The much-discussed theatrical performance SEBASTIAN returns for two unique nights in Athens before being presented at the Nicosia International Festival 2026. The performance has been honored by the Theatre and Performing Arts Critics Association with the Performing Arts Award. A performance with a “camp” sensibility, a kaleidoscope of references around the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, an avatar of desires and moods that plays with death and exorcises the darkness of our days.

29 & 30 Sept. 2026 at PLYFA (39 Koritsas, Athens)
https://www.ticketservices.gr/event/plyfa-sebastian/

 

Director's Note

Sebastian is a multiprismatic archetype, a kaleidoscope, an avatar of moods and desires. Delving into the tradition of Saint Sebastians’ martyrdom, as recast through its dense representation in Western art from early Renaissance onwards, we focus on concepts / senses / symbols resonating with our own sensibilities and imaginary. The performance is the grand sum of its cultural references. We read poems, recreate paintings, mince, pose, sing, dance, and draw inspiration from an eccentric cinematic tradition of experimentation. We are interested in exploring those affective and bodily practices which will enable us to relate to a symbol like Sebastian in the present.

Saint Sebastian is associated with youth, beauty, sports, archery, physical pain, salacity, homoeroticism and martyrdom. Already since medieval times, there is a strong connotation linking him to the Plague, Black Death. We tie together the tradition of homoeroticism as expressed through the figure of Sebastian and the AIDS disease, which, in the 80s and 90s, came to be regarded as a kind of ‘homosexual plague’. Just like people did in early European modernity, we too resort to Saint Sebastian, assigning him with an apotropaic function to help us ward off evil. The show is dedicated to those who dare cross over from vision to lived experience, from representation to presence, thus taking the risk of being consumed by the blazes of existence.

Concept, coordination: Vassilis Noulas and Kostas Tzimoulis
Director: Vassilis Noulas
Set design & costumes: Kostas Tzimoulis
Assistant director: Elisavet Xanthopoulou
Photos: Maria Toultsa & Nova Melancholia

Performers (2023-2024) : Haris Doumouras, Christina Karagianni, Pierre Magendie, Nikos Ntasis, Christina Reinhardt

Performers (2026) : Haris Doumouras, Christina Karagianni, Athanasios Kouvousis, Christina Reinhardt, Telis Tellakis

A Nova Melancholia production © 2023
With the support of the Ministry of Culture and Sports

SEBASTIAN was honored by the Association of Theatre and Performing Arts Critics with the Performing Arts Award for the 2023 artistic season

► PLYFA (Korytsas 39, Athens 104 47)
Season 1: May-June 2023
Premiere: Thursday, May 4, 2023

Season 2: February 2024 
Première: Tuesday 6 February 2024

Season 3: September 2026
Première: Tuesday 29 September 2026

Starting time:  21:00
Duration: 90 min
www.ticketservices.gr/event/sebastian-nova-melancholia/

► Nicosia International Fesftival
6 & 7 October 2026

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"The language of theatre is not 'natural'. We have to create it over and over again (says Roland Barthes). And we are indeed so rarely given the opportunity to watch a group of people constructing their own language in front of us! Piece by piece, this precious pastiche called SEBASTIAN is moulded in Nova Melancholia's performance."
Louiza Arkoumanea (theater critic) - Lifo 04-06-2023

"SEBASTIAN is the most beautiful - so to speak - and thoughtful and elaborate performance I have seen in recent years, with a language that connects references and personal emotions and metaphors from art and experiences without pretension, in a way that is honest and effortless and ultimately redemptive." 
Argyro Bozoni (art journalist) - fb 17-06-2023

"For the first time, a younger generation of creators is approaching AIDS primarily as a cultural legacy, as an archive of images, losses, and forms of resistance that continues to organize collective queer memory."
George Sampatakakis (prof. Universtity of Patras) - 20 Years LIFO - August 2026 
 

press

05.01.2023 - ATHENS VOICE
Who is Sebastian by Nova Melancholia? [Gr]
By art journalist Ioanna Gomouza 

19.04.2023 - ATHINORAMA
Nova Melancholia are back with a double bill at PLYFA [Gr]
By Athinorama Team

23.04.2023 - TO VIMA 
Somebody Called Them Sebastian [Gr]
By Marilena Astrapellou

12.05.2023 - LIFO
I WAS THERE : Attending SEBASTIAN by Nova Melancholia [Gr]
Theatre review by art journalist Christos Paridis

16.05.2023 - TA NEA
A coffee with Nova Melancholia [Gr]
Vassilis Noulas and Kostas Tzimoulis interviewed by art journalist Efie Falida

01.06.2023 - ATHENS VOICE
SEBASTIAN: A performance by Nova Melancholia, consistent with the logic and aesthetics of the Group [Gr]
Review by Dimitris Tsatsoulis, prof. emeritus University of Patras

04.06.2023 - LIFO
"SEBASTIAN": Constructing a different theatrical language [Gr]
Review by theatre critic Louiza Arkoumanea

01.07.2023 - DANCETHEATER.GR
SEBASTIAN / VANITAS : Nova Melancholia [Gr]
Review by social anthropologist Natalia Koutsougera 

29.12.2023 - LIFO
The 10 Best Performances of 2023 [Gr]
Article by theatre critic Louiza Arkoumanea

28.01.2024 - VIMAgazino
Rendez-vous at PLYFA industrial park. The return of Sebastian [Gr]
By art journalist Marilena Astrapellou with an interview with V. Noulas

11.02.2024 - monopoli.gr
Hot or Not #101 [Gr]
By art journalist Stella Harami

01.12.2024 - OCTAPOUS - The EMST magazine
Our Army of Lovers [Eng]
By art curator Mare Spanoudaki

07.03.2025 - ATHINORAMA
The Queer Archives that Care for our Heritage [Gr]
By art critic Despina Zefkili