Hippo theatre company presents the work Against the Wind: Tira’s Flying Adventure, a surrealistic mystery adventure for children, written and directed by Fotis Dousis and Alexandros Raptis. The text treats an aspect of the wider ecological crisis that is not particularly known: the way that light pollution, but also deforestation, affect the life of migratory birds.
It is a fascinating production with abundant comic and lyrical elements, in which people and animals must work together “for a better future”, as it is proven that profit and big economic interests are the first cause of nature’s destruction. Hippo theatre company, continuing the special genre of physical theatre it has coined (kinemo), creates a performance dominated by intense physicality, high energy levels, live music and special movement techniques, offering a rich entertainment experience.
Four visitors participate in a peculiar sound tour. The voice of the archaeological site’s director gradually leads them to questions that connect the monuments they are now visiting, those they have already visited and others that stand in different parts of the world – with climate change. Through the questions, what progressively develops is a narration loaded with associations about the impact of climate change on cultural heritage, in the past, present and future. For as long as the questions persist, the visitors are faced with ignorance, agony, hope for the future. Statistics alternate with texts from the Romantic period, singing, dancing, poetic elements, music, soundscapes and humor, while the narration composes a torrential list of endangered beings that want, however, to survive and believe in an optimistic future.
The production Beware of the Monsters! is an imaginative play for young audiences, based on Swedish writer Marie Rohde’s popular book Planet SOS (True Monsters), which has met with great success worldwide.
The most dangerous environmental threats are contrasted with mythical monsters of world mythology, who through narration, live singing and confessions manifest their power sources, as well as their vulnerabilities. All of the “monsters” appear through the misty atmosphere of a dream that prevents a big profit-driven ecological disaster. The dream and its heroes are a valuable source of knowledge for our small audience members, all the more because the monsters themselves reveal their enemies, urging children to use every means possible to vanquish them, so that the planet can be set free from their presence.
Two Oddly-Shaped Stones, a production for teenagers of all ages by the active theatre company Apparatus, is a stage composition drawing themes, concerns, images and sounds from the thought that nature knows no crisis. Through a playful narration it peeps at an entire universe of probabilities and possibilities opening up in front of us.
Four characters are looking for joints and cracks in a place that connects them with the environment, culture and memory – the element that will finally bring them together. With the goal of creating something with whatever is available, toiling to leave behind them traces and not only ruins, they are looking for the values of materials and thoughts, they are trying to understand the changes and find their place in this mercurial universe. In a play with materials, light, music and poetry, they find their balance between gravity and lightness, they take action and shift places, they change the space and get changed by it.
The youth-oriented novel When the Statues Went Away by Angeliki Darlasi, adapted for the stage by the author herself and directed by Christos Christopoulos, has been turned into a special performance designed for children aged 6 to 11 years.
Once there was a girl who had heard statues singing. She had danced with them in the moonlight. She had seen them shedding tears. Because statues come alive at night. Angelina was well aware of that, as she grew up in a museum. Tiko and the statues were her best friends. When Mussolini declared war against Greece, the fear that the darkness of Nazism would prevail grew even stronger. And all those involved in the museum, from archaeologists to plain workers, all of them shared a common anxiety. They all protected the same secret, which seemed to be summarized in just one phrase: “We must make haste…”. Angelina will want to learn that secret and help her friend, Tiko, hide his own.
The Revolution of the Old Toys is a free theatrical adaptation of Christos Boulotis’ fairy tale of the same title, directed by Sofia Palantza.
On a rainy night, the old toys decide to start a revolution. Armed with courage and enthusiasm, they will live out the adventure and the danger, deciding to confront the electronic games that were stealing the children’s thoughts. They will also clash with their own leader, once they discover that he is not a toy but a human being. Using imagination as their only weapon, the toys will engage in an uneven battle against the electronic fighters of war and violence, to claim their place in the children’s hearts.
Group spirit, camaraderie, solidarity, peace, and combative spirit, freedom, and most of all imagination as a manifestation of creativity, are just some of the concepts this performance explores. The Revolution of the Old Toys will offer audiences moments of joy, taking them on a journey through colourful clouds alongside clockwork-marching toy soldiers, cymbal-banging toy monkeys, little drummers, unicorns, and multicoloured balls.
The new theatre performance One thousand reasons to argue by the Tik Tak Do theatre company invites us to embark on an imaginary journey of exploring and recognizing emotions.
Markos, a young man, is constantly angry, finding a thousand reasons to get into fights. He faces everything happening around him with anger. He always keeps a shield and a wooden sword close to him. When he loses these objects, he will be forced to order new ones… “Mr Markos, Sword & Shield company thanks you very much for your order. With this letter we announce that starting this year, there have been changes in the process of delivering swords and shields. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience. In the map enclosed in the box, you will find four marked points corresponding to four castles. These castles need to provide their seal for your order to be dispatched. Please, do not overlook any of the instructions. Best regards, Sword & Shield AMC (Anonymous Monopoly Company)”.
Following their debut in Mytilene with the performance Aegean Sea at the Sanctuary of Messon in 2021, the Patari Project theatre company returns with their new production Rob & Crus. It is a fascinating performance for the whole family, based on an adaptation of the work Robinson & Crusoe by Nino D’Introna and Giacomo Ravicchio.
While everything around them has been swept away by an unprecedented flood, two men find refuge on the roof of a house. As “castaways” they are obliged to live together for a period of time, yet the existence of the “other” seems hostile. As they do not speak the same tongue, they try to communicate using signs and body language. This creates intense and explosive situations, which are often hilarious. Alone in the world and not having anyone else to turn to, these two “enemies” will approach each other little by little, and will find a way to co-exist. And then a plot twist occurs… And after that what? A humorous work suitable for both children and grown-ups, unique and touching.
War is the ultimate form of conflict between adversaries. The event The Art of War, written and directedby Konstantinοs Thanοs and Alkmini Kalogirou, is a representation of a war battle in the style of a board game, especially designed for children and teenagers.
Through the use of miniature soldiers, combat weapons, and strategic techniques for achieving victory from Sun Tzu’s book of the same title, children will be made aware of the impacts of war and the emotions of those involved – victims, aggressors, and bystanders. In a time when games play such an important role in children’s everyday lives, this analogy-based representation uses game-playing as a tool for a multifaceted and experiential approach to war and conflict.
The production Lucky Luke Is Afraid, written and directed by Taxiarchis Deligiannis and Vasilis Tsiouvaras, uses the form of musical to enhance the hero’s inner struggle with color and poetic immediacy.
The storyline is as follows: Andreas (19 years old) and Antigone (17 years old) are in an online relationship using the nicknames Lucky and Betty, without ever exchanging their real names or photographs. Andreas is experiencing a strong internal conflict between his true, sensitive self, whom he only presents online, and his image of a restless, tough boy, which he only shows to the outside world. His love for Antigone gradually frees him from his fears and gambling addiction, enabling him to reveal his true self. Like Alcestis in the ancient myth, Andreas “returns” to the outside world, leaving the virtual world to which he had surrendered himself until then, behind.