Family

The Haunted Hotel — Karagiozis Shadow Theatre in Platanias

Nikos Blazakis brings Karagiozis and a hotel full of ghosts to a Platanias churchyard. Free, outdoors, funnier than adults expect.

Greek shadow theatre is one of those things visitors assume is a museum piece until they sit through one, and then they understand why the children are shrieking and the grandparents are laughing harder. Nikos Blazakis runs the last properly touring shadow theatre in western Crete, and The Haunted Hotel is his crowd piece: Karagiozis takes a job in a hotel that turns out to be full of ghosts, and it goes exactly as badly as you would hope. It plays in the churchyard of the Panagia church in Platanias, outdoors, on a white screen lit from behind. No ticket, no booking, and no Greek needed for most of the physical comedy, though the wordplay is the best part if you have it.