THEATRE
Premiere in April 2017 at Onassis STEGI Cultural Center
A spiritual road trip. An existential spectacle. A theatrical experience with three stops: Hell, Purgatory and Heaven.
Faced with the sheer volume of Dante’s trilogy, VASISTAS create a highly concise version of Dante’s text by selecting those sections that convey its deeply personal qualities: the difficult journey made by one individual, from the dark ordeals of the everyday, through times of painful crisis, to life’s light-filled moments of escape; from immersion in a world of shadows, to an exit towards the light.
On stage, a tight, core group of performers will take on the narration by expanding the codes developed over recent years by VASISTAS, who place the expressive power of the body and the musical dimensions of choral forms at the heart of their practice.
Adding to its musical explorations, the performance features a string quartet, integrated in the scenic action.
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“Halfway through life I found myself in a dark wood;
the straight and narrow path was lost.
How hard it is to say just what this wild untrodden wood was like,
the very thought of it gives birth to new fear.
So bitter was it
that only death is somewhat worse”.
Credits
Stage direction: Argyro Chioti | Text: Dante | Dramaturgy: Nikos A. Panagiotopoulos, VASISTAS | Set design: Eva Manidaki | Costume design: Christina Calbari | Lighting design: Tasos Palaioroutas | Sound design: Jan Van de Engel | Musical supervision: Markellos Chrysikopoulos | Artistic associate: Ariane Labed | Dramaturgy assistant: Artemis Chrysostomidou | Director’s assistant: Geli Kalampaka | Set Designer assistant: Myrto Megaritou | Costume Design assistant: Ifigeneia Daoudaki | Roller-skating coach: Konstantinos Martzekis | Executive production: Geli Kalampaka, Vassiliki Georgiopoulou | On stage: Efthimis Theou, Eleni Vergeti, Evdoxia Androulidaki, Antonis Antonopoulos, Georgina Chryskioti, Fidel Talamboukas, Matina Pergioudaki, Yannis Klinis | String quartet: Alexis Karaiskakis Nastos (cello), Phaedon Miliadis / Andrei Nastaza (first violin), Angeliki Kasda (second violin), Giannis Romanos / Ilias Livieratos (viola)
The text of the performance is based on Kostas Kairofyllas’ translation of the Divine Comedy revised by Nikos A. Panagiotopoulos.
The performance includes poems from Edgar Lee Masters’ “Spoon River” Anthology translated in Greek by Spyros Apostolou and published by Gutenberg editions as well as Ezra Pound’s “Cantos XIV and XV” translated in Greek by Giorgos Varsos, published by Patakis editions.
The clothes were provided by ALE, Attrattivo and Triumph.
Photos: Stavros Habakis
Production: Onassis STEGI Cultural Center | Co-production: Les Théâtres (France)
International distribution and co-production organization: KOMM’N’ACT (France)
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