The Cherry Orchard

liminal continues its collaboration with the National Theatre of Greece. Following Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Cow | Deer, liminal designs and implements accessibility services for audience members with sensory disabilities for The Cherry Orchard. This marks the third production of this season’s National Theatre of Greece repertoire to become accessible In the framework of the “Culture for All” programme with the support of Alpha Bank.

Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard, one of the most iconic works of the world repertoire, in an adaptation and direction by Ektoras Lygizos, becomes accessible to people with sensory disabilities at the Main Stage of the National Theatre of Greece on March 12 & 13.

In a greenhouse lush with greenery, a red-haired woman in an orange sweater stands in profile, gazing seriously straight ahead. Behind her, a grey-haired man with a moustache looks directly into the camera, as if allowing us to step into a private moment.

Driven by Chrysa Prokopaki’s superb translation  and shaped through a peculiar kind of “musical realism” – where the score is the text and the musical instruments human voices – the 11 cast members bring to life a group of people who, through their words and actions, fight to exorcise the silence and the emptiness that threaten at every moment to annihilate them.

And what does it mean — dying? Perhaps man has a hundred senses, and only the five we know are lost at death, while the other ninety-five remain alive.

The plot

After many years, a group of relatives come together in their now-aging – and mortgaged – home. Deep down, they all know that this is their last chance to feel the sense of familiarity that unites them, but also to say goodbye to everything that seems already to belong to the past even as they are experiencing it.

Inside a long, narrow greenhouse filled with cacti, succulents, and other greenery, eleven people are spread out along either side of the plants. They are dressed in winter clothes, and most of them look toward the camera appearing weary or somber.

Chekhov’s balance between the comic and the almost tragic is remarkable. Personally, I’m intrigued by the fact that his works carry both a great lightness and a great weight, with the characters barely having time to move from one realm to the other.

-Ektoras Lygizos

The owners of the cherry orchard, drowning in debt and delusion, refuse to accept that their estate is lost and that the dramatically changing world has passed them by. Like all the play’s characters, more or less, they choose to cling to the light-heartedness of an eternal childhood, stubbornly postponing their adulthood.

Chekhov’s last play, written just a few months before his death, speaks with painful insouciance about a carefree present that is suffocatingly squashed between a rose-tinted past and a tragically uncertain future.

In a lush, overgrown landscape, an elderly woman in glasses and a red sweater rests her body tenderly against the broad trunk of a tree. Her arms circle it in an embrace that cannot quite meet, her eyes closed and her smile soft, as though she has let herself melt into a moment of quiet, relieved stillness.
In a dense forest, a bald man in a brown coat gazes thoughtfully into the distance ahead of him.
Amidst dense bamboo stalks, the face of a young man emerges. He wears a heavy coat and a knitted sweater, with brown hair and a beard. His blue eyes look deeply into the camera, revealing a sense of concern or worry.
In a cactus-filled greenhouse, a neatly groomed woman in a brown fur coat stands in profile, gazing upward, lost in thought and fully absorbed in her own world.

Accessibility in The Cherry Orchard

liminal designs and implements accessibility services for people with sensory disabilities for The Cherry Orchard.

The two accessible performances on Thursday 12 and Friday 13 of March 2026 at 20:00, at the Main Stage – Ziller Building will feature:

  • Interpretation in Greek Sign Language and
  • SDH Surtitles for D/deaf and Hard of Hearing people

and also

  • Guided Touch Tour and
  • Audio Description for people with visual disabilities.

👉 Guided Touch Tour of the stage will begin at 19:00, one hour before the the performance starts.

Credits

Translation: Chrysa Prokopaki Adaptation – Direction: Ektoras Lygizos Set design: Myrto Lamprou Costume design: Alkisti Mamali Music – Musical adaptation: Lina Zachari Movement collaboration – Choreography: Dimitris Mytilinaios Lighting design: Dimitris Kasimatis Sound design: Brian Coon Production dramaturg: Erie Kyrgia Directing Assistant: Eva Vlassopoulou Make-up and hair design: Ioanna Lygizou Set design assistant: Anna Biza

Cast: Giorgos Ziakas, Giannis Klinis, Sofia Kokkali, Ektoras Lygizos, Ivonni Maltezou*, Maria Moschouri, Amalia Moutoussi, Rania Oikonomidou*, Giannis Papadopoulos, Katerina Patsiani, Fivos Simeonidis

*In a double cast

Photos: John Kouskoutis Video: Nikos Pastras

Accessibility Credits

Surtitling for the D/deaf and Hard of Hearing: Grigoris Stathopoulos
Audio Description Script: Anna Dimkou, Maria Thrasyvoulidi,
Audio Description Narration and Guided Touch Tour: Maria Thrasyvoulidi
Interpretation in the Greek Sign Language: Anta Galani, Androniki Xanthopoulou
Quality Check: Andreas Plemmenos, Eva Gkritzali, Yannis Vitsos
Surtitling software: supertitles.g
Accessibility Services Design: liminal
Co-ordination: Christos Papamichael

Useful information

Days and times of accessible performances: Thursday 12 and Friday 13 of March 2026 at 20:00
Guided Touch Tour: 19:00
Location: Main Stage – Ziller Building, Ag. Konstantinou 22-24 10437, Athens (Map)
Duration: 140’
Tickets for disabled people – Companion: 5 euros

How to book tickets

Via email: [email protected]
Telephone reservations at the Group Sales Office: 2107001468 (Monday to Friday: 09.00-15.00)
Ziller Building Box Office: Ag. Konstantinou 22-24 (Wednesday – Sunday: 09.00-21.00)

* For the convenience of the audience, complimentary parking is available at the National Theatre car park (entrance from Koumoundourou Street). If you wish to use this service, please provide the vehicle’s license plate number and the driver’s full name when making your reservation.

For assistance with the reservation process, please contact us by email at [email protected].

The logo of the National Theatre. On a white background, a black square and a black circle sit side by side, bisected diagonally by a white line, evoking the letters E and Θ, the initials of the National Theatre. At the bottom, “ΕΘΝΙΚΟ ΘΕΑΤΡΟ” is written in uppercase letters in the same black color.

The performances are implemented with the support of Alpha Bank, in the framework of its “Culture for All” programme.

The Alpha Bank logo: On a dark blue background appears the white imprint of the reverse side of the Aegina silver stater, one of the first coins of ancient Greece, featuring thick straight lines that intersect.