Charmolypi

Charmolypi was produced and premiered at The Grotowski Institute, Wroclaw, Poland in 2013. Charmolypi is made of the performer’s personal stories told through the body. Where words fail, the story of the body is born. It contains the missing pieces of yourself that can be used to pull yourself out of an existential crisis, out of the zero point of existence – to return to yourself, to life or death.

The performance is a sort of map charting the thoughts of a woman who struggles with the uncertainty of what is a dream and what is her failure to understand herself in the real world.

The Greek word charmolypi encompasses the duality at the root of human experience. Loosely translated, it means “bittersweet” or “joyful sorrow”. On a more earthly level, elderly people are often said to have charmolypi because of their accumulation of experience.Charmolypi has performed in Poland, Greece, Belgium, Russia, Turkey, USA and UK.

“The water has to fall. Time passes drop by drop. A whole world is in chaos. A minute of silence for the desperate ones. For the WAITING ones… In the emptiness with no expectation nor hope, only memory can bring the light. If the body were a writing pen: you write, stop, refill the pen with ink, write again… If only it were a pen.” Alexandra KazazouM

Creator/Performer: Alexandra Kazazou
Director: Matej Matejka
Music: Ditte Berkeley, Daniel Han
Music/vocal supervisor: Ditte Berkeley
Dramaturgy: Matej Matejka, Bryan Brown
Movement supervisor: Magdalena Koza, Vivien Wood
Lights: Karol Jarek
Costumes: Agnieszka Katyńska