An Iphigenia, a Pylades, an Orestes, and some Anton Chekhov cross paths in an atemporal setting. They will carve out concentric circles in an everlasting clash with themselves and the others. All of them are descendants of the historical figures whose names they share. Their name is their heritage… An unbearable burden on their shoulders… How can they shake off all the heavy loads that history has placed on them? People change over the years, they become unrecognizable to their own selves, and they clash with anything that they instinctively recognize as a carrier of this amnesia…. To change everything… To become who you long to be… To declare your own identity… And then what? How can the sound of your breath fit inside the bustle of a war?
The story unfolds in a troubled period, somewhere around Crimea, near the Azov sea, in the suffering city of Mariupol, at a port called Taganrog (known as Taiganio by the Greeks who lived there), the birthplace of the renowned Russian writer Anton Chekhov. The war is raging, filling people’s souls with terror. It is the circle with the longest diameter in a system of concentric circles of conflicts.
The En Dynami theatre company, after conducting extensive research on modern dramaturgy, is now treating a classical text for the first time: Sophocles’ Antigone. A social group that daily clashes with the state, society, laws, and the mentality of our fellow citizens regarding issues of acceptance, accessibility, and social inclusion, wonders whether they live in a world that is just and whether laws are designed to protect people or the opposite. They wonder how far they would be willing to go for their beliefs. “The impossible cannot be done”, says Ismene in the prologue. We, however, ought to go for it. Antigone’s story is written to inspire us. Everywhere and always.
In New Zealand, a river was granted legal person status. The Ganges River in India heard about this and liked the idea, so it also obtained such a status. In Iceland, there is an ongoing campaign to present a glacier as an election candidate.
The environmental organization The Bee Camp presents a transformative performance experience, written and directed by Anthi Founta, inspired by the once unthinkable idea of granting legal rights to elements of nature. And this is how, after 160 years of dispute, the river Whanganui, becomes the first river on earth to belong to itself, all the way from the mountain to the sea. Can you imagine that? Nature belonging to itself?
Our life is a journey
into the Night, into the Winter,
we seek our path,
in the starless meadow.
The theatre and music performance This Is How It Began, directed by Victoria Fota and featuring music by Lefteris Veniadis, is based on the first part of Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s novel Journey to the End of the Night [Voyage au bout de la nuit].
In a rush of enthusiasm, the young medical student Ferdinand Bardamu voluntarily joins the French Army, right after the outbreak of World War I. Soon, however, he regrets this action, as he sees from close up the murderous incapability of his superiors, the brutality of human nature, and the absurdity of war.
Bardamu is no role model; he is not a war hero. His unorthodox stance and rebellious views could be described as nihilistic. They do express, however, the innermost thoughts of every person who, realizing the horror of war and the futility of conflicts occurring in the name of nations, religions, and ideologies in general, prefers to survive and not be turned into yet another dead “hero”, who will forever remain unseen.
Photography exhibition / Audio walk / Theatre performance
Cross-disciplinary piece, based on Stratis Vogiatzis’ book of the same title
There is a life that silently unfolds underneath the ground; a life that has reconciled with the chaos and the co-existence of the diverse elements that compose the world. This life unfolds in a place that knows – without however being able to prove it – that the Individual is actually the Collective, that the Other complements the One, that the Imaginary is the Real waiting to be confirmed, and that the Real, in return, is the Imaginary experienced through the senses. What is this land, this open space, in which, when heterogeneous elements come together, the possibility of a world hitherto “patiently waiting for the right conditions to emerge” is fertilized? What is this land that can withstand to serve as both a background for a picture that will be revealed, and as the picture itself? What is this Camp?
Stratis Vogiatzis’s photography exhibition is made possible with the support of MOMus and Chios Music Festival.
The magic of the famous Greek author Alexandros Papadiamantis’ enduring body of work is highlighted by featuring three of his memorable short stories: “The Wife of the Church Commissioner”, “The Cholera-afflicted Woman”, and “The Voice of the Dragon”.These stories revolve around the role of women in society, the dominant patriarchal or societal views, and the many conflicts arising either from challenges in communicating a common language code or from women’s internal struggles. The themes range from the sacrifices a woman can make for her dowry to her social exclusion.
