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Podsumowanie
The Polish director puts forward an original montage of extracts from twentieth century literature and ancient Greek tragedies in a production where questions of responsibility and sacrifice take centre stage. Warlikowski experiments with a variety of texts to create an on-stage montage.
Content
"(A)pollonia" dir. Krzysztof Warlikowski. Photo by Stefan Okolowicz/www.greekfestival.gr
The Cutting-edge Greek Festival hosts Krzysztof Warlikowski's "(A)pollonia"
The Polish director puts forward an original montage of extracts from twentieth century literature and ancient Greek tragedies in a production where questions of responsibility and sacrifice take centre stage.
With a tradition dating back 56 years, the Greek Festival in Athens has hosted some of the leading stars of the theatre, music and dance world. In recent years, organisers have strived to re-vamp the festival, turning it into an interdisciplinary and youth-driven event that hosts cutting-edge international productions and promotes young Greek and international artists alongside major works by the most acclaimed contemporary directors. "(A)pollonia" by director Krzysztof Warlikowski is one such production.
With "(A)pollonia" Warlikowski experiments with a variety of texts to create an on-stage montage. He uses characters from the tragedies of Euripides and Aeschylus, a previously unpublished play by Hanna Krall, as well as fragments of novels by Jonathan Littell and J. M. Coetzee.
Characters such as Iphigenia, Alcestis and Apollonia are all either necessary or accidental human sacrifices, victims of war and fate. These figures illustrate a time when the gods intervened with human destiny, but they arrive on-stage in a world void of divine interventions. With the twenty first century changing the shape of human loss through mass tragedies such as the Holocaust, martyrdom seems to have lost its tragic motif and instead become the disturbing subject of media reports.
Sacrifice is thus the key theme of the Nowy Teatr production. With questions of divine absence and human responsibility, the play serves to poignantly explore the moment at which Iphigenia, Alcestis and Apollonia gave their lives so readily.
- "(A)pollonia" by Krzysztof Warlikowski. Directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski; adaptapted by: Krzysztof Warlikowski, Jacek Poniedziałek, Piotr Gruszczyński; set and costume design: Małgorzata Szczęśniak; music: Paweł Mykietyn, Renate Jett, Piotr Maślanka, Paweł Stankiewicz; songs (lyrics and perfomance): Renate Jett, lighting: Felice Ross, playwright: Piotr Gruszczyński; video: Paweł Łoziński, Kacper Lisowski, Rafał Listopad.
The Polish premiere of "(A)pollonia" took place in May 2009 in Warsaw.
The play premieres on the Main Stage of the OCC in Greece on June 28 with repeat performances on June 29-30 and July 1, 2011.
ONASSIS CULTURAL CENTRE
107-109 Syngrou Avenue, 11745 Athens, Greece
Information/Tickets: 210 900 5 800,
Administration: 213 0 178000
Email: info@sgt.gr
Source: Nowy Teatr, www.greekfestival.gr