THEATRE

 

 — Anatoli

 

15 & 16 July • Archaeological site of the Mycenaean Acropolis of Tiryns

Elli Papadimitriou’s Anatoli (East) is a theatrical composition in poetic format that tells the story of the Asia Minor Expedition and Catastrophe of 1918-1922: victories and disasters, causes and consequences, with man and his passions always on the spotlight. Death and uprooting, lust for life and the struggle, mostly of women, to settle down in their new homeland, the pain that goes hand in hand with the faith in life.

The refugees who imbued Greece with their culture.

Elli Papadimitriou, known for her work Koinos Logos, which was first performed at the Neos Kosmos Theatre in 1997, had worked for many decades on Anatoli that is now presented for the first time, in celebration of the author who identified her life and oeuvre with the fate of Asia Minor.

Creative team

Director: Vaggelis Theodoropoulos

Music: Fotis Siotas

Sets, costumes: Claire Bracewell

Choreography: Sofia Paschou

Lighting designer: Apostolis Koutsianikoulis

Scientific advisor: Ioanna Petropoulou

Assistant director: Aggeliki Tobrou

Onstage musician: Tasos Misirlis

Performers: Manolis Mavromatakis, Eleni Ouzounidou, Michalis Titopoulos, Apostolis Psychramis, Dimitris Kapouranis

Production: NEOS KOSMOS THEATRE

 

 

— The Clean Ones (Pastrikes)

21 & 22 July • Ancient Theatre of Dodoni

This is a performance that combines excerpts from Aeschylus’ Iketides (The Suppliant Women), historical facts, testimonies, traditional sounds but also original texts and songs, in order to shed light on the saga of the relocation of the young women who constituted the vast majority of the refugee population.

Those young widows, single and orphaned women, in their attempt to claim their professional and personal “rehabilitation” in the patriarchal Greece of ’22, are exploited by men and subjected to racism by Greek women who see them as rivals.

They call them “pastrikes” (the “clean ones”) but not in order to praise their love of grooming and cleaning: those times in Greece the only women who often washed themselves –because of their profession– were prostitutes. “Honest” women did not need to wash any “shame” off of them.

Creative team

Text, direction: Marianna Calbari

Sets, costumes: Christina Calbari

Music: Avgerini Gatsis

Choreography: Christina Soyoultzis

Sets, lighting: Stella Kaltsou

Performers: Avgerini Gatsis, Katerina Lypiridou, Marilena Moschou, Konstantina Takalou, Amalia Tsekoura

Music is performed live by two musicians

Production: ELLINIKI ETAIRIA THEATROU AEPE (Art Theatre)

 

 

 

— Doctor Ineotis

25 & 26 July • Archaeological site of the Holy Monastery of the Dormition of Virgin Mary, Deskati

 

Using the Asia Minor Catastrophe as a starting point we will work on the provocative and enigmatic story written by Giorgos Chimonas, Doctor Ineotis.

The wandering and the History of the masses, the History of humanity itself, its ending and the inevitable renaissance of something new are the essence of the Asia Minor Catastrophe and are also powerfully present in Chimonas’ text. Chimonas writes a story but its narrative is being constantly interrupted, in the same way that dreams work. And the dreamy element in the archaeological site of Deskati in Grevena is the Tarkovskian setting that perfectly matches with the poetic writing of the text.

The non-realistic speech delivery, the scenery, the music and the singing, are the elements that will compose our performance.

 

Creative team

Text: Giorgos Chimonas

Concept, dramaturgy, direction: Kostas Koutsolelos, Dora Stilianesi

Musical composition and execution: Panayotis Kalantzopoulos

Sets, costumes: Eleni Stroulia

Sound installation: Panayotis Kalantzopoulos

Performers: Panayotis Kalantzopoulos, Kostas Koutsolelos, Dora Stilianesi

Production: ASKISI THEATRE COMPANY

 

 — The Black Journey

 

29 & 30 July • Ancient Theatre of Aigeira

The Black Journey is the real life testimony of a young Greek man who was recruited to take part in the Asia Minor Expedition.

