Angeliki Papoulias and Christos Passalis return to Central Europe’s theater scene with « Hecabi »

After three distinguished productions at the Luzerner Theater, Angeliki Papoulias and Christos Passalis return dynamically to the heart of the European theatrical scene.

This time, as guests of Schauspielhaus Zürich, the historical theater of Zurich, they present a radical theatrical reading of Euripides’ Ekavis, with actors from the ensemble of the theater.

Schauspielhaus Zürich, Pınar Karabulut and Rafael Sanchez recently presented their plans for their first season:

« The 21st century theater is as different as the world we live in today. Here in Zurich, we want to offer stories and aesthetics that fascinate in different ways and worth exploring together. In a world that is becoming increasingly discarded, we need theater as a means of charm. The scene is the place where completely new opportunities and whole new worlds are created. « 

The new theater program opens in new international collaborations with a common focus on approaching the theater as a meeting place of people and a field of conflict and negotiation with the challenges of the time.

For their debut at Schauspielhaus Zürich, Angeliki Papoulias and Christos Passalis focus on Ekavi’s Euripides, a work so relentless that it reflects the analgesia of our European identity and so far as to talk to the insanity of our time.

With the scenery signature of the award -winning Márton ágh, the costumes of Katrin Wolferman, the original music and audio design of Nicolas Fehr and the choreographic editing of Haras Kotsalis.

Hecavi – the tragedy

Troy is now in ruins and ashes. After ten years, the war is over. But for the women of the losers, the nightmare continues: uprooted from their homeland, mourning the dead, they are forced to serve the Greeks as a loot of war. Among them is Ekavi – sometimes proud queen, now at the mercy of her conquerors.

When she is asked to sacrifice her daughter to honor the dead Achilles, neither the prayers nor the diplomacy can save her. Polyxeni must die. And while the sacrifice has just been performed, a new horror is revealed: the body of Polydoros, her only son who considered safe, is murdered by greed. The limits of the tolerance have now been overcome. Hecabi calls for revenge at all costs. Through a transformation born of pain, it regains its power.

The Papoulias-Passali show

Tell them I’m a woman who no longer knows what it is.

A huge tree descends from the sky.

The scene is empty.

Only a dog barking incessantly.

My soul is full now.

Hecabi is a labyrinth full of repetitions and dead ends. Heroes and spectators are lost in where the real and dreamy, documentary and fiction are intertwined, where language is used as a weapon of deception and extermination. In front of us is a nightmare battlefield where the absurdity of the war and mania reach the limit of the tolerance for heroes and spectators.

Hecabi is captive. The violence practiced in the family, the city and its people transforms it from familiar becomes unrecognizable. It will regain its power slowly and invisible, as a corrosive political force, as a force of revenge that will interrupt the winners’ feast. With a subversive female narrative that refuses to forget the dead and the righteous to its final victory: its transformation into a dog and its exit from the human species.

The show premieres on December 12, 2025 and is part of Schauspielhaus Zürich’s alternate repertoire for the 2025–2026 theatrical season.