International theatrical experience ‘Agamemnon: The Circle of Blood’ in Brussels on 17 June

From La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in New York to an expanding European festival circuit, Agamemnon: The Circle of Blood  by Rafika Chawishe is a bold international theatrical phenomenon coming to Brussels on 17 June.

Presented by the legendary La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, the production is at the intersection of theatre, cinema, and documentary performance. It has already attracted a strong audience response and critical attention for its uncompromising political and aesthetic language.

Following a world premiere in New York, the production has been invited to major international platforms. It opened the Ancient Drama Festival of the National Theatre of North Macedonia, and was performed at the New Drama Festival in Bratislava. Upcoming presentations include the Parkteatren/City Theatre Stockholm and London, as well as Espace Lumen in the Belgian capital.

What began as a radical re-reading of Aeschylus’ tragedy has evolved into a cross-border stage work that reframes ancient myth through the urgency of contemporary geopolitics. Set in a post-war Western landscape, Agamemnon: The Circle of Blood confronts the aftermath of conflict, where systems of power collapse into emotional and moral exhaustion, and history becomes a lived, present-day trauma.

The production merges live performance, cinematic language, and testimonial material rooted in displacement narratives, creating a hybrid form that dissolves the boundary between stage and screen.

At its core, Clytemnestra emerges not as a fixed tragic archetype, but as a fractured contemporary figure - mother, exile, border subject, political body - constantly shifting identities in a search for agency and truth. Rafika Saouiss performs these transformations live on stage, constructing a multi-layered monologue that oscillates between intimate testimony and collective memory.

The cinematic dimension of the work expands this universe further: Manos Vakousis appears as Agamemnon, Samuel Akinola as the Herald, and Kris Rantanof as Aegisthus. Together, they generate a continuous dialogue between live presence and filmed reality.

Critic Yohanna M Roa said of the production: “A docu-fiction performance that transforms the story of Agamemnon into a contemporary battlefield - where life itself is experienced as a war zone.”

Director Rafika Chawishe is an international actress, known for her work across stage and screen. She continues to develop a distinct artistic voice building a body of work that speaks across borders, languages and fractured histories.

Agamemnon: The Circle of Blood
17 June, 19.00
Espace Lumen
Chaussée de Boondael 36
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