The bijoux de kant company talks about the vital needs, the hunger, the thirst and the cruelty planted by war in the souls of all people, regardless of their nationality. It talks about the uprooting, the life of refugees, and the new cultural identity of Greece. In a field of memory, in a landscape of fragments, an unknown soldier of the Engineer Battalion vividly describes the wound of being uprooted and rewrites history.

The protagonist is accompanied by an Angel, his younger self, and eastern melodies of Asia Minor performed by a young girl from Athens, who sings to the Smyrnaean rhythms of a culturally new Greece.

 

Creative team

Text: unknown author/ real life testimony

Concept, direction: Yannis Skourletis

Text adaptation: Asimenia Efthymiou

Sets, costumes: bijoux de kant

Painting: Maria Karabela

Performers: Thanasis Dovris, Vasilis Milionis and the musician Theodora Athanasiou

Heartfelt thanks for digging up the text are due to journalist Christos Paridis.

Production: BIJOUX DE KANT

 

 — The House

 

30 & 31 July • Archaeological Museum of Chios

Continuing its research on intergenerational participatory story-telling, the EFAMILLON creative team focuses on the Asia Minor Catastrophe and the story of two places directly linked to the ’22 refugees. Nikaia and the island of Chios, one of the main first stations of the uprooted.

The basic dramaturgical stepping-off point is the concept of the house, both as the material manifestation of relationships grounded in a specific space and as a mental construction. A house is placed on the stage as a scenic indicator of every lost house of the refugees and at the same time of their effort to acquire a new roof over their heads.

The dramaturgy draws upon testimonies and archival material from refugee associations, engaging in a conversation with melodies performed by the students of the Musical Schools of Chios, in a scenic fusion of theatre with music, which bridges two places and two eras.

Creative team

Direction: Dimitris Babilis

Dramaturgy: Dimitris Babilis, Georgia Kanellopoulou

Research collaborator: Dimitra Loupi

Sets, costumes: Daphne Aidoni

Scientific consultant: Vasilis Lemonis

Lighting: Eleni Choumou

Performers: Thanasis Kritsakis, Irini Kyriakou, and students of the Musical School of Chios

Production: EFAMILLON

 

 — Stage 22

 

3 & 4 August • Ancient Theatre of Demetrias

The production approaches the Asia Minor Catastrophe through poems written by poets from Asia Minor, whose verses are marked by a strong lamenting mood, proportional to the tragic nature of the 1922 events.

The collective trauma of the loss of “Paradise” echoes across the poems of the refugee-poets, becoming a link to respective contemporary situations and also to the lamentation over the loss of people, places, hearths, relationships and freedoms in a wider sense. The performance aims at creating a safe context for a different lamenting ceremony but also an open space for reflection on the questions of loss and refugeeism.

Focusing less on the detailed narration of the events revolving around the Asia Minor Catastrophe and more on their emotional perception and symbolic representation, Stage 22 presents a grief-lifting ceremonial event that praises peace and life.

Creative team

Direction, dramaturgy: Dimitris Tsiamis

Choreography: Eleni Chatzigeorgiou

Sets, costumes: Niki Psyhogiou

Lighting design: Sofia Adamopoulou

Assistant director: Dafni Alichontzoti

Music, onstage musician: Manolis Christodoulou

Performers: Kleopatra Markou, Eleni Chatzigeorgiou,

Production: PER-THEATER-FORMANCE

 

 — 1922 Asia Minor Refugees on Cephalonia and Ithaca

5 & 6 August • Castle of St George, Argostoli

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.

 

Creative team

Text, direction: Yannis Anastasakis

Sets, costumes: Loukia Minetou

Set & costume designer’s assistant: Sofia Tabler

Music: Kostas Haritatos

Lighting designer: Peter Mumford

Archival research: Stamo Stergiotou

Musician: John Dafnos

 

Performers: Maria Tsima, Amalia Arseni, Kyriakos Markatos

Production: STIGMI THEATRE COMPANY

 

 

 — Parodos

 

5 & 6 August • Ancient Theatre of Aptera

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.