Telling the story both through vocal performance and sign language, dancing, and theatre, the director focuses on a polyphonic narrative that is conveyed through facial expressions, voices, and hand movements, shaping a unique universe. A place, which is dominated by the senses and emphasizes Papadiamantis’ language, rich in poetic descriptions and imagery. The performance features both deaf and hearing actors.
The production Why Did ‘Meliá’ Not Turn Into ‘Meléa’ based on a short story by Georgios Vizyinos, is a dance and theatre performance with a live music accompaniment. In the story, the author recounts an incident from his school years, addressing the Greek language dispute during a period when the whole of the Balkans was in turmoil. The Greek language question was a major point of conflict in the modern history of the Greek state, spanning from the start of the Greek War of Independence to the start of the post-dictatorship era, with significant political, social, and cultural implications.
The apple-tree (in Greek: meliá), which in Greek sounds like the word “speech” (miliá), takes on the role of Speech/Language in the narration. The language of theatre prose will clash with the non-verbal language of dancing, and together they will compose something new, using music as their common ground. They will become ‘Meliá’ and ‘Meléa’. They will portray the conflict of little Giorgis with his teacher, and will become the words that fight over which one will finally settle in the child’s mind and soul.
A theatrical piece that explores the “Odyssey” of the artist Renato Mordo and his wife Trude, set against the backdrop of his tragic imprisonment in Haidari during the German Occupation of Athens. An Austrian Jew of Greek and, for a short time, also of German, nationality, Mordo is an easy target in a time when the world has been divided into camps.
The main focus in this piece is on the Time that is running out, as the decision to transfer Mordo to Auschwitz is still pending. Through his correspondence with his wife Trude, her dreams and nightmares, her great love for Music and Theatre, and her inner conflicts are brought to life, as her descent, religion, nationality, and artistic identity sometimes serve as pathways to salvation, while at other times they lead to her condemnation.
The second protagonist on the stage is Music. Kalliopi Mitropoulou brings compositions in the style of the Inter-war era to life, taking us on a journey from the African coasts to the cabarets of Central Europe.
The creative company APARÄMILLON, consistently working on research-based original dramaturgies, now shifts its attention to the dramaturgy of Iakovos Kampanellis for the first time. In particular, it explores the legendary play The Courtyard of Miracles, offering a participatory performance that focuses on the conflict of interests surrounding overtourism in the Greek islands.
More specifically, the heroes and themes Kampanellis uses blend with real accounts and elements gathered through on-the-spot research, creating a symbolic way of addressing the impacts of unbridled touristic development. This is achieved by contrasting the different economic interests of individuals or groups involved, and by illuminating the ethical and deontological dilemmas that stem from them.
Stage indicators from Kampanellis’ The Courtyard of Miracles invite the creative team and the audience, whether they are local residents or visitors, to participate in a kaleidoscope of human characters and intricate relationships.
Three actors and two musicians collaborate on a freestyle performance inspired by the “Medea” phenomenon and Euripides’ play. The performance includes singing, speech, and movement, with a particular focus on sound. The actors Katerina Antoniadou, Gina Thliveri, and Othon Metaxas take turns playing different roles in the play, accompanied by the sounds of Giorgos Triantafyllou’s musical sculptures and Chrysanthi Gika’s Constantinopolitan lyre, the rhythms of Maro Panagi, and the visual creations and soundscapes of Stefanos Kosmidis. Right at the center of this sound cyclone that is being formed, the bustle of the battle, stands Medea.
Through the dynamic vibration of the sound, we hear Euripides’ speech, the representation of conflict, in a modern Greek translation, which also includes excerpts from the ancient text. The variety of rhythms in the performance, and especially in the Chorus, aims at responding to the diverse rhythms present in the text. The Company’s research on the spiral movement of the body and sound invites audiences to reconnect with the Myth on a collective consciousness level.