Aeschylus' The Persians to Stream Free From Greece's Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus

For the first time in its history, a performance of an ancient Greek drama will be streamed live from the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus.

The Persians by Aeschylus, the oldest Greek drama that has survived in full to the present day, will be broadcast for free on Saturday, July 25. The stream begins at 1pm ET, with the performance starting at 2pm ET. The National Theatre of Greece, with support from the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports, presents the stream as part of this year's the Athens and Epidaurus Festival to commemorate the 25th centennial of the Battle of Salamis. The antiwar play dramatizes this historic battle.

Though the 90-minute play is free, donations are welcome and will benefit the National Theatre and Greek actors impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It will be presented in Greek with English subtitles.

Included in the cast are Vasilis Athanasopoulos, Alberto Fais, Konstantinos Gavalas, Nikos Karathanos, Lydia Koniordou. Spyridon Kyriazopoulos, Alkiviadis Maggonas, Laertes Malkotsis, Giorgos Mavridis, Argyris Pandazaras, Dimitris Papanikolaou, Giannos Perlegas, Michalis Theofanous, and Argyris Xafis.

The Persians is directed by Dimitris Lignadis, with movement by Konstantinos Rigos, translation/metric coaching by Theodoros Stephanopoulos, set design by Alegia Papageorgiou, costumes by Eva Nathena, music by Giorgos Poulios, lighting by Christina Thanasoula, music coaching by Melina Peonidou, dramaturgy by Eva Saraga, and English subtitles by Christiana Pourgali. Assistants include Nurmala Easty (assistant to the director), Daphne Foteinatou (assistant to the set designer), Sofia Gavala (assistant to the costume designer), Markella Manoliadou and Angelos Panagopoulos (assistants to the choreographer), and Marieta Pavlaki (assistant to the lighting designer).

Click here to view the performance on Saturday.