Returning to the Myth: Europa from Different Perspectives

It had been almost a year since we were last together.

We came together again with a mission: to immerse ourselves once more in the myth, to explore it, and to invoke the Gods in order to create our performance.
But how might we embark on this return?
From the very beginning, THE LEGEND OF EUROPA project was structured in three stages, in three different places, to explore the different parts of the myth of Europa.
In May 2025, during our residency in Sligo, Ireland, we spent a week working on the stories rooted in Phoenicia – present-day Lebanon.
Then, in July 2025, in Bologna, we explored the Athenian part of the myth.
Finally, in July 2026, in Paris, we came together again to work on the sections set in Crete: the island to which Zeus takes Europa, the Phoenician princess, after abducting her.

Bringing Myth and the Present into Dialogue

Our work drew on the Théâtre du Soleil’s methodologies: starting from improvisation, searching collectively, experimenting, and building scenes within an aesthetic framework which owed a lot to the 1990 Théâtre du Soleil production Les Atrides, particularly in relation to make-up and choreography. 
Dominique Jambert and Vincent Mangado, the two actors from the Théâtre du Soleil who initiated the French involvement in THE LEGEND OF EUROPA, wanted to find ways of bridging myth, past and present.
To nourish this research, they drew particular inspiration from Julien d’Huy’s Cosmogonie and Jean-Loïc Le Quellec’s Avant nous, le déluge.
The idea was to bring onto the stage those who have a physical connection with history:
“They are scientists, archaeologists, men and women who have a physical connection with history.”
This idea became a key starting point for the improvisations. 
The Cretan part of the myth was divided into several chapters, in order to identify precisely the themes and questions that could give rise to scenes.
And throughout this free process of exploration, one question stayed with us: how can we tell the same myth from multiple points of view?

One Week to Bring Crete to Life

Every morning of that hot week in July, we began with exercises to awaken the body. We then moved on to dance work led by Andrea Marchant, developing the sense of the Greek chorus, inspired both by Cretan dances and by the approach used in Les Atrides.
Over the course of the week, the performers in the EUROPA project – European citizens, artists from a wide range of backgrounds, from Morocco to Iran, Brazil to Afghanistan, Chile to El Salvador, India to Burundi and Finland, Ireland to Italy via France – created scenes to tell the story of what happens in Crete.
From the moment Zeus arrives on the island with Europa to Ariadne’s thread, we journeyed through the myth, its characters, its contradictions and its many perspectives.
One story, many voices.
Many Gods, many human beings, many perspectives.
 

And Now?

The next stage awaits us in Sweden in April 2027, where we will present a first work-in-progress sample of our work.
Another step before the EUROPA adventure continues.
And perhaps yet another way of looking at the gods.

Andrea Macarena Marchant Fernandez (Théâtre du Soleil)