Anagelasta

Additional Performance

Maria Kyriakou is the director of this stage presentation of the poetry of Stella Voskaridou Economou. The influence of the theatre of the absurd is obvious in the play, as well as the aesthetics of Elena Kotasvili’s acclaimed artwork.

The play, a production by Paraplevros Paragoges, places tradition in a visual landscape, hoping to bring the audience closer to the concept of the Cypriot idiom as a cultural tool that produces critical thinking - it is not folklore, but rather beautiful and peculiar!

The text of the performance is derived from the fifteen poems written in Cypriot dialect by Stella Voskaridou Ekonomou in “Anagelasta: All kinds of women” (Technodormio, 2013). Who are all these women we often talk about in our everyday conversations and how do they have a say in a contemporary work? With the rapid rhythm of the Cypriot dialect, these well-known strangers that we bring with us as legacies of our mothertongue, but also as social stereotypes, become, almost, flesh and bones. Characters are transformed into exhibits which contain our past and present.

Regarding her work, the poet says: “Whereas the interaction between language, reality and poetry was possibly what fascinated me most in the sphere of writing, I feel blessed for the rich stimulation I was given at writing moments that problematised this interaction in various ways. My journey through Anagelasta, written in 2010 and published in 2013, and in which I used exclusively the Cypriot dialect, led me to an experience that was no less connected to the exploration of my (personal and collective) self, than to the exploration of the women I was writing about. Since the speakers of dialects are often taught the official form of their language when they go to school, the use of a dialect also appears as an interesting way to transfer one’s self to the first years of life, to the infantility, which is more often than not connected to this extreme version of mothertongue. This transfer, which appears to be both linguistic, but also psychological (while these two categories are inevitably interrelated), activate a poetic procedure, and thus a poetic voice, which can be of particular interest: Travelling through the dialect, in this perspective, equals to travelling through time, reaching past, understanding present and visualising future.”

Concept – Dramaturgy - Direction: Maria Kyriakou
Poetry: Stella Voskaridou Economou
Art director: Elena Kotasvili
Set costumes design: Elena Kotasvili, Lorna Ladommatou
Sound design: Panos Bartzis
Lighting design: Alexander Jotovic
Assistant director: Evi Hadjiperi
Photos: Vassilis Doritis
Promotional videos: Michael Ashikkas
Graphic Design: Anna Fotiadou
Production manager: Evripidis Dikaios
Cast: Antria Zeniou, Elena Kallinikou, Maria Kafkaridou, Marina Makri, Pantelitsa Mavroyianni, Lucia Pieridou, Polyxenie Savva

Facebook event: www.facebook.com/paraplevros