 

Creative team

Text: Kosmas Politis

Director: Michalis Virvidakis

Original score: Dimitris Droumboyannis

Sound compositions: Dimitris Iatropoulos

Visual art intervention: Giannis Markantonakis

Lighting: Mikaela Papa

Director’s assistant: Michael Naxakis

Performer: Giorgos Railakis

 

Onstage musicians

Piano: Dimitris Droumboyannis

Accordion: Bela Lionaki

Lavta, guitars: Panayiotis-Christos Tsopelas

Production: MNEME Theatre Company

 

 — Touring Company – A dark comedy

6 & 7 August • Xenokrateion Archaeological Museum of Messolonghi

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.

 

Creative team

Direction, original text, movement: Eleana Georgouli

Music: Thanos Kosmidis

Lighting design: Nikos Sotiropoulos

Sets, costumes: George Trikaliotis

Video: Alexis Zafeirakis

Performers: Gerasimos Gennatas, Maria Floratou, Giannis Askaroglou

Production: ANOIGMA, Arts & Theater

 

 

 — Common Ground – Those Who Left, Those Who Came

 

7 & 8 August • Heraklion Archaeological Museum

 

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.

 

Creative team

Direction, text adaptation: Katerina Damvoglou (Fly Theatre)

Supervising director: Alexandros Michail

Sets, costumes: Maria Kavalioti, Natasha Stamatari

Sound & lighting designer: Robin Beer (Fly Theatre)

Performers: Katerina Damvoglou, Vasiliki Vlachou, Pelagia Ozlem Tsegka

Production: VASILIS DAMVOGLOU

 

 — Limen – A Musical Performance About the Memory of the Future

7 & 8 August • Sea fortress of the Venetian Port of Heraklion (Koules)

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 modern dance of people, consisting of actors, musicians, and “specialists” will attempt to revisit historical events that shaped the city of Heraklion through the stories of its citizens.

Creative team

Direction, dramaturgy, research: Ria Mentilidou

Set, lighting design: Eleni Houmou

Arrangement, music supervision: Manolis Manousakis

Vocal training: Maria Koti

Performers: Aliki Atsalaki, Thodoris Theodoridis, Irida Bami, Eftychia Tsoukala, Chrysoula Flamboutoglou, “Specialist” chorus

Onstage musicians

Cretan lute, Greek lute, singer: Manolis Manousakis

Guitar, bouzouki, singer: Dimitris Pappas

Cretan lyre, lyraki (small lyre), Cretan lute, singer: Stavros Maragkoudakis

Production: BEHOLD

 

 —  “There Will Be An Exchange”

8 & 9 August • Ancient Gymnasium of Olympia

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.

Creative team

Research, dramaturgy, direction: Roula Pateraki

Musical composition: Niki Karageorgou, Maria Kourmouli

Production director: Alexandros Davris

Actors, performers: Dimitra Hatoupi, Filareti Komninou, Kosmas Fondoukis, Nadia Mourouzi, Irini Karagianni, Evanthia Kourmouli, Roula Pateraki

Singers: Maria Kourmouli, Irini Karagianni

Production: The Greyblue Gap and MetaTheatro

 

 

— Xenos

10 & 11 August • Archaeological site of Gortyna, Heraklion

 

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, poetry, audio documents, physicality and live music.

Creative team

Conception, performer, direction: Eleanna Apostolaki

Music composition, performer: Michalis Flouris

Music performer: Christoforos Pitsidimos

Sound design: Konstantinos Georgiadis

Lighting design: Aris Tsamis

Choreography: Nefeli Ktistaki

Costume editing: Ourania Skordalou

Videos, photos, poster design: Obscura Lab

Production: ANTANAKLASEIS

 

 — Bird Shifts

17 & 18 August • Castle of Chios

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 Çeşme 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.

