List of works Plays | Julian the Apostate Plot This work deals with the final hours of Julian the Apostate, during his expedition against the Persians in 363 AD. As the Persians move to encircle Julian’s army, the Christians plot his murder. The conspiracy is headed by the Bishop, former tutor to Julian and now …
List of works Plays | Kouros or Theseus Plot Theseus is standing outside the entrance to the Labyrinth, readying himself for his struggle against the mythical Minotaur. He reflects on how he escaped from the stratagems of the Minoans, who attempted to divert him from his goal. Ariadne sends him a message in which she …
List of works Plays | Comedy, Α Τragedy in Οne Αct Plot This work of metaphysical enquiry is the most original of all Kazantzakis’ plays, and is a precursor to post-war forms of drama. Two old men are in an opulently furnished room, which, as Kazantzakis notes, represents the human brain “in its death throes”. …
List of works Plays | Constantine Palaeologue Plot On the eve of the fall of Constantinople, it is rumoured that the coming disaster is divine punishment for forming an alliance with the Franks. At the palace, Emperor Constantine is deliberating with the nobles and the Franks. While Loukas Notaras launches blistering tirades against the Westerners, …
List of works Plays | Melissa Plot Kypselos, the moonstruck son of Periandros, the Corinthian tyrant, brings his brother Lykophron to see the ghost of Melissa, their dead mother. Lykophron cannot see anything, but Periandros meets the dead woman, talks to her and is overcome by a fit of rage. Kypselos leaves, while Lykophron announces …
List of works Plays | Nikiforos Fokas Plot Constantinople, 969: Emperor Nikiforos Fokas is an object of hatred. Years of war and burdensome taxation have turned the people against him, while Empress Theofano is conspiring to overthrow him and give her love to the imprisoned Ioannis Tsimiskis. Remorseful for his wrongdoings, Nikiforos has become a …
List of works Plays | Day is Breaking Plot Kazantzakis’ first play is the only one in which a woman plays the leading role. The subject matter is similar to that in Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. Lalo, the wife of a wealthy bourgeois man and mother of a young girl, is in love with her brother-in-law, …
List of works Plays | Othello returns Plot This is a modern, Pirandellesque one-act comedy in two parts. As the director of a theatre troupe is looking for a work, the ghosts of Clytemnestra, Faust and Othello appear in turn, all suggesting the tragedies in which they appear. The director is taken with Othello, and …
List of works Plays | The master builder Plot The folk legend about the Bridge of Arta forms the core of the plot. Despite the gloomy predictions made by the builders and villagers, the bridge is completed, and the Master Builder is sure it will not collapse. When the Noble asks him what reward he …
List of works Plays | Odisseas Plot In general terms this work follows the final books of Homer’s Odyssey, though its debt to Hauptmann’s Bow of Odysseus has also been pointed out. Odysseus returns to Ithaca after an absence of twenty years, on the day Penelope has decided to marry the man who can draw …