Sara Barros Leitão / Cassandra

In the Greek tragedy The Suppliants, Aeschylus tells the story of fifty women, sisters, who set sail from Egypt, crossing the Mediterranean Sea and arriving on the shores of Greece, to seek asylum there after being forced to marry fifty cousins against their will.
It is not difficult to find parallels between certain myths or plays and current events. In this case, the story of a boat full of people fleeing a fateful destiny from a certain country, crossing the Mediterranean Sea, and requesting asylum in a southern European country could be the headline of any news programme today.
In this rewrite by Sara Barros Leitão, we reflect on the European project itself, borders, pacts of hospitality, welcoming and integration.
Suplicantes is a tragedy — because only tragedy can explain the world we live in today — and it is also fiction — because only by detaching ourselves emotionally from individual stories can we grasp the universality of the issues. - Sara Barros Leitão