Praxis 8: A Festival of Modern Greek Theatre

Saturday 25 Nov 2023

Imagine a country shaken by political and economic turmoil. A society in flux, with past definitions failing and human migration creating tensions and tragedies. In this bleak landscape, people are searching for something new: they question their leaders and the social norms and demand a say in matters that affect their lives and their rights. The voices of the marginalised, the suppressed, and the dispossessed grow louder during their struggle to break from the limitations and prejudices of the past. What was once taboo is now out in the open, with people refusing to be defined away.

This country for the past decade has been Greece. But this country is also today’s Britain – in fact, this landscape is becoming a global experience.

The Praxis 8 Festival was conceived to provide a stage for many voices that emerged due to these profound changes, and to provoke reflection on how social norms can render us captives of our own identities. After receiving a huge response to its call out to Greek writers, with some thirty recent plays submitted, eight plays were selected for the festival; their stories are heart-warming, shocking, tragic, comic, and remind us of our essential truth: our humanity.

Each play opens with on-screen presentation of the authors and closes with a Q&A with the audience.

Praxis (Action) was established in 2013 as the Oxford University Greek Society Drama Company, with a vision to introduce contemporary Greek plays performed in their original language to an English-speaking audience by providing subtitles and is proud of being the first ever to do so in Oxford. Since its debut in May 2013 Praxis has remained faithful to the principle ‘Modern Greek Theatre in Oxford, presented in Greek with English subtitles.’ Under the leadership of Anastasia Revi, Praxis had the chance to read a great number of modern Greek plays, discover new Greek playwrights, invite them to Oxford for lectures at the Modern Greek Department, discuss and finally present on stage theatre productions of Contemporary Plays of Greece that resonate the present in the multicultural audiences of Oxford.

This year instead of presenting one theatre production, a day of a Play Reading Festival will be presented, where the contemporary talent of Greece can be celebrated. The plays chosen out of the many remarkable submissions are those that meet themes which reflect social sensitivities: feminism, sexism, class division, racism, neurodiversity, ageism, homophobia, fatphobia, mental health. The works might not have the answers but raise important questions!

‘We are all different’ is the philosophy of the organising team and the title of this Festival!