When ‘our own’ Aristophanes ‘became us’ again: transcending the popular quest on the contemporary Greek stage (2006–2019)

Greek theatre between 2006 and 2019 witnessed profound changes, with the radical reorientation of the Athens – Epidaurus Festival playing a decisive role in a trajectory that was abruptly interrupted in 2020 by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The arts flourished against a backdrop of deep political and social tension caused by the economic crisis and the consequent destabilization of fundamental concepts such as the nation, the People (λαός), solidarity, public action, and politics. Comedy was slower than tragedy to respond to these developments in aesthetic terms. The prevailing popular readings of ancient comedies were rooted in the rather ethnocentric perceptions of folk and popular culture of the Metapolitefsi era on the one hand and intertwined with the local spectacle industry on the other. It was only in 2016 that new trends in the staging of Aristophanic comedies finally suggested the long-anticipated emergence of a paradigm shift. New stagings adopted post-dramatic approaches and consciously rejected the aesthetics of the ‘folk festival’ and the ‘revue’, which had reached its artistic and ideological limits. This study seeks to contribute to the discussion of popular culture in ancient drama reception by arguing that Aristophanes first had to transcend a ‘popular quest’ in order to attain renewed resonance on the contemporary Greek stage.