East versus West in tragedy
Staged as a conflict between East and West, Euripides’ tragedy «Andromache» will be presented at the Scholeion venue in Athens on June 22 and 23. Directed by the acclaimed Jean-Christophe Sais, the production opened in Damascus in early June. It has been scheduled to travel to the three festivals that are its co-sponsors – Lyon’s Les Nuits de Fourviere festival, the Athens Festival and the Festival of Barcelona – but the recent Lyon shows were unfortunately canceled because of bad weather. Euripides’ work traces the fate of Andromache, Hector’s widow, who becomes a slave after the fall of Troy. For Sais, the exiled princess represents the contradictory relationship between the two worlds, which are fascinated but at the same time repelled by each other. The play’s Greek characters are played by French actors who speak French and the Trojan characters by Syrian actors who speak Arabic. The Damascus-born Hala Omran plays the title character, starring alongside Valerie Lang, Mathieu Genet and Jihad Saad. The sets are by Jean-Christophe Sais and Jean Tartaroli, the costumes by Montserrat Casanova and the music by Gilbert Gandil. The performance has Greek supertitles. For tickets, contact the Hellenic Festival box office at 39 Panepistimiou, tel 210.327.2000.
