Trajectories of transition: Economies and geographies of theatre in contemporary Athens

In this article, I trace institutional transitions that have framed, produced and hosted theatre in Athens during the last four decades. In doing so, I seek to devise a methodology that examines the city’s changing theatrical landscapes against the backdrop of Metapolitefsi’s trajectories of transition and the post-2010 in-crisis permutations. Subsequently, I pursue a twofold argument: first, I observe the ways in which state subsidies forged theatrical economies that contributed to the shaping of Athens’ geographies; and by focusing on the example of the Onassis Cultural Centre, I propose that a key marker of change is a move towards an ethic of hospitality, concurrent with the systematization of the economies of debt in Greek society.