Two cycles of stage readings will include new, never before staged translations of classical plays and will present six plays by three Greek and Latin authors. The main theme of the autumn cycle, featuring plays on the myth of Heracles, Alcestis, The Madness of Heracles and The Trachiniae will offer an insight into three different periods of the ancient hero’s agonizing life. Two cycles of stage readings will include new, never before staged translations of classical plays and will present six plays by three Greek and Latin authors. The main theme of the autumn cycle, featuring plays on the myth of Heracles, Alcestis, The Madness of Heracles and The Trachiniae will offer an insight into three different periods of the ancient hero’s agonizing life. Two cycles of stage readings will include new, never before staged translations of classical plays and will present six plays by three Greek and Latin authors. The main theme of the autumn cycle, featuring plays on the myth of Heracles, Alcestis, The Madness of Heracles and The Trachiniae will offer an insight into three different periods of the ancient hero’s agonizing life.
The plays presented during the spring cycle will present fragments of three different mythological cycles: the Theban (Oedipus at Colonus), the Trojan (Hecuba), and the myth of the Argonauts (Medea). All plays will reveal the darkest layers of human existence, such as revenge, child murder, jealousy, (self)sacrifice and exile. The ancient conflicts are strongly present in contemporary society and call into question our ethical principles.

Euripides Alcestis
A play about an ideal wife and a cowardly husband.
In 38 BC, Euripides staged Alcestis, a happy-end-tragedy instead of a satirical play. It is a play about a woman who is the only one of his friends and relatives willing to die in place of her husband Admetus. Her departure is heart-rendering, Death awaits at the grave. … But the thankful Heracles intervenes – Admetus once welcomed him generously despite his mourning –, he beats up Death and brings back Alcestis to her overjoyed husband. – »Despite the misleadingly flattering epithet of the best among women«, which the protagonist obtains for her self-sacrifice, the play urges us to reject the idealization of women. Alcestis should be interpreted as a warning of what awaits a woman if she finally wins recognition of the male-dominated society.«
Dr. Maja Sunčič

Euripides The Madness of Heracles
Murder – adultery – murder – guilt: who is mad?
The moment the usurper Lycuss sets out to kill Heracles’ family, the hero returns home, murders the usurper and saves his family. … But the vengeful Hera, who has been chasing Hercules since birth – he was born from the adulterous union of Zeus with a mortal – sends madness upon him and the saviour becomes a murderer. When he sees this and sees suicide as the only way out of his predicament, the Athenian king Theseus intervenes and brings him back to life. – I want to hold on! I will live! – »At a time when the number of those in Athens who were looking for a way out of personal and social predicamnet in suicide was on the increase, this message was becoming increasingly more pertinent. It addresses the modern viewer and reader likewise.«
Dr. Kajetan Gantar

Sophocles The Trachiniea
Love is blind, jealousy breeds suffering and death.
After a long absence, Heracles returns home to his (new) family and brings an attractive female prisoner with him. His jealous wife Deianeira tris to rekindle their passionate love, and sends him a cloak smeared with the blood of the centaur Nessus, but falls into a trap, set up long time ago – the blood from the wound inflicted on the centaur by Heracles does not bring back her love, but brings death. When Deianeira realizes his mistake, she stabs herself in the heart. – Only the dead not encumbered. »This is an absolutely solemn and at the same time eerily tragic statement on existence that Sophocles, just like Nietzsche, albeit with a different emphasis, never tired of repeating.«
Dr. David Movrin