The Nicosia International Festival 2025 proudly presents its first co-production with the Municipality of Paralimni: the theatrical performance “My Grandmother Kyriakou.” This is a theatre piece by Andreas Nicolaides about the life of Kyriakou Pelagia, not as a biography, but as a collective memory. As a voice calling us to dance, to embrace pain, to celebrate, setting off from the Nicosia Municipal Theatre on Thursday, 4 December 2025 (20:30), before touring across Cyprus.
The performance revolves around the life and memory of Kyriakou Pelagia, the woman who became a symbol of Cypriot song and the musical tradition of the island, through the eyes of her granddaughter, Irini Pelagia. With the grace, pride, and grit of an honest person, she began writing and singing traditional music later in life, at the age of 60, inspiring even younger generations.
The granddaughter Irini Pelagia
The musical direction of “My Grandmother Kyriakou” is undertaken by Irini Pelagia. As she emphasises, “Kyriakou was not only a grandmother in my life; she was the reason and the spark that made me who I am today, both as a person and as a musician.” “For as long as I live, I will keep saying: young people, enjoy yourselves, sing regularly, and do anything but sleep.”, Kyriakou once wrote, and her granddaughter Irini fully identifies with her grandmother’s couplet: “It is yet another reason for me not to sleep, but to sing, so that I can remember her often. And this time, many others will sing with me.”
The writer, Andreas Nicolaides
The necessary research and the script were undertaken by writer and actor Andreas Nicolaides. Andreas has penned the prose works “Cranial Hippocampus” and “The island of Halkountan”, the plays “Maria Callas, before the end” and “The River” (Nicosia International Festival 2023), and he has also written the scripts for the CyBC television series “Kamomata tzi Aromata” and “Trikymia”.
“It was a journey with a destination: the orchard of Kyriakou Pelagia, where her couplets blossomed and her voice watered the joys and sorrows of this land,” Andreas mentions. The research and interviews with the collaborators of this remarkable creator – and above all with her family – opened the gates to “paradise” and allowed him to discover Kyriakou’s world and bring to life the now-legendary figure of our Cypriot tradition. “The more I entered her world, the more generously its hostess revealed herself with the richness of her art,” he notes.
The director Kleitos Kleitou
The performance is directed by acclaimed Cypriot director and producer Kleitos Kleitou (television series: “I Familia”, “Oi Genies tis Siopis”, “Roda tis Orgis”, “Petrino Potami”, theatre directions: “All About my Mother”, “Once upon an time” (Nicosia International Festival 2024).
“There are voices that do not merely sing; they stitch memory into being,” the director states. “With threads drawn from lullabies and laments, from chants and village fairs. Kyriakou’s voice was such a voice. It was the voice of the mother, the grandmother, the woman who dared to sing when her era expected her to remain silent. And through that voice, all of Cyprus found a way to remember, and its youth found a way to love Cypriot song. This performance is a hymn to the memory that sings,” he adds.
Documentary theatre
Documentary theatre has been gaining increasing popularity across Europe in recent years. It is a genre that radically revitalises the relationship between theatre and reality, art and life, fiction and documentation, as it uses entire or partial pieces of material such as newspapers, interviews, and more, as the source for the theatrical script. All the more so when it is constructed from the exact words spoken by people in interviews or testimonies, it is more specifically known as verbatim theatre.
Credits
Research, script: Andreas Nicolaides
Direction: Kleitos Kleitou
Musical direction/ vocals: Irini Pelagia
Cast: Margarita Zachariou, Andreas Tselepos
Set & costume design: Lakis Genethlis
Lighting design: Christos Charalambous
Sound design: Nikolas Prokopiou
On-stage camera: Savvas Chrysostomou
Animation/ visual design: Black Dog Creative Agency
Assistant director: Emilios Koromias
Musicians:
Lute: Kyriakos Hadjiandreou
Violin: Nikolas Papadopoulos
Pithkiavli, Lafta: Christos Isidorou
Warm thanks to the family of Kyriakou Pelagia for providing material and interviews for the production.
Special thanks to Michalis Hadjimichael for material from his personal archive used in the performance.
Duration: 90’
Ages: Suitable for all audiences
Tickets
Available via more.com
http://bit.ly/4grNxB8 and at the Nicosia Municipal Theatre box office (Monday - Friday 10:00 - 13:00).
Ticket Prices:
VIP: €16 - €18
Zone A: €14 - €16
Zone B: €12 - €14
Zone C: €10 - €12
Zone D: €8 - €10
Reduced tickets are valid for: Children, students, soldiers, pensioners, large families, unemployed, actors, people with disabilities (free) with presentation of relevant ID.
Information: 22797979 (Mon–Fri 10:00–13:00) &
http://bit.ly/3VjZ0ZG
Festival Information
Organisers: Municipality of Nicosia, Nicosia For Art
Festival Sponsors: OPAP Cyprus, ALTIA, more.com, Cyprus Public Transport
Supporters: Travelhouse, UCLan Cyprus, WINECORE, Gate Twenty Two Boutique Hotel, Classic Hotel Nicosia
Media Sponsors: Dias Publishing House & Sigma TV, LOVE FM 100.7, wiz guide, “KATHIMERINI” newspaper