On a stiflingly hot summer night, the ancient Greek amphitheater of Epidaurus is packed to capacity for a performance of a 2,400-year-old play by Aristophanes - a testimony to Greeks' enduring love of theater despite years of grinding economic crisis.

While cash-strapped Greeks forgo the cinema and other luxuries, theater ticket sales are booming - even if theaters struggle to cover their costs and actors often go unpaid.

Greeks can often catch echoes, even in ancient drama, of their current tribulations - and Aristophanes' comedy of political intrigue Ecclesiazusae, or The Assembly Women - in which women take control of Athens and set up a communist-style government - is no exception.

The main female character is dressed as the fiery leftist speaker of Greece's parliament, Zoe Konstantopoulou.

"Times are more difficult financially, but I would never abandon the theater. It's a form of cultural education. One can't replace that," said Maria Tsilibi, a teacher, one of the 20,000 people who flocked to watch Ecclesiazusae.

"It's an important part of our history."

The very words "theater," "tragedy" and "comedy" are Greek, harking back to Athens' golden age in the fifth century BC when dramatists such as Aristophanes, Sophocles and Aeschylus used venues like Epidaurus to explore the human condition.

"The theater's audience is loyal and growing, but that shouldn't hide the fact that today's plays are made on very low budgets and many actors are unpaid, primarily the young ones," says Nikos Chatzopoulos, general secretary of the Actors' Union.

Unemployment among actors has reached a whopping 92 percent, he said, yet drama schools still churn out about 500 actors annually.

Reuters