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Ερπετό γλυκόπικρο (Bittersweet Reptile) at Pedion Areos, 2019
a bootcamp for eros
The Pedion Areos Park is transformed into an arena for a modern ritual of erotic empowerment. How do women experience the cycle of eros and how do they survive it? The audience follows the unusual feats undertaken by a group of women during an ambulatory performance built on the poetry of Sappho, Matsi Chadzilazarou, and Jenny Mastoraki. How can the three poets, through space and time, be a source of challenge and support? Through the poetic language and the physical interaction with the space, the six performers contend with the bittersweet reptile of eros, inviting viewers to a different reading of the park and urban landscape and to the use of it as a canvas for their own erotic review.
More info: https://www.opennatureperformance.com/ερπετό-γλυκόπικρο/
Video full performance: https://youtu.be/7WIYSZXlU9E
Video trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBTGuX24lcE
Reviews by Αθηνά Κακλαμάνη, Ειρήνη Αϊβαλιώτου, Αλεξάνδρα Μητσούρα:
“[I]n addition to the originality of the theme, the performance ‘Bittersweet Reptile’ achieves a lot more. Specifically, it achieves the connection of the performing arts with the urban landscape, as the Pedion Areos park becomes the canvas on which the performers interact, giving another meaning and a new reading to the various parts of the park. In addition, the six artists coexist in this particular scene with the patrons of the park, something that not only highlights the cultural importance of such places in the city, but also constitutes the greatest challenge in terms of their performances. Fully exposed, as fairies and warriors at the same time, maneuvering frantically, they manage not just to leap over potential difficulties, but to leave their creative mark on the flow of progress, constantly tearing down one more cliché, that of the ‘omnipotent director’ and the ‘actor-tool’”. – Athina Kaklamani, Theatro.gr
Είδαμε-την-περιπατητική-performance-“Ερπετό-γλυκόπικρο”-στο-Πεδίον-του-Άρεως-θεατρο.gr
https://www.catisart.gr/anazitontas-ena-quot-erpeto-glykopikro-quot-sto-pedion-toy-areos/
Ερπετό γλυκόπικρο στο Πεδίον του Άρεως: Μια διαφορετική ανάγνωση του πάρκου, που αξίζει να δεις
Photo-reportage by Alexia Giovanopoulos:
https://alejiah2.wordpress.com/2019/05/29/
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Κάθε τι μια φορά (Everything Once) at Chimeres, 2018
In Everything Οnce… or what can an intellectual say to a dragon?, Chimeres artspace in Metaxourgeio becomes a small construction site for Angels and humans. “Oh, to whom can we turn for help?” With basic materials the existential texts of Rainer Maria Rilke and Nikos Kazantzakis, four performers – “visitors from another dimension” reflect on our relationship with the divine, spirituality, freedom, and the ephemerality of our existence.
More info: https://www.opennatureperformance.com/κάθε-τι-μια-φορά/
Video full performance: https://youtu.be/tH7zXXcbjk8
Video trailer: https://youtu.be/Rpl3KAv1Sco
Review by Ελένη Αναγνωστοπούλου:
http://fractalart.gr/kathe-ti-mia-fora/
Interview with Δέσποινα Ραμαντάνη: https://theaterviewsite.blogspot.com/2018/11/blog-post.html?fbclid=IwAR0rCZSMzxVChwWYDdhVPly30qhc9Vv2R8MFvVylefvWEDC4VKbVO5hCtoA#more
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Διάλειμμα Χαράς – Joy Break in the canyon of Lykavyttos Hill, 2015 & 2016
Four nymphs descend into the canyon of mount Lycabettus, transform temporarily into mortal women and invite us onto a metaphysical journey through the poems of George Seferis and Walt Whitman. In their wanderings, they encounter white elders, electric bodies, strung nooses, men with eyes like poppies, dogs seeking a bone, children wondering what is the grass, broken figures in mirrors. They whisper to us under the plane tress, invite us to loafe with them on the grass, drawing us into their world. During the performance, viewers are free to move in the space with the performers, to compose their own images, their own questions and their own meanings. Guided by the poetry of Whitman and Seferis, they are invited to take a “joy break” from the suffocating pace of everyday life and to experience how nature works in all its primal power, even in the middle of the city.
More info: https://www.opennatureperformance.com/διάλειμμα-χαράς-joy-break-2016/
Video selections 2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2mdiNqUdeU
Video trailer 2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK6bJcHhjwQ
Video trailer 2015: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Bd7ulw8WFc
Reviews by Ματίνα Καλτάκη, Λίνα Ρόκου, Ειρήνη Αϊβαλιώτου:
“[In‘Joy Break’] you hear the words of Whitman and Seferis dripping from the mouths of the four (excellent) performers, rolling on the stones, watering the grass and climbing the slopes after first dancing on the leaves of the trees. We are called to follow the performers in their wandering, not to hesitate to find the best angle of view, to dig through bushes, to sit on the ground, to set aside a branch. I would like to do it with more courage, it’s our fault that we have learned theater differently and even though we are given freedom, we move as an audience with a discretion that reaches the limits of cowardice… However, the performance flows like water, sometimes muddy, dark and sometimes gargling, cool… [with] a deeply optimistic end that comforts us in the face of the prospect of our end.” – Lina Rokou, Popaganda
http://www.lifo.gr/articles/theater_articles/104901
http://popaganda.gr/theatro-likavittos/
https://www.catisart.gr/archives/14353
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Buy Me at the Theatro Underground, 2017
a performance about the homo consumens
More info: https://www.opennatureperformance.com/buy-me/
Video trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkXVQSnpPU0
Reviews by Ειρήνη Αϊβαλιώτου & Μαριάντζελα Ψωμαδέλλη:
https://www.catisart.gr/archives/17473
https://radioalchemy.net/5863/idame-thn-parastash-buy/