The Homecoming, Yannis Ritsos

“Homecoming” is a theatrical adaptation based on poems by Yannis Ritsos from his collection “The Fourth Dimension” and more specifically from the Mycenaean cycle.

The famous myth of the Antiquity gives the poet an opportunity to weave his own universal story into poetic texts that carry a singular sensibility.

With sounds, tragic yet ordinary and familiar, Ritsos rebuilds the Atreides myth, knitting together the threads of the past with those of the present.

The tragic dilemma of the protagonist, Orestes, that stems from his attempt to find a delicate balance between the savage decision to commit an inevitable act of despicable violence and the quest for deeper knowledge, transforms into a painful and desperate struggle.

Both victim and executor of his own self, he is bound to commit the violent act of matricide that looms before him through knowledge, wearing the mask of a monstrous absurdity, and this makes him diametrically opposite to Hamlet for whom: “Thus conscience does make cowards of us all. And thus the native hue of resolution
is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought”.

A contemporary reading of the Atreides myth as interpreted by poet Yannis Ritsos and director Yannis Iordanidis.

The world premiere of the play, which was held in 1984 in Paris, was awarded a Gold Medal for Stage Direction by the International Academy of Paris (Lutèce) and received excellent reviews from the French press. Nearly three decades later, Yannis Iordanidis revisits the play and enriches it with new ideas and a fresh director’s outlook.

Direction–text adaptation: Yannis Iordanidis
Set and costume design: Stavros Antonopoulos
Lighting: Gregory Papageorgiou
Music supervision–assistant director: Constantinos Dimitriou

Cast:
Orestes: George Anagiotos
Electra: Nataly Amman
Pylades: Nicolas Bravos