Amid the debt crisis, many Greeks have come to despise their leaders, mistrust their media and resent the stern teachings of Brussels bureaucrats. Now some are turning to a rather different kind of wise man for help: an Athenian who doled out self-help tips while railing against the hypocrisies of society and the state – and whose lessons live on more than 2,400 years after his death.

Convinced of Socrates's particular relevance to contemporary Greece, the creators of a one-man theatrical performance of The Apology, Plato's account of his teacher's doomed but powerful trial defence, have brought the show to Athens.

"We call it Socrates Now. Why? Because we feel that more than anybody else he is relevant right now," said Yannis Simonides, the star of the Elliniko Theatre production. "He has always been relevant, he has always been essential. But now, why?" Because, Simonides said, his pearls of wisdom were peculiarly useful today.

"[He said]: 'Know thyself.' And we are at a time where we must look into ourselves, examine ourselves, before we examine anybody else or judge anybody else. We have to have a sense of our responsibilities, of our rights and our responsibilities. Of what we are, what we offer but also where we went wrong, and examine that and acknowledge it," he said.

"The other thing he says is: 'I know one thing; I don't know anything.' Now, a wonderful dimension of the Greeks is that they always know everything: 'Let me tell you about Europe! Let me tell you about the Greeks! Let me tell you about the Germans! This is a conspiracy!' That is part of our explosive, extraordinary nature."

But it is not always useful, he said. And with Socrates's help, Simonides said, they might be able to admit: "'I really should not say I know everything; I should consider. I may know very little.'"

The 65-year-old has been doing the show for years, in locations as diverse as Oxford, Dubai, Montevideo and New York. This year he and the Elliniko decided to commit themselves to staying in Greece. For the past week, and until Saturday, he has been performing outdoors at the University of Athens Museum, just below the Acropolis. The show will tour the country until the end of the year, with performances near the parliament building planned for the autumn.

"We looked at each other and said: 'We need to be here, we need to engage, we need to contribute a tiny bit,'" Simonides said. After every performance he remains on stage for a discussion with the audience, during which they can ask questions and debate the meaning of Socrates's words.

Simonides, who grew up in Greece but has lived in the US for decades, hopes spectators will feel inspired to act. "The essence of Socrates is not to teach us how to think but to teach us how to act, how to live. How can we apply this right now? How can we lay down our arms?

"Whether we are Greeks versus Greeks, whether we are Greeks versus Europeans, whether we are the poor versus the banking system, whether we're fascists versus leftists, we are human beings, we are citizens of the same city, whether it is the city of Athens or the city of the world. Let us, you and I, the fascist and the leftist, sit down and see, by asking each other some questions, by asking each other what is on our mind, how we could conceivably find a common place. Because, without finding it, we're going to go down."