A nightmarish retrospective of Greek comedy.
A bullet to the head of a long-dead soul transports us to the squalid backdrop of "Café Arcadia," a derelict traditional café that boasts a tiny theatre stage once home to wandering troupes of old. Here, a demonic revelry of comedy and carnage unfolds—an infernal spectacle devoted to the grim absurdities of present-day Greece. In this national Grand Guignol, the audience bears witness to a series of grotesque, dark, and "randomly numbered" acts, where today’s comedy collides with the comedic legacy of the past: troupes that put on twisted renditions of classic farces featuring slaughtered actors from the golden age of Finos Film; bear trainers who, in place of bears, drag the ghost of King Arcturus, grieving for a Greece ravaged in wildfires; hellbound comedians of recent decades that suffer grotesquely hilarious punishments and torturing; Nosferatus-like and Frankensteinian creatures of all stripes that sweep the stage, in a twilight zone that compiles all the beauty and terror we come across in the typology of the Greek comedy—from the days of the Shadow theatre to the present.
From the improvisational slapstick sketches and farces to the era of modern Greek television, Simos Kakalas and Sofia Paschou reexamine this reservoir of comedic material with a wholly subversive spirit, determined
Surprise guests: Notable figures of Greek theatre
Live music performance:
Angeliki Potiri: vocals, violin
Roli Giammopoulou: percussion, vocals
Fotini Tsaknaki: keyboards, vocals
Sofi Papakosma: bass
Production management—Executive producer: Kart Productions
As part of the Athens - Epidaurus Festival 2025.
