Can theater really be a kind of experimental archaeology? In The Women Who Celebrate Thesmophoriae, Odete revisits one of Aristophanes' lesser-known texts, Thesmophoriazusae. Written in 411 B.C., the original presents several Athenian women gathered in the temple of Demeter and Persephone to celebrate the festival of Thesmophoria, an occasion in which the presence of men is forbidden. In this sacred space, they plan to take revenge on Euripides for the way they are portrayed in his tragedies.
In Odete's proposal, the cast works with the text as if it were an archaeological experiment. It is excavated and removed from Demeter's earth to be polished by the drenched tongue of the present. Terms are analyzed, instruments, clothes and Athenian sayings are tried out.