Fotis Kontoglou’s book is a collection of stories published in 1962 and a nostalgic reference to the backdrop of the authors’ childhood, in early-20th-century Aivali, a small city hidden among the straits and coasts of the East.
After a careful consideration of these texts, we selected those parts that engage in a meaningful conversation with the mass flights of populations of the previous century and at the same time with the refugee and migrant crisis of today. We explore Kontoglou’s language and the path towards a deeper understanding and a more active participation in the “strange currents” created among people.
Aivali, My Homeland is a performance created by four performers who, through the stories of various protagonists of a wonderful collection of short stories, reveal these characters by placing them in a common time and place, while composing a strange, common story.
On 15/12/22 D. Gounaris, N. Stratos, P. Protopapadakis, N. Theotokis, G. Baltatzis and G. Hadjianestis were sentenced to death for high treason as the main culprits for the Asia Minor Catastrophe and were executed at Goudi. In the morning of that same day, the President of the Extraordinary Military Tribunal, Al. Othoneos, reads out the verdict and withdraws without saying “the trial is concluded”. The trial of the six was never concluded technically.
Freedom to Die is the trial and reenactment of those events that followed the verdict and those that were hurriedly kept secret “to convince public opinion that all lawful procedures were abided by”.
Nowadays, how many trials and what kind of trials are set up “to convince the public opinion”? How many real events are disguised as fictitious ones and vice versa? And how does each one of us perceive and interpret the world surrounding us?
A performance based on the novel of Giannis Makridakis and the journey of uprooting and moving to a new homeland accompanied by its sounds and images.
A shipwreck between Chios and Cesme sets in motion the unfolding of a multifaceted story inspired by family narrations. The story attempts a deep introspection to memory and perishability.
Anestis, the castaway, struggles to put his past in order and take decisions about his present. His homing pigeons, are trained to return to their “homeland” ignoring the borders and linking the past to the present. Images and sounds from the route Smyrna to Chios alternate and illuminate a multifaceted memory journey.
Generations of pigeons together with generations of people are moving in parallel. Their direction is constantly changing as it is determined by the History and many coincidences.
Philoxenia/Hospitality in ancient Greece was a sacred obligation and an unconditional right. Since then and until now, the phenomenon of forced mass displacement of populations is not unprecedented. However, in recent years the way we deal with this phenomenon is unprecedentedly harsh.
How things have changed over time in Greek society? What did the refugees experience on their way from Asia Minor to Greece and how did they cope? How were they received by the natives? How did the Greek government deal with them? And on the other hand, how are the refugees treated today by the Greek government and the Greek citizens?
A musical narrative theatrical performance inspired by the testimonies of refugees of then and now, in combination with ancient texts, literary texts, audio documents, physicality, poetry and live music.
Emerging from the bleakness of history, rowing across the river of time, women of different ages and ethnic backgrounds meet here and now. Olympia! Summer 2022!
Dialogic “episodes” dramatise the horror of war, the Exchange of Populations, the collapse of the Great Idea. Monologues narrate little by little, with epic solemnity, the same, almost repetitive history. The performers, all of them anonymous members of a tragic chorus, will unite their voices in the interpolated songs, the festive odes and monodies, and will bring out the theatricality of the “testimonial” narration, arousing emotion in audiences, who will get to look the violence of History straight in the eye.
The refugee narrative is deconstructed and integrated into a historical chamber drama that sometimes seems like an ancient tragedy and sometimes like a musical Requiem.
The performance aims at capturing and presenting the osmosis of cultures that forever changed the city of Heraklion, focusing on the moment of arrival and reception for some, and on the moment of separation and abandonment for others, at an emblematic part of the port, a fortress that can be both a prison and a refuge.
Refugees of then and refugees of now, descendants of refugees and locals who received them, documents, press articles, literary excerpts, poems, personal testimonies and experiences come into light to tell audiences a story that connects peoples and cultures to this date.
A fourteen-member ensemble consisting of actors, musicians, and “specialists” will attempt to revisit historical events that shaped the city of Heraklion through the stories of its citizens.
“How people are alike! If we let them be free, they immediately come together and love each other.” Language. A bridge that reaches the heart of the interlocutor and creates at once a bond and a commitment… Eh, and there’s also food! Three generations. People from Asia Minor and Turks from Crete meet at a common ground, the table. They cook. They feel nostalgic.
“Nostalgia is an old thing you remember. History is an old thing you don’t remember. My parents named me Ozlem, which means “nostalgia”, for the sake of the motherland they are nostalgic for, and Pelagia for the sake of the sea that unites us…” What is a refugee? Identity? Motherland? What is common ground? Can such whispers be heard in the complexity of political decisions?
A work based on our memories and the narratives wrote down by Maria Tsirimonaki in her book Those Who Left, Those Who Came.
In September of 1922, an American citizen charters “Mimosa”, the ship that will transfer 2,000 Greeks from Smyrna to Piraeus. Three traveling players are among the passengers. A mysterious burlesque comes to life on the deck of “Mimosa”. The traveling players unfold their performance through storytelling, singing and dancing, challenging the boundaries of tragic and comic. In the middle of the sea, they take us on a journey through the depths of human soul, in its attempt to survive, to find its roots, to attest, to smile, to trust again.
Fiction braids with documentary, in this dark comedy, dedicated to the multiple adventures of the Catastrophe of Asia Minor. Drawing material from the dark impasses of the National Schism, the play reconstructs, in a fictive context, heroes of the period who fought for the uncertain future of integration.
On the occasion of the centenary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe, Mneme theatre company revisits the atmosphere of those days through Kosmas Politis’ emblematic PARODOS, a chapter interpolated in the middle of his novel “Stou Hadjifragkou” that introduces us to the greatest tragedy ever experienced by the Greek people since the birth of the Greek State.
Its literary value is unprecedented as it manages to capture our imagination, both metaphorically – by calling our attention to the value and beauty of the place – and literally – by transporting us to the centre of the tragedy that unfolded during the last days of August 1922 on the coast of Smyrna.
The production is accompanied by the original music of composer-pianist Dimitris Droumboyannis, performed live onstage by three musicians.
On a stage that is also an archaeological site, five artists from Cephalonia who live and create in 2022, bring to life narratives from the days of 1922, hum melodies, and look for the thread connecting them to their ancestors, who were either born on Cephalonia or Ithaca or ended up there hunted down, orphaned, and frightened. Alongside them a British lighting designer, a Cephaloniot set designer who lives abroad, and a director with roots in Cappadocia.
The performance presents archival material revolving around the reception of 7,000 refugees and the integration of those who, in the end, remained on these two islands.
With no sadness, but with the intent to communicate the atmosphere of that era and collectively redefine the concept of “refugee”. Because refugeeism is not an instant occurrence in world history.