The Navel of the Earth

Alternative Stage Founding Donor

Major Sponsor of the Greek National Opera

Supported by the Cultural Affairs Office of the City of Cologne, the German Embassy, and the Goethe Institute in Athens, under the patronage of the General Secretariat for Greeks Abroad and Public Diplomacy.

Distinguished director, founder, and Artistic Director of the Deutsch Griechisches Theater in Cologne, Kostas Papakostopoulos, celebrates 35 years of his creative journey with his theatre ensemble in Cologne this year.  Famous in the German theatre scene for his groundbreaking performances of ancient drama, Papakostopoulos returns to the GNO Alternative Stage with his new production The Navel of the Earth, a work inspired by the play Der Nabel der Welt (where the eagles meet) by the talented German writer Fink Kleidheu, in co-production with the Theater Bonn.

The Mediterranean in summer: heatwaves, wildfires, drought, floods! Climate change appears to be altering our planet once and for all. Can we still change its course, or must we accept the inevitable? Seeking answers, director Kostas Papakostopoulos, along with the Deutsch Griechisches Theater, turns, much like the ancient Greeks, to the Delphi Oracle, the navel of the world, and the mythical Pythia. This performance challenges the values of contemporary civilisation and serves as a call to save our planet.

In the work The Navel of the Earth, the mythical Pythia – portrayed by the distinguished German actress Lisa Sophie Kusz, nominated for the Cologne Best Actress Award 2024 – appears as a climate refugee who leaves the Mediterranean for Iceland. During a stop in Germany, she finds temporary shelter on a theatre stage. There, she addresses the audience with a deeply personal confession about the destruction of “Mother Earth” and the need to overthrow a male-dominated world. In the finale, faithful to the role of the seer, she gazes into the future, which may hold something subversive.