Anestis Azas
Anestis Azas is an Athens-based director and theatre-maker working both in Greece and internationally. He studied Theatre Studies in Thessaloniki and Directing at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin. He has collaborated with, among others, the Athens National Theatre, Onassis Stegi, the Athens-Epidaurus Festival, the Maxim Gorki Theatre and Ballhaus Naunynstraße in Berlin, Münchner Kammerspiele, Theater und Orchester Heidelberg, Theaterhaus Jena, Schauspielhaus Graz, JK Opole in Poland, as well as numerous theatres throughout Greece.
His work encompasses productions of classical texts, contemporary drama, and devised theatre projects, combining documentary research with performative and fictional elements. He is particularly known for his long-standing collaboration with Prodromos Tsinikoris. Together they have realised several internationally acclaimed productions, including «Telemachus – Should I Stay or Should I Go?» (2013), which explores different generations of Greek migration to Germany, «Clean City» (2016), a piece about cleaning workers with a migration background, and «Romaland» (2024), which addresses police violence against the Roma minority in Greece. More recent works such as «Republic of Baklava» (2021) increasingly navigate the tension between documentation and fiction.
Azas' work has been presented at numerous international festivals, including Theater der Welt Mannheim, Chantiers d'Europe Paris, Festival Grec de Barcelona, Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, Heidelberger Stückemarkt, Theaterspektakel Zürich, Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, «Le Maillon» Strasbourg, Berliner Herbstsalon, Lessing Tage Hamburg, Wiesbaden Biennale, Sharjah Biennale, M.E.S.S Sarajevo, and the International Theatre Festival of Istanbul (IKSV). From 2015 to 2019, Azas co-directed the experimental stage of the Athens National Theatre together with Tsinikoris, and since 2022 he has been teaching directing at the state acting school of the same institution.
«Die Perser» is his first work at the Residenztheater.
Performing in
Xerxes, ruler of the vast Persian empire, plans to conquer Greece. He goes into battle in 480 BCE with a vastly superior force of ships and warriors. However, an act of military cunning robs him of victory. Almost three hundred thousand men from his army are killed. Eight years later, Aeschylus, who had fought on the side of the victorious Athenians, decides to present the events from the point of view of the defeated. In »The Persians« he has written not only the oldest surviving tragedy in world literature but a plea for humanity that is still acutely relevant – even after 2,500 years.
Die Perser (The Persians)