Half the Perfect World: Classical Greek Theatre at Epidaurus

Paul Genoni and Tanya Dalziell (An edited extract from Half the Perfect World: Writers, Dreamers and Drifters on Hydra, 1955-1964, Monash University Press 2018)

For Hydra’s foreign contingent one of the great opportunities that came their way was to see classical Greek theatre performed in the ancient theatres for which it had originally been intended. The most accessible were in Athens, either beneath the Acropolis at the Theatre of Dionysius or the nearby Odeon of Herodes Atticus. But the closest, and arguably even more spectacular, was the theatre on the eastern Peloponnese at the Sanctuary of Asclepius at Epidaurus.

The Sanctuary was an important sacred healing center during ancient times. Over several centuries it developed into an impressive array of facilities, including temples, baths and spas, an athletics field, and a magnificent theatre.

The theatre was built c340BC, with additions in the mid-2nd century. Along with the rest of the Sanctuary it fell into ruin after the 4th century. Restoration of the Sanctuary including the theatre commenced in the late 19th century and was eventually completed after World War II. By this time the use of ancient sites for cultural events was an important part of the Greek government’s strategy to attract tourism, and this included the inauguration in 1954 of the Epidaurus Festival (later called the Athens-Epidaurus Festival).

The restored theatre at Epidaurus is considered to be the best preserved of the ancient theatres of the Mediterranean and is renowned for its spectacularly effective natural acoustics. The modern theatre seats around 14,000 spectators, similar to the number it held nearly 2000 years ago.

That the Epidaurus Festival was a hit with Hydra’s international visitors is attested by a photograph from the 1954 Festival depicting war-hero and travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor, his photographer wife Joan, painter John Craxton, and ballerina Margot Fonteyn, standing in the vicinity of the stage while behind them the theatre fills ahead of the evening’s performance. At the time the Leigh Fermors were residing on Hydra in the house of Greek painter Nikos Ghika, and were on their way to making a permanent home in Greece

English travellers at the 1954 Epidaurus Festival, including Patrick Leigh Fermor (2nd from left) and to his immediate left, Joan Leigh Fermor, John Craxton and Margot Fonteyn.

Charmian Clift and George Johnston became devotees of the Epidaurus Festival soon after arriving on Hydra in 1955. According to Clift, “for a real night out at the theatre there was no enchantment to compare with the enchantment of Epidaurus, set in the hills at the heart of the myth country.” However, unlike the Athens theatres, which could be reached by regular summer ferries, getting to Epidaurus was no easy matter. At the time it required the considerably more expensive option of hiring a local caique to take them to the coastal ports of Nafplion or New Epidaurus and then hiring taxis for the final leg to the theatre. As Clift reported, this meant raising “a party large enough and congenial enough to live together on one small boat for two days with the feuds, fractures, hysterias, animosities, jealousies, changings of bed-partners and other good clean fun that spiced the life of the foreign colony.”

That upside, however, was that with a caique to themselves the group was able to dictate the journey, stopping into coves and beaches to swim, picnic and extend the pleasure of sailing the placid waters of the Argolic Gulf.

One such excursion, in 1960, was recorded in the biography of Marianne Ihlen, at the time the partner of Leonard Cohen. Ihlen recounted to biographer Kerri Hesthamar how a group of Hydra’s expats—including herself and Cohen, Clift and Johnston; American writer Gordon Merrick and his partner Chuck Hulse; and New Zealanders Frank ‘Bim’ Wallis and his wife Robin—scraped together the necessary money to travel to Epidaurus for a performance of ‘Hecuba’.  Once the excursion was arranged they then began their preparation by reading the story of Hecuba—a necessity for the non-Greek speakers.

Wallis was a keen photographer and took along a camera and recorded a series of photographs as the friends savoured the caique journey and the prospect of the performance. The open smiles and relaxed postures communicate the excitement that this trip must have provoked, both for the reason for their going and for the welcome opportunity for a brief respite from the confinement of the island.

Travelling to Epidaurus, July 1960. Includes Leonard Cohen, Marianne Ihlen, Charmian Clift, George Johnston, Frank and Robin Wallis and Gordon Merrick.

It seems that the performances at Epidaurus never disappointed. Ihlen was already familiar with other classical theatres in the region, but she found that, at over two millennia old and with the large audience in the theatre and others crowded at its extremities, “Epidauros exceeded everything.”

As Hesthamar wrote in summarising Ihlen’s recall of the evening:

The night was velvety warm. Marianne sat close to Leonard. Enveloped by the dark she heard Hecuba whisper to her and the hovering white figures who sang directly to her heart. Marianne didn’t feel the effects of sitting on cold stone until the performance was over. The little group tumbled out into the night with the rest of the audience, and rode in the taxi back to the caique that awaited them in the harbour. They unpacked food and wine from their woven baskets, ate and drank under the stars while the night became morning and then sleep overtook them.

The post-theatre gathering was also a memorable part of the experience for Clift, who recalled that, “Afterwards, back down in the port, gorging on squid and spitted lamb and passing the wine beakers, criticism and comment would be heated and could go on for hours.”

Epidaurus Festival, poster, 1957

The authors, Dr. Paul Genoni and Prof. Tanya Dalziell are presenting a series of seminars, and writing workshops on Hydra 17-23 October, 2025 in a unique literary adventure for Writers, Readers, and Travellers. FIND OUT MORE about "An Island in the Mind"

YOU ARE WARMLY INVITED TO COME ALONG AND JOIN US FOR COFFEE

AND MEET THE AUTHORS IN PERTH on 23rd MARCH, 2025

Join us at The Bodhi Tree Book Cafe,

located cnr Oxford Street and Scarborough Beach Road, Mt Hawthorn,

anytime between 10 and 1 pm.

SHOULD YOU DECIDE TO ENROL FOR THIS RETREAT ON THE DAY YOU'LL SAVE Euro 150!