William Shakespeare’s “King Lear” will be staged from December 13 on the Main Stage of the National Theater and Yannis Houvardas invites us to a universe where power means everything and questioning it leads to nothing. The play follows Lear’s journey into darkness, inner desolation and madness, after his decision to retire from active life and divide his realm among his three daughters. The tragedy that will unfold will not leave any of the heroes unscathed.

Written in 1608, the darkest work of Shakespeare’s drama deals with the question of power and the decay that comes with its loss and the complexities of family relationships. Assisted by a multi-layered set design that extends into the bowels of the Chiller Building and embraces the art of cinema with extensive use of live video, the director plunges us into the mind of Lear, a man who casually surrendered his primacy, a child who he searches in vain to reunite with the mother, the cruel patriarch – guardian of a rigid code not unlike that of a criminal organization.

Starting from the translation of Dionysis Kapsalis, on which it was based, and having as allies on stage a three-member musical band and a large troupe of established and younger actors, Yiannis Houvardas proposes his own reading of King Lear, in a performance where the spectators, just like the heroes of the tragedy, they will take part in a gloomy mind game, and where the boundaries between theatrical experience and cinematic illusion are as blurred as the line that separates insanity from reason in the phrases uttered by the Mad follower of the fallen king. The eponymous role is embodied by Leonidas Kakouris.

The adaptation and direction is by Yannis Houvardas, the translation by Dionysis Kapsalis, the sets by Eva Manidaki, the costumes by Ioanna Tsami, the music by Gary Salomon, the movement by Markella Manoliadis, the videos by Pantelis Makkas and the lighting by Eliza Alexandropoulou.

Distribution (in alphabetical order): Michalis Afolayan, George Giannakakos, Pantelis Dentakis, Anthi Efstratiadou, Minos Theoharis, Leonidas Kakouris, Alexia Kaltsikis, Ioanna Kolliopoulou, Errikos Litsis, Kostas Loules, Yannis Dalianis, Argyris Xafis, George Papageorgiou, Chris Radanov, Konstantinos Siozos, A Lekos Syssovitis, Giorgos Triantafyllidis , Amalia Tsekouras, Haris Tsitsakis, Nina Franzeskaki. Musicians on stage: Nikos Liaskos, Vangelis Paraskevaidis, Gary Salomon. Camera operators: Dimitris Papadopoulos, Sibylle Meder Kindler.

Ticket sales: ticketservices.gr and at 210.7234567 (using a credit-debit card). Information: Funds of the Chiller building (Agiou Konstantinou 22-24), tel. 210.5288170-171.