Peter Greenaway, Peter Stein, Sotigui Kouyate, Peter Brook, Gerard Depardieu and Isabella Rossellini – will now welcome Tim Robbins, Philippe Calvario and Olympia Dukakis, as well as past guests Chereau, Stein and Brook to the capital. In collaboration with the Opening Nights Athens International Film Festival, the Attica Cultural Society has put together an informal theater festival featuring A-list plays from the United States and Europe in May and June at the Ilissia Denissi Theater. The program of events begins on May 2 with George Orwell’s legendary «1984,» adapted for the stage by Michael Gene Sullivan and directed by Oscar-winning actor, writer and director Tim Robbins, following successful productions of the political dramas «The Exonerated» and «Embedded.» The production is performed by the Actors’ Gang Ensemble Theater of Los Angeles, founded in 1981 by Robbins. Orwell’s prophetic and profoundly political novel has been adapted for the stage for the first time by Sullivan through a special arrangement with the estate of the late Sonia Brownell Orwell and A.M. Heath & Co Ltd. It premiered last February in Los Angeles before playing in other parts of California to rave reviews. Robbins, who also serves as artistic director of the Actors’ Gang, selected the play himself as, he has said, it reflects his own view of present-day politics. As an extra treat for the Athenian public, Robbins, who will be in town for rehearsals, will also be meeting with the public and answering questions. Other treats lined up at the Ilissia Denissi Theater begin with Herve Guibert’s «Le mausolee des amants,» starring Patrice Chereau and Philippe Calvario, which the two actors are performing in honor of the late French writer, who died of AIDS in 1991. Another Oscar winner, Olympia Dukakis, will appear as the title character of Martin Sherman’s one-woman Holocaust survival drama «Rose,» inspired by the real story of Sherman’s grandmother. In another one-person show, the formidable Peter Stein will appear in all the roles of «Faust» for the first time ever. No stranger to Goethe’s celebrated tale, the German artist directed a mammoth, 24-hour production of the play in 2000. Last on the program is Peter Brook directing «Sizwe Banzi is Dead,» co-written by South African playwright and director Athol Fugard along with actors John Kani and Winston Ntshona, with whom he also wrote the acclaimed 1970 anti-apartheid drama «The Island.» Tickets will be available online at www.ticketservices.gr, or reservations can be made on tel 210.723.4567, 210.721.6317 and 210.721.0045.
