THE OLD LADIES WHO HARVEST THE NETTLE | 2023-2026
How is the elderly female body connected to folk witchcraft, traditional cooking, and ritual practices? Three male performers take on the roles of three women, bringing to life the narrative of the ageing female body, both personal and collective.
The story begins in Thessaly, Greece, a region where, according to a famous tradition, they live witches, inheritors of secret knowledge passed down from Medea and experts in the practice known as “drawing down the moon” or otherwise “milking the moon.” The three figures of the play recall harmless grandmothers and potent healers, at once familiar and archetypal. They speak of their lives, recounting the hardships they endured, the wisdom they received from their ancestors, and the knowledge they imparted to the next generations. Bearing the triple role of the labourer, housekeeper, and mother, these women contributed actively to their families’ livelihoods and the local community, yet they remained invisible for years—even to researchers who deemed women’s accounts unreliable and unworthy of historical record.
Starting in 2023, this theatrical-research project continues to be presented in Greece and in international festivals abroad (Sarajevo Fest 2025, Nicosia International Festival 2025), receiving a warm welcome and already counting more than 200 performances. As a work in progress, it bridges performance art and social anthropology, evolving and redefining itself as it draws material from the multitude of interviews conducted in parallel with the performances
CONTRIBUTORS
Direction- Research—Dramaturgy: Konstantinos Ntellas
Cast: Michalis Anagnostou, Manousos Georgopoulos, Platonas Giorgos Perleros
Soundscapes & original music: Alexandros Ktistakis
Movement: Mariza Tsiga
Mask construction: Martha Foka
Costume supervisor: Konstantina Mardiki
Light technician: Giorgos Antonopoulos
Photography & promotional video: Charalambos Vlachodimos, Ilias Lachanas
Editing: Stylianos Vlachodimos
Production director: Vicky Barboka
EXPERIMENTA ART COMPANY
NOMINATIONS/AWARDS
1st prize for Konstantinos Ntellas for Karolos Koun award for best director of greek play
2024/25 by the Union of Greek Theater and Music Critics
Grape 2025 | Athens and Epidaurus Festival
NATIONAL BANK OF GREECE – MASTERCARD Audience Awards
1st Prize “The Old Ladies who harvest the nettle”, Konstantinos Ntellas
Grape is a platform for the Greek Performing Arts of the Athens Epidaurus Festival providing a space
for Theatre and Dance creators to showcase their works to representatives of international festivals,
cultural institutions abroad, and the wider public. Grape aims to systematically promote Greek artistic vision to the international Theatre and Dance scenes. In 2025, 8 selected performances where presented from 21-24 July among which the production “The old ladies who harvest the nettle” also receiving the 1 prize in the category of Audience Awards.
Nomination of the actor Georgios Platonas Perleros for the Dimitris Horn Award 2025
(best young male performer)
LINKS
The old ladies who harvest the nettle | 3rd year | Theatre Stathmos
The old ladies who harvest the nettle | A conversation with the actors