Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes, Persona Theatre Company

Seven gates, seven opposing generals, and at the heart of a besieged city, two brothers driven towards mutual destruction. In Seven Against Thebes, Aeschylus places the family feud of Oedipus’ descendants in the maelstrom of war: Polynices returns to Thebes with the Argive army to claim the throne from Eteocles, while the besieged people of Thebes turn anxiously to the gods. The struggle for power becomes fratricide, and the cycle of violence returns to where it began: within the family itself.

In Lea Maleni’s stage interpretation, the ancient tragedy provides the impetus for a contemporary reflection on war and the mechanisms that perpetuate it. Revenge breeds new crime, violence begets violence, and the need to survive often drives people to the destruction of others and, ultimately, to their own destruction. The myth is not treated as a distant past, but as a pattern that resurfaces throughout history—in civil conflicts, displacement and the collective traumas they leave in their wake.

A defining element of the production is its multilingualism. Seven different languages—including Arabic, Farsi, Somali, Hindi and Serbian—are spoken live on stage and form an integral part of the performance. The languages of people and places that have known war, forced displacement and loss meet on stage, carrying different memories and experiences. These different voices come together, bringing Aeschylus’ tragedy into dialogue with the realities of the present.

The production was created for the 29th International Ancient Greek Drama Festival 2026 and was funded by the Cyprus Centre of the International Theatre Institute and the Deputy Ministry of Culture (Department of Contemporary Culture), which also served as co-organisers.

Duration: 75 minutes

Supertitles: Greek and English

Age suitability: 12+

Translation: Yiorgos Blanas

Director: Lea Maleni

Dramaturgy: Elena Triantafyllopoulou & Lea Maleni

Music Composition: Spyros Kallivokas

Set and Costume Design: Yiorgos Yiannou

Movement: Panayiotis Tofi

Lighting Design: Nicos Mylonas

Assistant Director: Katerina Papageorgiou

Language Coaches: Kamal Eldin Salah (Arabic), Almas Aadan Abdulle (Somali), Raamaakrisshnan Nenmeli (Hindi), Afsaneh Fasihi & Maryam Edalati (Farsi), Dragana Constantinou Markov (Serbian)

Cast (in order of appearance)

Eteocles/Chorus: Giannis Karaoulis

Messenger/Chorus: Andreas Papamichalopoulos

Antigone/Chorus: Marina Mandri

Ismene/Chorus: Myrsini Christodoulou

Chorus: Anna Yiangiozi, Vasilis Michael, Semeli Kyriazi, Freideriki Tombazou

Polyneices: Antonis Akritov

Children: Solon Dellaporta, Damianos Kousiappas

Musicians on Stage:

Natasa Hadjiandreou (percussion), Annita Skoutella (French horn)

Promotional photos: Nastazia Christodoulou, Vasilis Theofanous

Photos from the performance: © Pavlos Vrionides