Synopsis
In a remote, luxurious hotel deep in the forest, time seems to have been abolished. At the Hotel Éternité, a strange hothouse of illusions, every mention of old age, decay and death is forbidden. The wealthy residents are sorted into zones according to their warped relationship with the past and the future, while the staff resort to extreme, artificial methods to keep reality at bay. But the arrival of a new employee begins to expose the first cracks. As the workers come face to face with their own memories and their own decline, the fragile balance collapses and the outside world threatens to break in violently. An allegorical and deeply human play about memory, loss, and the lies we invent in order to bear the truth of our own existence.
In our interpretation, using technology and our large ensemble, we open a window, or rather a screen, onto what is happening backstage as well. Onto elderly ladies who take on substance, onto obedient employees who follow a military discipline, and onto a dystopia that arrives and takes root on stage.
Accessibility
- In Greek, with German and Greek surtitles
The playwright
Yiannis Kalavrianos was born in Thessaloniki. He graduated from the School of Medicine and the Department of Theatre at the School of Fine Arts of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
His productions and texts have been presented at the National Theatre of Greece, the ancient theaters of Epidaurus, Little Epidaurus and Philippi, the National Theatre of Northern Greece, the Athens Festival, the Athens Concert Hall, the Municipal Theatre of Piraeus, the Art Theatre, the Cyprus Theatre Organisation, the Karolos Koun Art Theatre, the Theatre of the New World, the Theatre on Kefallinias Street, Apo Michanis Theatre, Bios, the Experimental Stage of the Art Theatre, Deutsches Theater Berlin, Piccolo Teatro, Spazio Teatro “NOHMA”, Heidelberger Stückemarkt, Kunstfestspiele Herrenhausen, Sarajevo Winter Festival, CSS Teatro Stabile, Theater Stok, the Greek Cultural Center in New York, Centro Dramático Nacional, regional municipal theaters (DI.PE.THE.) and ancient theaters across Greece.
He has received the 2025 Award for Best Contemporary Greek Play from the Hellenic Association of Theatre Critics for ‘The Gate of Hell’, the “Koun” Awards 2013–2014 and the “Nikos Zakopoulos” Award 2013 for Best Play, and the International Prize Il Teatro Nudo di Teresa Pomodoro 2014–2015 for “Sons and Daughters”. “Granada” has been translated into Spanish, “Hotel Éternité” into German, “Abelard and Heloise” into German and Italian, and “Sons and Daughters” into English, Italian, German, Bosnian and Spanish.
Credits
Cast
Creative team
After the performance · 19.30
Talkback with the audience
In conversation with the playwright Yiannis Kalavrianos
Moderation: Violeta Lupis
Immediately after the performance, the playwright of «Hotel Éternité» talks openly with the audience. A hotel where every mention of old age and death is strictly forbidden. How do you build a world that rests on silence and comforting lies? And if it reminds you less of a fictional hotel and more of our own reality, you may not be the only one. The conversation takes its course from the questions of those in the room.