Seven gates, seven opposing generals, and at the heart of a besieged city, two brothers driven towards mutual destruction. In Seven Against Thebes, Aeschylus places the family feud of Oedipus\u2019 descendants in the maelstrom of war: Polynices returns to Thebes with the Argive army to claim the throne from Eteocles, while the besieged people of Thebes turn anxiously to the gods. The struggle for power becomes fratricide, and the cycle of violence returns to where it began: within the family itself.<\/p>\n
In Lea Maleni\u2019s stage interpretation, the ancient tragedy provides the impetus for a contemporary reflection on war and the mechanisms that perpetuate it. Revenge breeds new crime, violence begets violence, and the need to survive often drives people to the destruction of others and, ultimately, to their own destruction. The myth is not treated as a distant past, but as a pattern that resurfaces throughout history\u2014in civil conflicts, displacement and the collective traumas they leave in their wake.<\/p>\n
A defining element of the production is its multilingualism. Seven different languages\u2014including Arabic, Farsi, Somali, Hindi and Serbian\u2014are spoken live on stage and form an integral part of the performance. The languages of people and places that have known war, forced displacement and loss meet on stage, carrying different memories and experiences. These different voices come together, bringing Aeschylus\u2019 tragedy into dialogue with the realities of the present.<\/p>\n
The production was created for the 29th International Ancient Greek Drama Festival 2026 and was funded by the Cyprus Centre of the International Theatre Institute and the Deputy Ministry of Culture (Department of Contemporary Culture), which also served as co-organisers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Duration: 75 minutes<\/p>\n
Supertitles: Greek and English<\/p>\n
Age suitability: 12+<\/p>\n
Translation: Yiorgos Blanas<\/p>\n
Director: Lea Maleni<\/p>\n
Dramaturgy: Elena Triantafyllopoulou & Lea Maleni<\/p>\n
Music Composition: Spyros Kallivokas<\/p>\n
Set and Costume Design: Yiorgos Yiannou<\/p>\n
Movement: Panayiotis Tofi<\/p>\n
Lighting Design: Nicos Mylonas<\/p>\n
Assistant Director: Katerina Papageorgiou<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Language Coaches: Kamal Eldin Salah (Arabic), Almas Aadan Abdulle (Somali), Raamaakrisshnan Nenmeli (Hindi), Afsaneh Fasihi & Maryam Edalati (Farsi), Dragana Constantinou Markov (Serbian)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Cast (in order of appearance)<\/em><\/p>\n Eteocles\/Chorus: Giannis Karaoulis<\/p>\n Messenger\/Chorus: Andreas Papamichalopoulos<\/p>\n Antigone\/Chorus: Marina Mandri<\/p>\n Ismene\/Chorus: Myrsini Christodoulou<\/p>\n Chorus: Anna Yiangiozi, Vasilis Michael, Semeli Kyriazi, Freideriki Tombazou<\/p>\n Polyneices: Antonis Akritov<\/p>\n Children: Solon Dellaporta, Damianos Kousiappas<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Musicians on Stage:<\/p>\n Natasa Hadjiandreou (percussion), Annita Skoutella (French horn)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Promotional photos: Nastazia Christodoulou, Vasilis Theofanous<\/p>\n Photos from the performance: \u00a9 Pavlos Vrionides<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Seven gates, seven opposing generals, and at the heart of a besieged city, two brothers driven towards mutual destruction. In Seven Against Thebes, Aeschylus places the family feud of Oedipus\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4191,"featured_media":791601,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[],"class_list":["post-791607","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n