The festival of ancient Greek drama at the theater of Epidavros celebrated its fortieth year in the summer of 1994. The theater was excavated in 1881 by the archaeologist Panayis Kabbadias, but it was not until the autumn of 1938 that the theater hosted its first performance of ancient Greek tragedy. The Royal Theater of Greece (later to become the National Theater) presented Sophocles' Electra under the direction of Dimitris Rondiris on 11 September 1938.

That initiative was cut short by the Second World War, however. Fourteen years later, on 11 July 1954, Dimitris Rondiris inaugurated the summer performances of Greek tragedy, which took the name "Festival of Epidavros" in the following year. ...

The first production at the 1994 Epidavros Festival was Aeschylus' Suppliant Women, presented on 2-3 July by Desmoi, the Centre for Research and Practical Application of Ancient Greek Drama. ... On 30-31 July Epidavros hosted Peter Stein's highly praised marathon version of Aeschylus' Oresteia, performed in Russian by the Academic Theater of the Russian Army. (It premiered in Moscow on 29 January, 1994.) The performance lasted almost six hours because the original text had been translated almost word-for-word. Meticulous construction of character and attention to detail of gestures and movement were the production's most striking features. The chorus of Agamemnon consisted of old men gathered in order to recall the past with their endless talk, who had difficulty walking even with their sticks and occasionally coughed or sneezed.

The other notable feature of Stein's Oresteia was his contemporary approach to the political issues of the trilogy, starting with the fact that he had decided to produce it in Moscow at that particular point in the city's history. As Athena was trying to persuade the Furies to accept the new order, the jurors, supposedly representatives of the new democratic principles, started fighting amongst themselves: democracy was under threat by the arbitrariness of its political disposition. The same jurors appeared at the end to tie the Eumenides up like mummies at the base of the platform which represented the foundation of their city, and went on with their endless voting. ...