For The Love of Cyprus- Martha & Eve and Guests Saturday's lineup

Martha and Eve, a.k.a. Donna & Kebab have released 4 albums plus DVD video ‘Live at The Hackney Empire’. They’ve  presented full length theatre shows both nationally and internationally in Cyprus, Syria, Switzerland, Germany, Greece, London’s Royal Festival Hall , Purcell Rooms, Bloomsbury Theatre and Hackney Empire as well as residencies at London’s Jazz Café, Pizza Express Jazz Club Soho and theatres throughout the UK including Leicester, Birmingham, Brighton, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Read More

Peter Polycarpou is thrilled to be involved with this very special event at Theatro Technis. This theatre played such an important part in his early career, and in it, he performed and wrote the plays Tofias, Searching For the Lemons, which he also directed and Cypriot Grafitti, which formed part of the then Cypriot Arts Forum in 1991.

Theatre includes:

Moonlight and Nightschool, Ahmed Qurie in Oslo (Olivier Award Nomination), Working, Ross, The Choir, Buddy in Follies In Concert; City of Angels, Nathan Detroit, The Pajama Game, The Magistrate, Sweeney

Todd (Olivier Award Nomination); Love Story, A Christmas Carol, Last Easter, Imagine This; Artefacts, Silver Birch House, Scenes From 68 Scenes, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Oscar Maddison in The Odd

Couple and Roy Cohn in Angels in America. Title role in The Phantom of the Opera, Aaron in Titus Andronicus, Thénardier in Les Misérables, Oklahoma! Created the role of John in Miss Saigon.

Television includes:

Midsomer Murders, Kaos, Serial Killers Wife, Grantchester, Riviera, Defending the Guilty, Unforgotten, Tyrant, The Lost Honour of Christopher Jeffries, Threesome, Hustle, The Last Days of Lehman Brothers, Holby City, Empathy, The Bill, Waking the Dead, EastEnders, Casualty, Birds of a Feather, The Bill, Planespotting, Sunburn.

Film includes:

Greenland Migration, Blue Iguana, Clean Skin, O Jerusalem, I Could Never Be Your Woman, De- Lovely, Oklahoma! Evita, Bloodlines: Legacy of a Lord, Broken, Mad George (writer/producer short film).

Radio includes:

My Son The Doctor, Tumanbay Season 2, Fall of the Shah, Tumbanbay, Where the Line is Drawn, The Man Who Would Be King, Pixie Juice, The Brick, Beirut Days, The Invasion: Arab Chronicles of the First Crusade,

The Last Adventure, The Good Ship Esperanza.

He is a director of The Royal Theatrical Fund and a patron of The United Kingdom Thalassaemia Society.

Haji Mike was born in Marathovouno, Cyprus, and raised in London, England, He is one of the most well known artist in the far eastern Mediterannean island. He is on Youtube, Soundcloud, Twitter, Facebook, iTunes, Bandcamp et al. He’s been on the BBC (Rhythms Of The World TV Programme, and Andy Kershaw live radio sessions) and has graced many  radio stations land and net based.

Lyrically he has appeared on many  artists creations (attempted full discography below) not only on dub, but hip hop, acid funk, dance and world music. He’s toured extensively throughout the world in South Africa, Japan, UK, Jamaica, Greece, the USA, Ireland, France, Portugal and his homeland, Cyprus. Currently, he  DJ’s on 3 stations weekly including Nice Up Radio, Riddim 1 Radio & Koubebi 

Haji Mike is also a Professor and Head of The Department of Communications at The University of Nicosia, and  has lectured at conferences throughout the world.  He recently completed the book ‘Bob Marley and Media Representation and Audiences’ (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023)

The latest musical project by Haji Mike is called Acoustic Poetry and it was recorded in Jamaica in the spring of 2023.

