Creusa, daughter of the king of Athens, was the victim, at a very young age, of sexual abuse perpetrated by the god Apollo. From this violence, a son is born, but the young woman, ashamed of the violence she suffered without anyone's knowledge, abandons the newborn, who is however taken in by Apollo's brother, Hermes, and brought to Delphi. There he grew up in the temple as a servant of the god. Years later, Creusa and her husband Xuthus arrived in Delphi to ask the oracle why they were unable to have children.

A series of misunderstandings, guided from above by the providence of the god, led Creusa to meet, many years later and without recognising him, the son she had given birth to in secret. Both feelings of attraction and repulsion between the two characters leads Creusa to devise an attempted murder against this young man, in whom she senses a danger. Thanks to the intervention of Athena, the tragedy, a prototype of modern intrigue drama, will have a surprising happy ending.

 

In an ascending climax of vicissitudes, Euripides' rarely performed Ion addresses extremely topical issues: the trauma and isolation of victims of violence, the contrast between adoptive and biological motherhood and fatherhood, the search for identity through parental figures and citizenship, the marginalisation of foreigners, but also the obscurity of human knowledge, which brings with it serious deception.

 

Dramaturgical direction: Elisabetta Matelli

Stage direction: Christian Poggioni

Set design and costumes: Dino Serra