Among the ruins at Greece's Hellenic Festival

It's extraordinary to be able to see Euripedes' tragedies in an amphitheatre where they were performed more than 2,400 years before, writes IAN IRVINE.

Among its many outstanding contributions to Western civilisation, Greece also came up with the more modest idea of cultural tourism over 2,000 years ago. (The Latin author Pausanias compiled a guide to its temples and monuments for well-heeled Roman travellers in the second century AD - it's still in print and still worth consulting.)

Recently however, although the country hasn't lacked eager tourists, the majority are in search of the physical pleasures of its beaches rather than the cerebral ones of its culture. Most if passing through Athens might climb the Acropolis, but that's as far as it goes.

Which is a pity, since in addition to the spectacular ancient remains there is a rich cultural programme throughout the summer. Under the title of the Hellenic Festival, operas, plays, ballet and concerts of orchestral and popular music runs from June to September. Easily the most impressive are the theatrical performances at the ancient amphitheatre at Epidauros, about an hour and a half's drive from Athens. Set in a natural dip in a hillside among groves of pine trees, the amphitheatre was built in the middle of the fourth century BC.

The greatest single classical ruin in Greece outside Athens, it is considered the most beautiful theatre which has survived from antiquity. Its exceptional acoustics allow a whisper from the stage (or a mobile phone in the audience) to be heard at the back of the furthest tier. Epidauros was a shrine dedicated to Asclepios, the semi-divine patron of healing and the town must have been a cross between health spa and holiday resort with visitors from across the ancient world. Its popularity can be judged by the fact that the amphitheatre is capable of seating 14,000.

Performances then would have taken place throughout the day; now they begin near sunset when the heat of a Greek summer slackens. Since the theatre is an important archaeological monument, strict limits are placed on its use - only 16 performances take place each summer, and no food, drink and - the greatest hardship for the nicotine-loving Greeks - cigarettes can be brought in. Cushions were mercifully provided last Friday when the festival opened with a complete performance of Euripedes' Oresteia, which began at nine o'clock and ran for three and a half hours without an interval (which would have been impractical for the logistical problems of rapidly moving 15,000 people out and in again.

The expectant atmosphere in this open-air venue with its pine-scented air and the sound of cicadas was more akin to a football match or bullfight than, say, the Olivier Theatre on London's South Bank). The production by the National Theatre of Greece with many of the country's leading actors was directed by Yannis Kokkos.

The story of the Oresteia, the only trilogy to survive from antiquity, deals with the bloody later episodes in the story of the house of Atreus, a royal family rivalling the house of Windsor in its dysfunctionality and the ruling house of Nepal in its violence.

The first play, Agamemnon, deals with the victorious return of the leader of the Greeks from Troy to his home in Mycenae (whose ruins lie some 20 miles north-west of Epidauros). He is greeted by his wife Clytemnestra and taken into the palace, where he is slaughtered by her while in his bath, partly in revenge for his sacrifice of their daughter Iphigenia 10 years before to gain favourable winds for the Greek expedition, partly as a result of her adulterous love for Aegisthus, and in part as an agent of the family curse.

In the second play, The Libation Bearers, set a few years later, Clytemnestra's son Orestes arrives in Mycenae, is reunited with his sister Electra and kills his mother for her murder of his father. The Furies, demons outraged at matricide, pursue Orestes from the city.

In the final play, the Eumenides, Orestes attempts to purge his guilt at the shrine of the god Apollo at Delphi. Apollo sends him to Athens where he stands trial for his mother's murder. The Furies are the prosecution, Apollo the defence counsel. When the jury of Athenian citizens is tied in their verdict, the goddess Athena cast her vote for his acquital and persuades the Furies to settle in Athens and be worshipped as the "kind goddesses" of the play's title. The cycle of retributive bloodshed is ended, supplanted by the rule of law and justice of the state.

The trilogy was performed in modern Greek and having read the text and armed with a crib I had little difficulty in following the drama. The most powerful performances were those of the three major women - Clytemnestra, Cassandra and Electra - and strongly contrasted in style. Lydia Koniordou as the murderous adulteress was a type of steely Lady Macbeth, a criminal of great willpower and grandeur. Olia Lazaridou as the captive Trojan pro-phetess Cassandra presented a woman wracked with suffering but nobly resigned in her certain knowledge of her fate. Electra as played by Amalia Moutousi performed in a contemporary style, an adoring daughter deranged by grief for her father.

The dramatic concerns of Athenians 2,500 years ago were persuasively and lucidly presented through the meshing of production, performances and setting. Ancient Greek drama undoubtedly gains from being seen in its proper arena - even though we are far from the original staging.

Other plays here this summer include Aristophanes' comedies, The Clouds and The Knights, Sophocles' tragedy Antigone and Euripedes' tragedies, Medea and The Trojan Women. Next year the Epidauros season will open with Heinrich von Kleist's Penthesilia directed by Peter Stein.

On the Sunday I saw a performance by the German choreographer Pina Bausch's company Danztheater Wuppertal in the other magnificent theatre used by the Hellenic Festival: the Odeon of Herodes Atticus on the slopes of the Acropolis in Athens. This was the gift to the city by a philhellenic Roman senator in the second century AD: smaller than Epidauros (it seats 5,000), but with a similar atmosphere.

1980: A Piece by Pina Bausch was 20 years old but had been considerably reworked. Its three and a half hour duration had seemed daunting beforehand, but the evening was one of pure delight with none of the expected longeurs. The performance was an elaborate collage of dance, games, comic monologues, magic, illusions, repetition and reworkings. Constantly funny, often poignant, the evening's themes seemed to be love and loss, the material assembled from the experiences of the 18 amazingly talented and highly individual members of Bausch's troupe. A Bausch piece would be worth catching anywhere, but it was particulary fine in a theatre where the stars began appearing in the sky an hour into the performance.

Other major international companies appearing here over the summer include the Kirov Ballet, New York City Ballet, and Alvin Ailey's American Dance Theatre. There are also recitals by the American soprano Barbara Hendricks and violinist Maxim Vengerov and performances of Verdi's Requiem and Mahler's "Symphony of a Thousand".

- INDEPENDENT