Tales from the Bar of Lost Souls is a new theatre show and workshop project made as a collaboration between The National Theatre of Greece, Cyprus Theatre Organisation and imitating the dog as part of the British Council Creative Collaboration programme.

At the end of his life a dying man turns to his only friend and asks him to put right a wrong committed many years ago. Saying yes, the friend embarks on a journey that takes him back to The Bar of Lost Souls, a place where, it is said, your deepest desires become real.

The Bar of Lost Souls can be found at the quayside. You will know it when you see it. All sorts of dissolute people can be found there: pimps, whores, sailors and petty criminals, the police and even judges. If you open the door you'll smell the stale air and you'll be able to hear singing from the little stage at the back of its darkened room. If you dare go in you best have eyes in the back of your head, you have to be so careful not to get your purse snatched or your face slashed. Yes, it's dangerous all right. But if you manage to get in, you'll never forget the experience.

Are you prepared to face what you really desire?

The show takes as its starting point the melting pot of Mediterranean port communities, where notions of national borders and identity are challenged by the ever-changing mix of ethnicities and nationalities, the activity of commerce, the blurring of the lines between legal and criminal behaviour and by the suspension of the norms that attempt to govern sexual and political orthodoxy.

Part musical, part dream play, Tales from the Bar of Lost Souls is a magical realist story of forbidden love, criminality and the possibility of finding redemption in the unlikeliest of places. Exquisitely designed by Laura Hopkins, the audience watch the action through the bar's window, as a carnival of unsavoury characters reveal themselves and the haunting sequence of tales of murder, love and forgiveness unfolds.

Referencing works by Genet, Brecht, Pound and Wedekind and building on the critical acclaim of Kellerman and Hotel Methuselah, Tales from the Bar of Lost Souls, continues imitating the dog's reputation for producing outstanding innovative theatre that assaults the senses.

Tales from the Bar of Lost Souls is part of the British Council's Creative Collaboration programme. The overall aim of the Creative Collaborations programme is to enrich the cultural life of Europe and its surrounding country and to build trust and understanding across communities by generating dialogue and debate. Please visit http://www.britishcouncil.org/greece-arts-and-culture-creative-collaboration-fund.htm and http://www.britishcouncil.org/greece-arts-and-culture-creative-collaboration-the-bar-of-lost-souls.htm for more information.

The show will be on in Athens and Nicosia in September 2009 and touring the UK in 2010. Go to the tour page for more information.