The most complete, most beautiful and most sarcastic anti-war play that has been ever written.
The PEACE performance was awarded by UNESCO in 2016 as the best children’s play of the year.
Presentation of the play
The gods loathe people because of their wars and abandon them in order for them to be destroyed. Trigeos of Athens, a pacifist winegrower, tries to fly to heaven on a beetle (which he grows by feeding it on manure and faeces) in order to find Zeus and beg him to stop the war.
At Mount Olympus he finds only Hermes, who reveals to him that War imprisoned Peace in a dark cave, whose entrance he blocked with a huge, immovable rock. After numerous adventures and with the audience’s help, Trigeos manages to set Peace free and bring her back to the people.
However, until he permanently establishes Peace, various people come to his house. Warmongers (armourers, fake fortune tellers, slanderers and demagogues) who try to imprison Peace again, but also farmers, craftsmen, scythe makers, hard-working people and pacifists who make every effort to preserve and protect Peace in order to leave fairly and harmonically.
The play was written by Aristophanes during the Peloponnesian War, in 421 BC, at a time when everyone knew that the parties in the conflict would come to a compromise. This comedy is a festive play which welcomes the approaching period of peace.
The adaptation of the play by Giannis Kalantzopoulos is considered to be the best adaptation for children that has been made up to now. He has retained the great ancient poet’s precise style and ethics, his deep meanings as well as the magnificent melodic parts of his plays. We have combined ‘PEACE‘ with shadow play (which has borrowed many features from Aristophanes); we have imitated Spatharis‘ distinctive voice because we want our young spectators to hear sounds and to have memories from remarkable people of the authentic folk theatre, and we have produced a wonderful theatrical performance for both children and adults.
Contributors
Adaptation: Giannis Kalantzopoulos
Direction: Makis Arvanitakis
Music: Dimitris Lekkas
Costumes: Kaiti Maleskou
Cast: Makis Arvanitakis, Thekla Manteli, Iordanis Kalesis, Vasilis Mamonas, Katerina Oikonomidi, Dominiki Papastergiou, Sofia Lampidoni.
General admission 12 euros