Hercules: In Search of a Hero

Hercules: In Search of a Hero, based on Euripides’ plays Alcestis and Hercules,
directed and conceived by Ioanna Katsarou, and translated by Demetri Bonaros.

Hercules: In Search of a Hero is a new theater piece presented by a multi-ethnic cast, combining excerpts from Euripides’ plays Hercules and Alcestis with original material to explore the meaning of heroism in our time.

In Alcestis, Hercules goes to the underworld and restores Alcestis to her family. In Hercules, he comes back from the underworld, is thrown into a god-induced frenzy and kills his own family. Meanwhile, Alcestis sacrifices herself to save her family. Using as a launching point these two diametrically opposite actions by Hercules—the prototypical Greek hero—and Alcestis' differently heroic act, we explore what heroism is/is not/could be in a modern context.

Using poetic language and images, our play challenges the conventional, masculine notion of heroism and contemplates a feminine alternative. It asks: what counts as heroism in our time? Is an act heroic if it involves violence? Where is the place of women in the modern, Western mythology of heroism? And do we need to create new mythologies?