GREEK THEATRE TRADITION

by Eva Georgoussopoulou
Archivist at the Theatre Museum of Athens

Theatre in the antiquity

Every year Greek people continue to admire, not only the new theatre
productions, which are almost always dealing with everyday matters
and characters, but also with the oldest greek plays – especially
ancient Greek Drama- presented today under a new prism, often
enough trying to keep the traditional and classical style – although,
during the last decade, many theatre groups (“postmodern”, as they
are called) are interested in depicting the “classical style” through a
very provocative and intriguing manner and form, creating negative
reactions and strong disagreements. Sometimes they are thought to
trade upon the ancient, classical texts or destroy them on purpose.

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 EDUCATION & CULTURE
The importance of Theatre in the An-
tiquity cannot be neglected or under-
estimated. Tragedies, comedies and
satirical plays were thought to be the
centre of the Ancients’ cultural life,
which seemed often empty without
theatre presentations, “agones”.
The audience participated in full
during the performances (“methex-
is”) and the plays of Aeschylus,
Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes
and later (4th century B.C.) Menander
cultivated and succeeded in includ-
ing all these people in the dramatic
or comic situations and feelings
their characters experienced.
GREEK THEATRE’S EVOLUTION
The presence of the Theatre never
ceased to exist through the centuries
and to influence the way of life and
the thought of the Greeks: especially
during the monumental evolution of
the Arts in the Middle Ages and the
Renaissance, two periods that of-
fered a great success and a number
of motivations to the European The-
atre (William Shakespeare, Ben John-
son, Carlo Goldoni, Moliere or the
German poetry and Romanticism
with Goethe and Schiller), but also
to the Greek one as they contributed
a lot to the evolution of the theatrical
production in Crete and the islands
of the Ionian Sea (Eptanissa).
Vitsentzos Cornaros, Georgios Hor-
tatsis, Petros Katsaitis, Dimitrios
Gouzelis, Antonios Matessis intro-
duced new theatre types and pat-
terns, mostly influenced by the
Italian Theatre and, sometimes, im-
itating the ancient greek texts and its
myths (Katsaitis, for instance, has
written a play called “Thyestes”, a
tragedy of ancient greek form and de-
scent). The language used was orig-
270 about GREECE
inal, mostly the cretan or ionian di-
alects that, nowadays, have almost
totally disappeared.
19th CENTURY
Greek Theatre’s flourishing led up to
the end of the 19th century (around
1880, to be more specific and pre-
cise), when the first professional
theatre groups make their presence
prominent on the greek stage, pre-
senting basically plays of French
origin (vaudevilles, comic farces). At
that time, new theatre authors ap-
pear, authors that represent and
introduce new theatre forms and
kinds, which will be strongly estab-
lished on the greek theatre produc-
tion and will open a new era towards
the 20th century. Dimitrios Vernar-
dakis, Dimitrios Koromilas, Spyridon
Peressiadis, Dimitrios Kokkos, Ange-
los Vlachos and others are made
popular through, mainly, their tragic
plays (especially Vernardakis – “Faf-
sta”, “Maria Doxapatri”) and the
comic or dramatic idylls – descrip-
tions of families’ traditional life in the
provinces or in old quarters of a dif-
ferent Athens (ithographia).
In 1894 a new theatre type appears
upon the Athenian stages, introduc-
ing a lurid spectacle that created a
whole new different atmosphere
and a new theatre kind, totally un-
known by that specific moment, but
very promising and creative for the
future: the Athenian Cabaret (Athi-
naiki Epitheorissis). It included
music, lyrics, songs, dance and,
mostly, cheerfulness and liveliness.
The texts satirized basically the
political, social, religious or moral
situations of those times and they
were played by excellent actors
who were successfully tested to
these kinds of roles. The authors of

