Rebetiko by Anima Theatre

For the first time in North America, the Detroit Institute of Arts welcomes Rebetiko, an imaginative and deeply moving work of puppet theater from the Marseille-based company Anima Theatre. Conceived by director Yiorgos Karakantzas and writer Panayotis Evangelidis, the performance draws inspiration from rebetiko, the urban folk music that gave voice to Greece’s displaced communities in the 1920s.

Through a delicate interplay of handmade puppets, live and recorded music, and haunting visual projections, Rebetiko creates an oneiric stage world where fragments of memory, migration, and survival converge. What begins as an evocation of forced exile unfolds into a broader reflection on resilience and belonging. The performance offers audiences an experience at once intimate and universal: a meditation on the pain of uprooting, but also on the fragile hope that emerges from shared stories. (60 min.) Recommended for ages 8+

Free with General museum admission
*General museum admission is FREE for residents of Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties.

On Friday, October 25, a post-performance discussion will bring together scholars, advocates, and legal experts to explore questions of migration at both national and global levels. Moderated by Professor Anya Sirota, the conversation will bridge art and reality, amplifying the urgent themes at the heart of Rebetiko.

Presented in Michigan through the University of Michigan’s Arts Initiative, with the support of Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, the program highlights the role of international collaboration in opening spaces for dialogue across cultures.