A theatre performance based on the adaptation of Stella Michailidou’s fairy tale Stories from Gatouhan: We Have the Same Mom published by Kaleidoscope Publishing (2021).
The performance illuminates through the eyes of children, in a very meaningful, tender and at the same time playful way aspects of the refugee issue. There where adult cats see only problems, younger ones see riches and unique gifts. A story that unites yesterday with today, focusing on the issues of refugee reception, the real problems, the existing prejudices, but also on the value and preciousness of the unique Other.
Heroes from fairy tales of the East and the West run through the whole work like a luminous web, bringing everyone together, regardless of national, cultural, racial, religious or any other kind of differences.
In Andreas Flourakis’ new work today’s young people are linked to the Smyrna Catastrophe of 1922 through the love for animals, love, gastronomy and family memories. Even the animations bring to the surface aspects of History that have gone unnoticed, like the rescue of Greeks by the Japanese ship Tokei Maru.
While the ships of allies were watching Smyrna being destroyed and Greeks being drowned off the coast of Ionia from a distance, the captain of Tokei Maru threw its cargo into the sea to make room for as many people as possible, in order to transfer them safe and sound to the port of Piraeus.
In Little Asia Tokei Maru’s strange journey is turned into a story of mystery and Japanese beauty.
How important is it for a child to follow their dreams and not those of other people? How much courage does someone need to admit their resemblance to the “enemy”?
It is difficult for someone to discuss about politics with a child. It is hard to present them History and its curses in an objective way. Sometimes though, the infallible mirror of a myth, does not hide these issues – it reveals them, more clearly, in a more “digestible” form than ever before.
The work is inspired by the enchanting Asia Minor fairy tale “Machaira” (Knife). It tells the story of two friends, a prince and a poor child, who were violently separated but then found each other again, through a journey in search of the “Great Idea”.
Three narrators will traverse the multicultural Asia Minor portraying images in three sections.
Before, during and in the wake of the Disaster. An intertextual performance inspired by historical events, Dido Sotiriou’s novel Farewell Anatolia (Matomena Homata) and Geis Milton’s The Lost Paradise-Smyrna 1922, as well as by myths and written accounts. Memories and testimonies of real persons who lived in Asia Minor come to life and transport us to the magical world of Smyrna, there where the East and the West harmonically co-exist. But also in the subsequent tragedy. The tragedy of the Catastrophe and persecution. Melodies and live music, songs, local treats, feelings of joy and pain, they all create the canvas of the history of Asia Minor.
Using imagination as a vehicle of expression and communication, a story is created for the whole family. A peaceful celebration to acquaint ourselves with Izmir and the cultural heritage of Asia Minor.
Onirodrama theatre company created an intertextual original performance for the whole family titled The Nightmare of Persephone#Chernobyl. In a utopian atemporal setting where everything is possible, where reality merges with fantasy and where the problem becomes so crucial and unmanageable, a different mechanism of self-preservation is set in motion.
The myth of Persephone according to Homer’s hymn to Demetra, Nikos Gatsos’ poetry, true accounts of the Chernobyl tragedy by writer and Nobel Laureate Svetlana Alexievich, Andri Snær Magnason’s The Story of the Blue Planet, and Apostle Paul’s Hymn of Love from his epistle to the Corinthians inspire and help compose the canvas that will depict the problems of energy crisis, climate change and ecological destruction. The participation of children in the show is its most important part. The performance is a protest, a pleading and at the same time an answer to the “powerful ones” who destroy “our home”, the planet Earth.
The production Green Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, written and directed by Nikos Dafnis, is based on the following concept: A famous environmentalist has arrived to give a lecture about the environment, interrupting the rehearsal of a group of actors preparing a theatre performance. The “professor” proposes to them to improvise (as artists) on the things that he himself (as a scientist) would like to talk about in his lecture. And so the show begins…
The work is about the degradation of our life from rampant industrial growth and the brutal and unpunished exploitation of the natural environment. The contamination of water resources, reckless deforestation, the invasion of chemistry into the food chain, the extinction of free space in the cities etc. are all problems that audience members of all ages can relate to. The choice of the old known directorial device of “theatre within the theatre” encourages child spectators to get involved in the show.
The production The Four Seasons presents an imaginative representation of the seasons meant to introduce children to the concepts of the alternation of natural phenomena and the way this alternation affects nature and life itself. Through humorous dialogues, singing and dancing, as well as videos, the messages will be conveyed in a lively and joyful way.
The text written especially for this production by Chloe Mantzari gives each actor the opportunity to introduce themselves and personify each season. Although one cannot offer an immediate solution to the problem of climate change, one can, however, show children the way they can be familiarized with the problem, connect to its daily progression, and find out ways to take action against it. The final goal is for them to leave the show having become more responsible and with the hope that the planet can be saved. The lyrically crafted lyrics of the songs follow the same style. Euripides Zemenidis’ original music lends a lighter touch to the show and inspires the dance parts.
Behold theatre company presents The Secret of the Tree, a production targeted at youth audiences in an effort to make them explore and take a stand on issues like climate crisis and the co-existence of man with the environment. It turns an industrial monument at Panormos, Rethymnon into a space for playing and experiential learning, by blending different art forms and theatre-pedagogical techniques. The goal is to motivate young audience members to ask questions about the present and the future in a constantly changing world, but also to grasp the relationship developed by man with the other – human and non-human – entities with whom he lives together on the planet.
Starting off on our adventure at an old carob mill that has been turned into a cultural centre, we get to know the history of the monument that is inescapably related to that of the carob tree and its fruit, the island of Crete and the entire Mediterranean region. The carob tree, despite having been discredited by people for a certain period of time, continues to stand and grow even in places where it has not been deliberately planted; it continues to bloom in conditions that are absolutely hostile, selflessly offer its fruits, and look into the future while remaining firmly rooted in the deep past.
An interactive music theatre show, the new work We Know How to Swim is coming to take younger and older audiences by storm. The story goes like this: In 2053 the Earth’s ice sheets have melt and the whole planet has sunk under the water. Only small parts of the land’s surface are spared and one of them is the Minoan Palace of Zakros. A polar bear arrives there looking for food. Artemis, a little girl, runs away from home to find the bear and rescue him. With the help of a bee, the adventure begins!
In this story the bear accuses people for the ecological disaster, the bee is mad at the bears for eating the honey, and Artemis at her parents for not letting her go after the bear. Will our heroes manage to get over their anger and animosity? If we were friends with each other but also with the animals and all of the planet’s living creatures, perhaps the future would be better.
Little Heroes in Crisis is a production based on an original text that tells of the adventures of two siblings who, in their effort to save their city’s river from destruction, come across creatures they never expected to find. A work exploring how society often assigns a “disadvantage” to a person that may actually prove out to be a blessing in disguise, and in this case, the comparative advantage of a child who will save the world.
Little Heroes in Crisis is an educational prοject built on two main thematical axes: the way a child can emotionally handle the climate crisis and the way a child can get acquainted with the rules of eco-theatre – a major trend in theatre that has unofficially started in the 1970s but has only gathered active participants creating companies in Europe and worldwide over the last decades. The show is directed by the children themselves, during the educational programme, confirming thus its key objectives.