Euripides classic travels to different parts of Greece

‘Iphigenia in Tauris’ to be staged at Thessaloniki’s Dassos Theater tomorrow

The National Theater of Northern Greece has just embarked upon its summer tour with a Euripides classic, the well-known tragedy «Iphigenia in Tauris.» The production, which opened at the ancient Philippi Theater in Kavala recently, will travel to Thessaloniki's Dassos Theater for three performances tomorrow to Friday and will also be staged at the Ancient Theater of Epidaurus on July 28 and 29.

Iphigenia, the daughter of King Agamemnon, has been rescued from sacrifice by the goddess Artemis and has been transferred to the land of Tauris, where she is obliged to carry out human sacrifices. Her brother Orestes, instructed by the god Apollo to steal Artemis' statue in Tauris, arrives in the barbaric land with his friend Pylades but they are both captured and at risk of being slaughtered by Iphigenia, all of them unaware of each other's identities.

«A tragic poet leads, once more, human existence to the edge of the cliff, where not only life but the concept of human presence in the world is endangered,» says director Giorgos Michailidis in a note about the play. «What follows is a series of reversals, something which looks like a repeated motif in all tragedies, the best example being 'Oedipus Rex.'»

«Many of Euripides' tragedies, like 'Ion,' 'Helen,' 'Andromache,' 'Rhesus' 'Iphigenia at Aulis' and 'Iphigenia in Tauris' reverse the established versions of myths, judge the standard moral behavior and deny divine intervention in human affairs and mostly deny the division of people according to race, language, customs and gender,» says Costas Georgoussopoulos, whose translation is used in the production.

The tragedy is directed by Giorgos Michailidis and stars Maria Nafpliotou as Iphigenia, Nikos Psarras as Orestes, Odysseas Stamoulis as Pylades, as well as Costas Bassis, Dimitris Kamberidis, Alexis Stavrakis and Iphigenia Deliyiannidi. The sets and costumes are by Agni Doutsi.