From June 18 to July 3 the EllinikoThεatro (Greek Theatre of New York) will be hosting its Athens2018 Summer Festival, bringing internationally sold-out and multi-award winning plays to the Greek capital, as well hosting a number of other readings, screenings, discussions and masterclasses by renowned creators.

Below are just some of the shows not to miss.

Rent Control Trailer from Evan Zes on Vimeo.

Rent Control

For the first time the multi-award winning, hilarious one-man show by Greek American Evan Zes will be performed in Greece.

Rent Control, written and performed by Mr. Zes, is a personal story of survival as a struggling actor living in the heart of New York City. The off-Broadway hit is coming to Theatre 104 in Athens for five performances.

Evan Zes, an actor/writer born and raised in San Jose, California, portrays some 30 different characters in this wild-but-true account of life on the edge of New York City.

When Evan falls backwards into one of the few remaining rent-controlled apartments in NYC, he finds a way to make money and pursue his dream, turning the apartment into a lucrative Airbnb scheme – that is, until his money-making scheme backfires, threatening to ruin his life.

Critics have called it “…cheerfully profane”, “a…surprise thriller” and “…dangerously hilarious.”

After two years of sold-out performances all over the United States, Rent Control is finally making its motherland premiere.

The play will be performed in English, with Greek surtitles and performances will be followed by open discussion between the audience and Evan Zes.

Zes will also be holding Masterclasses in Physical Characterisation and Clowning as part of EllinikoThεαtro’s In Class performing arts training program.

CAVAFY: Poet of the City

After a six-year, internationally sold-out run of Socrates NOW, Emmy-award winner Yannis Simonides returns to the stage with Cavafy: Poet of the City.  This theatrical poetry performance brings to life the extraordinary work of treasured Greek poet Constantine P. Cavafy. Premiered in New York, Luxembourg, and Montreal, this theatrical portrait of the internationally beloved Greek poet is finally coming to Athens for four performances.

The work sheds light on a man considered to be one of the most important poets of the 20th century. By paying homage to the theatricality of Cavafy’s voice and gesture, his private universe and public persona, Simonides uncovers the poet’s inspiration, his lifelong struggle with adversity and his ultimate liberation. Through the extraordinary life and work of the great poet, Cavafy: Poet of the City shows us the possibility of redemption through the power of love, art, irony and the pleasures of learning.

The play will be performed in Greek, with surtitles in English, accompanied by music of the time and images of Alexandria and Cavafy’s life.

The performances will be followed by open discussion between the audience and Simonides. Simonides will also be holding masterclasses in voice, speech and accent work.

A discussion between celebrated authors Lynne Tillman and Ranbir Sidhu

In celebration of Athens’ designation as World Book Capital for 2018, EllinikoThεαtro will welcome renowned New York-based novelist and essayist Lynne Tillman back to Greece, where she once lived during the years of the military junta (which lasted between 1967-74).

Her new novel, Men and Apparitions, showcases her not only as a brilliantly original novelist but also as one of our most prominent contemporary thinkers on art, culture, and society. 

“With callouts to a mind-revving roster of photographers, writers, filmmakers, intellectuals, and media magnets, erudite, discerning, and ever daring Tillman has forged a mischievous conflation of criticism and fiction. Incantatory, maddening, brilliant, zestful, compassionate, and timely, Tillman’s portrait of a floundering academic trying to make sense of a digitized world of churning, contradictory messages reveals the perpetual interplay between past and present, the personal and the cultural, image and life,” reads a starred review on Booklist about the novel.

Lynne Tillman will join award-winning author and filmmaker Ranbir Sidhu on Tuesday, June 26th in a lively conversation about writing, art, the modern world, and her years living in Greece in the early 1970s, where she set her novel, Cast In Doubt.

On June 26, Ranbir Sidhu also premieres two Greece-based documentaries about art, death and madness. Completed in the last year, the films trace the lives of two artists – a painter and a dancer – living and working in Chania, Crete:

Into the Sun tells the story of one man’s obsession with bringing the world financial system to its knees through the creation of a single, shocking artwork. Inspired by the devastation of the Greek crisis, a British painter living in Crete decides to create what he believes will be the most shocking painting ever made – so shocking it will help turn worldwide public opinion against the international banking system. But instead of bringing an end to capitalism, the painting flies off a high-rise roof and crashes into a black Mercedes, destroying the car, while the artist himself is seriously injured. The 40-minute documentary follows the artist as he recovers and tries to salvage what’s left of what he believed was going to be his masterpiece.

Dancing with the Dead Teaser from Ranbir Sidhu on Vimeo.

Dancing Without Feet follows Chania-based performer and teacher Maria Malaxianaki, one of the pioneers in Greece of the boundary-breaking Japanese dance form Butoh, as she discusses art and death and her inspirations and what pushes her to pull out her innermost demons for audiences on stage. Malaxianaki, who studied with world-renowned Japanese Butoh masters in Greece and France, traces a love of Japanese culture to its cinema and fiction, and particularly to the works of Akira Kurosawa and Haruki Murakami. A highlight of the 40-minute documentary is the visually striking footage of Malaxianaki’s performances and workshops with her students.