Aydin Mehmet Ali was born in Cyprus and lives in London. She was educated in Cyprus, USA and Britain. She is an international education consultant, project manager, researcher and writer. As a well-known intellectual community activist and advocate of multiculturalism and multilingualism, she has spoken at international conferences and her work appeared in numerous publications. She has set up and managed many empowerment projects in the UK and in Cyprus. Her work focuses on young people and women. She is a passionate campaigner for peace in Cyprus and amongst Cypriots in the Diaspora. She has been a consultant adviser to the London Mayor and to numerous education and cultural establishments.

She has done readings in a number of venues including the October Gallery as part of the renowned International Music Village Festival, Soho Theatre, Birkbeck College, Waterstone’s Bookshop, the Fawcett Women’s Library and Deptford Artists Studios, London. She is editing an anthology of Turkish Speaking Women’s writing in London. She has organised Arts and Literature festivals, bilingual creative writing workshops, poetry and short story competitions for Turkish Speaking Women, Cypriot poetry evenings in Turkish, Greek and English, seminars, exhibitions for individual artists, Arts workshops for parents and young people, projects using the Arts to diffuse racial tensions and conflict between different communities. She recently managed four projects, including The way we are, a multicultural and multi-lingual photographic project, in the north and south of Cyprus, with Cypriotturkish, Cypriotgreek, Cypriotroma, settler and mixed heritage children. She took part in numerous documentaries and Arte TV broadcasted a documentary in France and Germany about part of her life (2004).

Tahini Molasses is a Cypriot musician and artist whose work engages with themes of history, nostalgia and queerness. By reinterpreting traditional songs and symbolism from a trans perspective, they aim to expand queer representation within the region’s cultural memory and imagination. Tahini regularly performs throughout Cyprus, often to support queer and political resistance movements on the Island. In 2023, they headlined United By Pride, an inter-communal protest calling for the unification of Cyprus that culminated in a show at the UN buffer zone. More recently, they performed in Nicosia on International Conscientious Objector Day, alongside Cypriots standing against compulsory military conscription in the north. Based in London, Tahini is also active in building spaces to showcase and celebrate the queer SWANA community, including with their collective the Harem of No One. This summer, they will return to Southbank Centre for their third appearance at Nazar London’s pride is a protest day takeover. Tahini will perform their debut single, ‘NAZAR’, which blends traditional Maqam sounds with contemporary electronic music.

Elena Hadjiafxendi is a Greek-Cypriot actress and singer based in the UK. She has developed an eclectic and distinct style that blends music with literary recitation and drama. She has worked in the UK and Europe (Cyprus, Greece, Italy) with directors and musicians in classical and contemporary theatre, in musical theatre, operettas, cinema and television. These include but are not limited to Heinz-Uwe Haus, Fabio Tolledi, Mikis Theodorakis, George Hatzinasios, Spyros Evaggelatos, Alexandros Evklidis, Thanos Mikroutsikos, Elli Papakonstantinou.

Elena studied Opera at the Conservatory Elefthero in Greece, acting at the Drama School of National Theatre of Northern Greece and musical theatre at the Associated Studios in London. She graduated from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki with BA (Hons) Primary School Education and from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens with an MA in Drama and Education.

Performance highlights include: Medea by Euripides (Athens, Greece), Eu immigrants (Round House and Tate Modern, London), Cyprus’s Rhymes of Love (Paphos, Cyprus), Oedipus Rex and Women in Parliament ( Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, Greece), The Daughter of the Storm (Athens Festival, Greece), Trojan Women (Cyprus Ancient Drama Festival) Axios Esti (Union Chapel, London), The Lady from the Sea (National Theatre of Cyprus (THOC).

She has appeared in a number of TV programmes, including Gi tis Elias (MEGA TV Greece), Galateia (Sigma Channel, Cyprus), Ekeino to Kalokairi (ANT1 Cyprus), and numerous music and poetry projects, including Cartes Postales, The Poet Nikos Gatsos, The Poet Nikos Kavadias and Letters to Mother by Costas Montis.

Elena has created The Vintage Project, an ongoing project that explores old songs from around the world. Together with Georgios Nicolaou, they also developed the ongoing project Space on Stage, which strives to develop a strong bond between people and the wonders of space. In addition, she is the lead singer of the band Unicorn Frequency.