those satirical texts and lyrics were
mainly journalists, people extreme-
ly familiar to situations like the
above mentioned. All these specta-
cles were influenced, in great part, by
the cabaret shows all over Europe
(Paris, London, Berlin – especially
there with the great actor and show-
man Carl Valentin, who later influ-
enced Bertolt Brecht) and, in trying
to enter the greek society, they had
success. Nowadays, the Epitheorissis
is flourishing every winter or summer
periods in Athens (although, the
last decade, less theatres present
this kind of performance, due mainly
to the lack of experienced writers),
since the political and social situation
change radically, offering the brilliant
authors the spark of satire, critique,
abuse or protest.
The audience, usually, accept the crit-
icism and the laugh is often sponta-
neous.
20th CENTURY
At the dawn of the 20th century, a new
GREEK THEATRE TRADITION
era begins for the greek theatre,
which is escorted by influences,
having their origins mostly to the The-
atre of Northwestern Europe (Norway,
Sweden, Germany). Henrik Ibsen
became one of the greatest ancestors
of the so – called Bourgeois Drama
(Astiko Drama), represented in
Greece by Grigorios Xenopoulos,
Spyros Melas, Pandelis Horn, Dimitris
Bogris and others. Up until 1950,
there is also an evolution of Poetic
and Historical Theatre, a kind that
was usually written by dramatists ex-
tremely familiar with certain historical
periods or with poetry, such as An-
gelos Sikelianos, Angelos Terzakis,
Nikos Kazantzakis, Vassilis Rotas.
The decades 1950 – 1960 found the
Farces and Comedies at the peak of
the theatrical production. The realistic
descriptions of the comic characters’
everyday life, the misunderstand-
ings, the caustic satire of greek cus-
toms or habits, the tenderness of
love affairs – all that create a scenery
that dominated the greek stage (and
the cinema as well) for many years
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 EDUCATION & CULTURE
and fascinated with its themes gen-
erations and generations of the
greek audience. They continue to be
at their preference even today, al-
ways powerful and contemporary.
MODERN GREEK THEATRE
1957 was an important and critical
point for the history of Modern Greek
Theatre: it is the year that Iakovos
Kambanellis – the “Father of Modern
Greek Theatre” as he is called – pre-
sented in the ART THEATRE of Karolos
Koun his significant and most fa-
mous play, “The yard of miracles”
(“Avli ton thavmaton”) and marked
the beginning of a new, talented era
of theatre authors. They had as their
purpose to change the history and
the atmosphere and to introduce
new ideas and ideologies, concern-
ing the evolution and the maturity of
the greek theatre. The audience –
then and now – discovers always
something creative, tragic, dramatic,
comic, satirical, even complicated or
inconceivable under the themes
272 about GREECE
and the characters of the new au-
thors: Vassilis Ziogas, Dimitris Ke-
haidis, Pavlos Matessis, Giorgos
Skourtis, Marios Pontikas, Mitsos
Efthimiadis, Giorgos Maniotis, Loula
Anagnostaki, Stratis Karras, Kostas
Mourselas, Giorgos Dialegmenos,
Yannis Chryssoulis and many others.
All of them dominate the greek stage
and are daily renewing their reperto-
ry, imitating situations and characters
of the everyday life and choosing to
present nothing else, but REALITY.
Some of those authors often repre-
sent, through their texts, many other
artistic “currents”, such as SURREAL-
ISM, EXPRESSIONISM or HYPEREAL-
ISM.
THEATRE GROUPS
It is worth noted that, besides the
authors who led Greece and the
Greeks towards a brand new era at
the beginning of the century, there
were also the directors and actors
who put all those texts into action

