My starting point is a theatrical cast on tour in the provinces ; it’s a long lasting journey across Greece an dits turbulent history between 1939 and 1952. Then, little by little, other isses come joining this idea, particularly a transposition of relationships between the characters and the Atrides myth. A structure was given – father mother, sons, daughters, lovers… power… murders… - acting as well in the myth as in the reality of the story. I did not intend to make a history treaty, and the myth of the Atrides gave me the opportunity to depict the characters in a certain focus that allowed me to shed a new light on this historical period. On the other hand, I had shown before in my film « Days of 36 » the accession to power of an owned dictatorship. I consider « The Travelling Players » as a direct extension of it, where, strating with an owned dictatorship, I get to 1952, that is to me the end of the civil war and the triumph of conservatism, and the dictatorship of Marshal Papagos, whom most of the Greek had to consider as a liberator. The play performed from town to town by the cast, «Golfo the sheperdess » , works at several leevels : first, it’s a way for them to earn a living ; it is also the expression of a certain idea of the theatrical art, and it’s finally a texte, just as the myth of the Atrides. But this text is constantly violated, never finished, always broken by the interruptions of the historic scene. Theo ANGELOPOULOS Interview extracts from « Synchronos Kinimatographos » n°1