Nicosia, Cyprus. The Cyprus Theatre Organisation (Thoc) has unveiled its 2026-2027 theatre programme days before the premiere of Euripides’ Ion, which will tour Cyprus and appear at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus in Athens.
Ion will begin touring Cyprus on July 16 before performances at the Athens Epidaurus Festival on August 28 and 29, marking Thoc’s return to the historic theatre with one of its own productions after eight years.
Main Stage productions
Thoc Board Chairman Pantelis Voutouris presented the new season, which includes the return of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express to the Main Stage for a second year. Directed by Takis Tzamargias, the Greek-language production follows detective Hercule Poirot in Christie’s classic mystery.
Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, directed by Achilleas Grammatikopoulos, will also be staged on the Main Stage this autumn. A third Main Stage production has yet to be announced.
New Stage programme
The New Stage will host Peter Morgan’s Frost/Nixon, directed by Andreas Araouzos. Based on the 1977 television interviews, the play focuses on the confrontation between journalist David Frost and former US President Richard Nixon following Nixon’s resignation over the Watergate scandal.
The production examines the role of the media, accountability and the influence of public image on historical memory.
Athena Kasiou will direct Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, using Thoc’s building as an integral performance space. The production will employ the building’s architecture to support the play’s theme of dreams being shattered while continuing to emerge.
Productions for young audiences
Stage 018 will present Little Red Riding Hood, a contemporary and poetic adaptation of the classic fairy tale for primary school children by playwright Andri Theodotou and director Fotis Nikolaou.
Seeds by Costas Mannouris will tour secondary schools across Cyprus. The play tells the story of two 15-year-old students who enter the Garden of Humanity, where the stories of people who continue to hope despite hardship take root.
Experimental Stage and new Cypriot works
Stella Voskaridou’s A Thousand Hands will return for a second run on the Experimental Stage. Directed by Nikolaou, the play follows the life and artistic journey of sculptor Yannoulis Chalepas, exploring his struggle between light and darkness, madness and inspiration, family pressure and creativity.
Thoc has also invited three Cypriot playwrights to create original works inspired by classical texts for the Experimental Stage. The initiative aims to produce contemporary plays linking local and universal themes, with the productions to be directed by three different directors and announced later.