and gave them life and substance
on stage. After the first professional
groups of Dionissios Tavoularis,
Eftihios Vonasseras, Dimosthenis
Alexiadis, Evangelos Pantopoulos
and others (around 1870 – 1880), af-
ter the old – fashioned, worth men-
tioning performances of two great
actresses of the 19th century, Evan-
gelia Paraskevopoulou and Ekaterini
Veroni, there appeared a new gen-
eration of actors and directors who
introduced more advanced propo-
sitions about the scenic presenta-
tion of certain texts and certain, im-
portant theatre “currents” such as
Realism, Classicism, Romanticism.
In 1901 Konstantinos Christomanos,
director, author, translator and,
mainly, a well – educated scholar,
created NEA SKINI which ended
abruptly its career in 1905 – due to
financial problems – after having pre-
sented on stage plays by Euripides,
Ibsen, Goldoni and, after having
made known how the currents of Re-
alism and Naturalism can be com-
GREEK THEATRE TRADITION
bined in a single, well – organized
performance. Parallel to NEA SKINI,
the german – educated director
Thomas Oikonomou took the lead of
the ROYAL THEATRE, with the finan-
cial support of the King and the
Palace, where, until 1908, he directed
and kept the leading roles in excel-
lent performances of monumental
plays (for instance, Ibsen’s “The
Ghosts”, Strindberg’s “The Father”).
Both scholars were influenced by the
“directing” german school of the
Mainingen and the German director
and teacher Otto Brahm.
On May 1927 the significant greek
poet Angelos Sikelianos and his
American wife Eva Palmer organized
for the first time after the Antiquity
the 1st Delphic Festivities, where they
presented Aeschylus’ “Prometheus
Bound”, with amateurs and the
women of Delphi as members of the
Chorus. They invited great person-
alities of the Arts from all over the
world and their attempt is historical
as they revived the ancient greek
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 EDUCATION & CULTURE
dramatic art and laid the excava-
tions for the later performances of
greek drama. All the costumes were
hand – made at the loom, by Eva
Palmer herself and the women of
the village. On May 1930 Angelos
and Eva Sikelianou organized the
2nd Delphic Festivities, with Aeschy-
lus’ “Suppliant Women”, but the
success was surely inferior to the 1st
Festivities.
The two pioneer directors of the
20th century, Christomanos and
Oikono-mou, were followed by other
great theatre Teachers who inculcat-
ed generations of actors and gener-
ations of the greek audience with
their, sometimes, revolutionary and
radical ideology: Fotos Politis, theo-
retician, scholar and director, founder
of the NATIONAL THEATRE in 1932,
Dimitrios Rondiris, successor of
Fotos Politis’ tradition at the NA-
TIONAL THEATRE and the first to in-
augurate the Epidaurus’ Festival in
1954 (with Euripides’ “Hippolytus”),
Karolos Koun, founder of LAIKI SKINI
274 about GREECE
(1934) and ART THEATRE (1942),
Sokratis Karandinos, who created the
STATE THEATRE OF NORTHERN
GREECE (1961), Linos Karzis (director
and founder of THYMELIKOS THIAS-
SOS, with performances of greek dra-
ma, very close to the ancient metres
and stereotypes), Takis Mouzenidis,
Pelos Katselis, Kostis Michailidis,
Alexis Solomos – the only director
who introduced Aristophanes at the
ancient theatres (1956) and pre-
sented 10 out of his 11 comedies –
and, more recently, Spyros Evange-
latos, Minos Volanakis, Giorgos
Michailidis and many others.
These directors have, during the
decades, directed or, sometimes,
kept up during their efforts, with
unique actors and actresses who left
their indelible traces on the Athenian
stages: Kyveli, Marika Kotopouli,
Katina Paxinou, Alexis Minotis, Eleni
Papadaki, Emilios Veakis, Vasso
Manolidou, Dimitris Horn, Elli Lam-
beti, Mary Aroni, Katerina Andreadi,
Dimitris Myrat, Thanos Kotsopoulos,

Giorgos Pappas, Christophoros Nez-
er, Kostas Moussouris, Anna Synodi-
nou, Antigoni Valakou, Nelly Angeli-
dou and others.
The people who had the chance to
see all of them on stage talk today
with admiration about the miracles
they have watched and about the
unique and ineffable pleasure and
joy they have experienced.
THE ROLE OF GREEK THEATRE
The role of Theatre in Greece has not
changed since the Antiquity: then, it
used to be amusing, recreational, in-
structional and, as we have already
seen, the audience’s participation
was thought to be indispensable,
since the tragic poets’ success and
establishment, in people’ s minds,
as excellent authors and great rep-
resentatives of the greek culture
and civilization, had always to do
with the positive or negative reaction
of the spectators. Nowadays nothing
has actually changed, especially
GREEK THEATRE TRADITION
during the summer Festivals of
Athens or Epidaurus, where the an-
cient greek drama gives always the
spark, offers pleasure and arouses
the interest and the intrigue of the
participants, when not provoking
them!
An important and quite encouraging
aspect of the change in the specta-
tors’ participation is the entrance to
the theatre world of more and more
YOUNG people, who have suddenly
discovered the intriguing motivation
that action and scenic representation
offer.
The introduction of the most impor-
tant theatre currents in the greek the-
atre (Realism, Naturalism, Symbol-
ism) have made easier the acquain-
tance and the connection with the
European and the American Theatre.
The Europeans’ and Americans’ way
of writing have, at great extent, influ-
enced the authorship of their Greek
colleagues as well as the views of the
directors. The combination of theory
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 EDUCATION & CULTURE
and action into a performance lies
basically on the good cooperation
between actor and director and their
mutual acceptance of certain “con-
ventions”, basic and indispensable
aspects that constitute a nice and in-
teresting spectacle. The new gener-
ation of modern greek theatre au-
thors follow quite often the patterns
and the form of their European and
American colleagues, but one should
see this effort only as a slight imita-
tion of those writers’ “mould” and
not as a complete conveyance of the
foreigners’ customs and habits in
Greece.
The Greek writers transform their
characters and the events of the play
by transporting and establishing
them to the greek facts and by de-
scribing realistic matters as close to
the audience’s experience as possi-
ble. In our century one could as
well note that the spectators’ reaction
towards a performance can also be
critical, if one decides to accept
Bertolt Brecht’ s view and ideology
276 about GREECE
about a critical participation of the
audience and a kind of alienation
(“Verfremdung”) from what is going
on upon stage.
CRITIQUE
The evolution of greek theatre and its
regenerative ideas and influences
have brought on the surface of greek
cultural life a number of notable
critics – mainly after 1920 – who es-
tablished the theatre critique as an
important and indispensable factor
of the theatrical reality and its cre-
ative representation.
The first critics – the majority of
whom were scholars, theoreticians
or even authors or directors (Fotos
Politis, Emilios Hourmouzios, Alkis
Thrylos, Spyros Melas, Angelos Terza-
kis, Vassos Varikas, Leon Koukoulas,
Marios Ploritis and others) – were
usually at the beginning more re-
straint, more literal or analytical to-
wards the performances, mainly be-
cause some of the innovative ideas

