Autumn brings with it dozens of premieres and a wide variety of works that will be hosted on the Athenian stages. New productions, returning big hits of last season, classic masterpieces of the world repertoire and contemporary works, make up this year’s theatrical landscape that will begin to emerge in front of us in the coming days and claim a share of our attention.

The Athenian-Macedonian News Agency makes a selection of fifteen plays that are expected to premiere in the fall.

“The House” at the Onassis Foundation Roof (from September 30)

Dimitris Karantzas presents a performance-parable about violence, image addiction and the abolition of illusions, or, in other words, about the reality that, no matter what you do to avoid it, sooner or later it will come to find you. A new, original work, elliptical and focused mainly on action in silence, is the textual performance material. With minimal speech, unrelenting tension and two actors, Alexia Kaltsikis and Fidel Talabukas, performing the daily ritual of domesticity in their home, until the violence of the world invades and upends everything.

“Drive your plow over the bones of the dead” at the Onassis Foundation Roof (from October 4)

Seven years after the unforgettable “The Encounter”, Simon McBurney, one of the most influential creators on the world theater scene, and the Complicité team return to the Main Stage of the Roof with a performance-apotheosis of physical theater and polyphonic storytelling by a ten-piece ensemble of veterans and new actors of the genre.

The new production of the iconic team is based on the multi-translated novel of the same name by the Nobel laureate for Literature, Olga Tokarchuk and moves on the border between crime thriller and black comedy. In the play, an elderly pensioner in an isolated mountain village in Poland claims that the murders of her hunter neighbors are nature’s transcendental revenge.

“Little Marital Crimes” at the Anesis Theater (from October 5)

Natalia Tsalikis and Aris Lebesopoulos introduce us to the touching story of a couple through Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt’s play directed by Sotiris Tsafoulias. “Schmidt in ‘Petty Conjugal Crimes,’ as in ‘Mysterious Variations,’ has one man discover the infinitely mysterious character of another. The difference between the two works is that, in “Mysterious Variations”, the character is faced with destruction as a result of his experience, while, in “Minor Marital Crimes”, the clarity of one’s character enables him to accept the other and to create a relationship that is certain in the uncertainty of love,” notes the director.

“Twelfth Night or Whatever You Wish for” at the Underground Art Theater (from October 7)

Yiannis Kakleas directs for the first time at the Art Theater, where he studied and began his dynamic career in the theater, proposing a fantastical version of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” with a strong group of young actors, including Amalia Kavali, Konstantinos Bibis , Iliana Mavromati, Konstantinos Georgopoulos ca. Issues of sexual identity and gender fluidity dominate the play, which revolves around a shipwreck that separates twin siblings, Viola and Sebastian. Viola, for reasons of survival, dresses as a man and from there her adventures begin, in a play with themes that strongly concern our time.

“The Humans” at the Moussouri Theater (from October 11)

This fall, Konstantinos Markoulakis is directing Steven Karam’s Tony Award-winning play, “The Humans”, which has received rave reviews from audiences and critics wherever it has been performed, and speaks with clarity, humor, tenderness and deep love for ” life, as we try to live it.” With an ensemble of exceptional protagonists on stage (Lazaros Georgakopoulos, Themis Bazakas, Konstantinos Aspiotis, Maria Petevi, Irini Makri, Xenia Kalogeropoulou) the play captures the essence of the human condition with precision, compassion and unparalleled authenticity. The show unravels the life of the Blake family over the course of a single afternoon, inviting the audience to witness their anxieties, dreams and unacknowledged fears up close.

“The Impresario from Smyrna” at the National Theater–Main Stage (from October 26)

Vassilis Papavasiliou returns to the great reviewer of Italian comedy Carlo Goldoni with a work from 1757, presenting a merciless portrait of the artists’ lives and submitting his own proposal for the theatrical association. A large group of well-known performers (Daphni Lambrogianni, Laertis Malkotsis, Ioanna Mavrea, Spyros Bibilas, Alexandros Mylonas, Agoritsa Oikonomou, Themis Panou etc.) tell us the adventures of the rich merchant Ali, who decides to introduce the art of opera to Smyrna. But the constant skirmishes of three sopranos over who will be the prima donna and the other-worldly demands of everyone involved make him rethink his decision.

