Theodoros Terzopoulos couldn't remember exactly how many times he had come to China, "Many times."

The last time was six months ago, when he brought his rendition of Aeschylus' "Prometheus Bound" to Shanghai Jing'an Modern Drama Valley in April 2019, also featuring Attis Theatre, which he founded in 1985. 

The core message of freedom conveyed through the powerful use of actors' body and voice, left local audiences in awe.

This time, he brought "The Trojan Women" to Wuzhen with another significant message: against the war and for the peace. With loyalty to the ancient Greek classics he presented his play under the open sky.

'The actor is everything'

Theodoros Terzopoulos' approach to theater possesses an abundance of physicality with the least amount of technology, despite the latter's popularity in contemporary theater.

"I think the basis of my work is the human body and voice, and concentration," he told CGTN.

German dramatist Heiner Muller once described Terzopoulos' process of rehearsal as "a search for the lost keys of unity between body and speech, the word as a natural unity."

His world-renowned and influential method of work is being taught in drama schools and universities around the world, which is thoroughly explained in his book "The Return of Dionysus."

"It has been published in Chinese, too," Terzopoulos added.

All three performances of "The Trojan Women" started at 4:30pm instead of the golden evening hour to be rid of the necessity of artificial lighting. "We make the performance earlier. So with the daylight we start. It's very important for us," he explained.

"I don't need to have support, with a lot of effects, with a lot of videos… no."

For Terzopoulos, it's all designed to focus on the actors. "Actor means the human being." 

Through his method of training, the actors manage to emancipate enormous physical and emotional energy with but their own body and voice, extracting the essence of tragedy in these classic texts in the most human way.

"Physicality is the messenger."

'We are lost, my dear, because of technology'

Hailed by international theater critics as one of the wisest interpreter of ancient Greek drama, Terzopoulos articulated his insistence of not making adaptations by comparing classic text to ancient Greek palaces. When one makes an adaptation to an ancient Greek drama, it's like one is remodeling an ancient palace, he explained. "You take out one column, the whole palace will fall down."

The director hopes people try and concentrate, to delve in the story and the message within, before simply concluding that they cannot understand.

However, used to the bombarding of fragmented information, people of this digital era surely face difficulties understanding texts from the ancient times, he said. 

"It's difficult, I know, because we are in the time that we are so occupied by the technology."

Nonetheless, Terzopoulos pictured audiences' attempt of understanding classic play as a positive pedagogical process.

"If you understand a part of this play, you can understand another part. Then you go in the house and you are thinking: why didn't I understand, and what did it mean? If they don't understand something, they put questions, and this, again, is very positive."

Despite acknowledging the beneficial side of technology, he still worried.

"We are lost, my dear, because of the technology. If we cannot make good use of technology, we are victims."

'China is my third country'

Terzopoulos couldn't stop sharing his previous experience with Chinese audiences - in Shanghai, in Beijing, and in the Central Academy of Drama. "I am an honor professor in the Central Academy of Drama," he smiled.

Indeed, he even directed a graduation play of "Agamemnon" for the acting major students in 2013.

"I cannot say this is my second country, but it for sure is my third country."

Reporter: Wei Tianyao

Videographers: Hong Yaobin, Guo Yuanheng

Video editor: Hong Yaobin

Cover image designer: Liu Shaozhen

Executive producer: Hong Yaobin

Producer: Si Nan

Supervisor: Mei Yan