seemed to them strange or even
provocative and outrageous. Some
of them, old – fashioned and preser-
vative, were often demanding to-
wards the new creations and they
strictly criticized or even deplored
them. One must point out, though,
that their critiques were often very in-
teresting, intriguing and with excel-
lent analyses and theoretical views
about the plays. Nowadays, the new
generation of critics is more open to
suggestions, more tolerant, more ap-
proving and basically receptive. The
plays that were recently written and
added to the theatrical “market”
(plays of greek or universal origin and
descent) found the critics and the cri-
tique more mature and forced them
towards a further reading, in order to
be totally informed about “current”
matters or literal texts.
MODERN THEATRE GROUPS
What strikes today in Athens is the
superabundance of theatre groups
and buildings – old or modern – that
GREEK THEATRE TRADITION
house the efforts of actors and direc-
tors in order to present their work as
perfectly as possible in front of a cu-
rious and, sometimes, voracious
audience. At that moment there are
more than 300 theatre groups only
in Athens and the number increases
day by day, if one adds the amateurs,
the school or the University groups
that make their presence more and
more powerful and prominent into
the theatre world.
Before, for about 60 years (1900 –
1960) there were basically 20 – 25
theatre groups that presented,
though, many plays, even two or
three every week and two different
the same time! NEA SKINI, ROYAL
THEATRE, KYVELI’S and ΚΟΤΟPOULI’S
groups, NATIONAL THEATRE, LAIKI
SKINI and ART THEATRE, PIRAIKO
THEATRO by Dimitris Rondiris, KATE-
RINA ANDREADI, KOSTAS MOUS-
SOURIS, ELLI LAMBETI and DIMITRIS
HORN groups e.t.c. Furthermore,
one could watch performances of
cabaret sketches or farces by groups
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that played in Athens or toured in the
province: there, where today life
has become very intense and also in-
dispensable, since after 1981 there
were created, at almost every town
outside Athens, MUNICIPAL THE-
ATRES (around 16: Larissa, Patras, Vo-
los, Veroia, Kavala, Komotini, Kala-
mata, Kozani, Kerkyra, Chania, Gian-
nena, Agrinio, Serres, Lamia, Rhod-
ed, Chios) with very good directors
and actors, some of them protago-
nists on the main Athenian stages.
The increase of theatre interest at the
province is very promising for the fu-
ture and, especially, with the partic-
ipation of the younger generation.
The plays presented oscillate be-
tween the classical and the more
contemporary repertory, but all of
them are received by the audience
with a very positive interest and, of-
ten, enthusiasm.
The return to some species of mod-
ern greek theatre and also to farces
shows the increase of the audience’s
curiosity and interest towards the the-
atre, which seems more and more to
have surpassed the cinema and the
other ways of nowadays’ amusement
and relaxing.
CONCLUSION
The new theatre currents are now
more arty and sophisticated and
some groups present their work
based on more peculiar and exper-
imental views that appear to be
provocative and appealing for the
spectators. The pioneer ideas and
versions of some plays seem to at-
278 about GREECE
tract basically the younger people (18
– 25 years old) who constitute today
the majority of the greek audience:
they begin to discover motivations
and the spark of the NEW. Finally, one
could mention that many years ago
(and at a larger extent today) there
has started a co – operation between
theatre groups that are lodged
abroad and greek theatre groups. The
NATIONAL THEATRE, the ART THE-
ATRE, the AMPHI – THEATRE, the
STATE THEATRE OF NORTHERN
GREECE and some of the well –
known Athenian groups have trav-
eled to different cities or countries of
the world to present their work and
to receive, almost always, an enthu-
siastic welcome.
The greek audience had – and still
has – the chance to see foreign
groups coming to Greece (mainly,
since the 1990’s), groups that always
have something new, alluring or ex-
treme to propose. The critique and
the points of view differ, but the in-
terest remains.
The conclusion of all the above
shows clearly that greek theatre is not
anymore a negligible quantity of
Greece’s civilization, but seems
more and more to possess a very
high position at the Greeks’ estima-
tion and belief of a true, good, inter-
esting, creative and respectable
spectacle, a spectacle that could
–and should– belong exclusively
to the Greeks.