“Germa” at Porta Theater (from October 27)

She, a journalist and blogger with a large number of followers, her husband a successful businessman. Their world is tested and torn apart by their inability to have a child. A modern version of Lorca’s classic work written and presented in 2017 at the Young Vic in London, winning rave reviews by Simon Stone, is presented by Vangelis Theodoropoulos, starring Maria Kitsou and Iosif Iosifidis.

“King Lear” at Kefallinia Street Theater (from November 8)

Stathis Livathinos directs Betty Arvanitis in Shakespeare’s work, in an original adaptation by Stratis Paschalis that thickens the work and brings together persons and situations in a paradoxical action where modern theatrical language meets the original Shakespearean associations, without betraying the spirit but nor the letter of this famous classic work. The core of the show is the challenge.

“Evangelism, The Musical” at the REX theater (from November 8)

Composer and actor Angelos Triantafillou directs, together with Dimitris Stavropoulos, for the first time at the National Theater a “hospital dream drama about love, a metaphysical hymn to life which, because of its inevitable transience, is so charming and precious.”. His new play, with a libretto by Yiannis Asteris, takes place in the First Pathological Clinic of Evangelismos. Charos himself is sedated in a hospital ward, and the inescapable law that wants human life to always be sealed by an end is suspended until further notice.

“The Ugly” at the Katerina Vasilakou New Theater (from November 10)

Orfeas Augustidis, Yiannis Klinis, Mary Minas and Ilias Moulas are tested in eight roles in Marius von Magenburg’s sardonic, dark comedy, directed by Giorgos Koutlis. A satire on the brutality of modern narcissistic society, where image and social status now, more than ever, determine the core of our existence.

“Underground” at the Acropolis Theater (from November 15)

Nikita Milivogevic directs a show based on Emir Kustouritsa’s iconic film, starring Vassilis Charalambopoulos, Yiannis Tsortekis and Alexandra Aidini. “Underground” tells the epic story of two friends, Blaki and Marko, against the backdrop of political turmoil and war in the former Yugoslavia, transporting the audience into a world of surrealism, dark humor and honest emotion. The troupe is accompanied by an orchestra that will perform the unforgettable melodies of Goran Bregović and original compositions by Aggelos Triantafyllos.

“The Father” at the Contemporary Theater (from November 18)

Eleni Skoti directs Pericles Moustakis and Ioanna Pappa in Florian Zeller’s award-winning play. A suffocating drama that deals with the limits of relationships in a family, which will be tested and redefined when the father becomes ill with Alzheimer’s. “The Father” was also transferred to the big screen in 2020, written and directed by Zeller himself, starring Anthony Hopkins, who won the Oscar for Best Actor for his performance, while the film itself had six nominations.

“Crime and Punishment” at the Poreia Theater (from November 23)

A leading psychograph of human existence and morality is the occasion for the central production of the Marche theater in the 2023-2024 season. It is an adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s massive novel, directed by Dimitri Tarlow, which follows the story of Raskolnikov (Prometheus Aliferopoulos), a student who believes that intellectual and mental superiority legitimizes a person to commit crimes for the good of humanity. With “Crime and Punishment” Dimitris Tarlow deepens the research on the dipoles “good motives – moral damage” and “Man – Law”, which started last season with “A Doll’s House” by H. Ibsen, a performance that will be repeated and this year after its great success.

“Three tall women” at the Piraeus Municipal Theater – Central Stage (from November 24)

The internationally renowned American director Bob Wilson directs three important Greek actresses (Reni Pittakis, Karyophyllia Karabeti and Loukia Michalopoulou) in Edward Albee’s work. The text is structured around the fundamental existential issues of man’s relationship with himself and mortality, presenting three women of different ages who gradually converge into one person. Wilson, through his characteristically idiosyncratic use of time and space, orchestrates a complex narrative that highlights the imprint of time and the multiple reflections engendered by the mirror of life.

“Prometheus” at the Gloria Theater (from November 27)

After his recent confrontation with Aeschylus’ “Prometheus Bound” (Athens and Epidaurus Festival 2021), Aris Biniaris attempts to explore the ominous parallels between this ancient myth and the dark chapters of modern history through a new original text of his own . This contemporary reading delves into issues of mental and social isolation and approaches the myth of Prometheus within the confines of an authoritarian maximum security prison, where a dark chronicle of a series of interrogations unfolds.