 

Creative team

Text: Giannis Makridakis

Direction, sound design: Stavros Giannouladis

Dramaturgy, director’s assistant: Nefeli Maistrali

Costumes: Martha Foka

Video design: Apostolis Koutsianikoulis

Movement: Panos Topsidis

Performers: Thanasis Zeritis, Harry Kremmydas, Aristea Stafylaraki

Production: 4 FRONTAL

 

 — Freedom to Die

19 & 20 August • Heptapyrgion, Thessaloniki

On 15 November 1922 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?

Creative team

Concept, direction: Electra Ellinikioti

Set, costumes: Dimitra Liakoura

Music, sound design: Grigoris Eleftheriou

Lighting: Ismini Starida

Collaborating director: Terpsi Kontargyri

Scientific consultant: Manos Lambrakis

Performers: Electra Ellinikioti, Maria Mamouri, Iro Sofia Smyrnioudi, Anna Maria Papaioannou

Production: Theros Theatre Company

 

  

— A Matter of Necessity

20 & 21 August • Ancient Messini

The performers focused their research on narratives that have been rescued from the Asia Minor Catastrophe that took place in 1922 and all the domestic traditional elements that can be found nowadays in Greek Culture. Having as a starting point these findings a question arose: What kind of things can be saved by a refugee while escaping a city covered in flames? The most necessary.

In this performance, Narration and Music come together and spotlight the necessity both of the intangible and material goods that refugees of 1922 managed to bring with them.

Theatre of Research meets the Art of Storytelling and new questions arise: What would happen if we faced a similar disaster? What will we manage to carry with us while leaving our homeland? What do today’s refugees manage to carry with them? Which things are the most essential for the modern human being? Where does deep richness really live? Inside us?

 

Creative team

Idea, playwright, performance: Lydia Vyrla, Petros Malamas

Sets, costumes: Angelos Mentis

Lighting design: Perikles Mathiellis

Sound design: Yiannis Paxevanis

Production: K.A.NE. – Social Youth Development

 

 — Aivali, My Homeland

20 & 21 August • Archaeological Museum of Isthmia

Fotis Kontoglou’s book is a collection of stories published in 1962 and a nostalgic reference to the backdrop of the author’s 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.

Creative team

Text: Fotis Kontoglou

Direction, music score: Tonia Ralli

Dramaturgy: Giorgos Simonas

Movement: Kiki Baka

Performers: Kiki Baka, Giorgos Simonas, Tonia Ralli

Production: Nostalgia – Artistic Creation Workshop

 

 — Niki

25 & 26 August • Ancient Theatre of Demetrias

After the Smyrna Catastrophe, around 12,000 refugees from Ionia, Thrace and Pontus arrived at the city of Volos. In 1923 the creation of a refugee settlement began, which was later called Nea Ionia (New Ionia) and evolved into a small community. Most of the refugees were working in tobacco factories, while they soon began establishing football clubs. One of them was Niki Sports Club, whose story begins in 1924.

Part Α: Dressing-Room

In the in-between space of the team’s dressing-room, we follow the journey of the refugees and their arrival at Volos, their integration into the society and the creation of Niki Sports Club.

Through the use of complicated technological media, multiple sound sources, contemporary electronic music inspired by traditional Smyrna songs, speech and movement, we follow the journey through the sea until the first couple of years in the new land.

Part Β: The Match

In the football field now, the struggle for survival, the competition with the native people, the promotion to the premier league and the integration into the new environment, is depicted through a choreographed football match along with usage of multiple cameras and site-specific projections as the court fills with fans, that is, the descendants that interact with the stage action.

Creative team

Concept: Ginger Creepers (Grigoris Hatzakis / Christos Kapenis)

Script: Ginger Creepers and the troupe

Direction: Grigoris Hatzakis

Sets: Zoi Arvaniti

Costumes: Lila Nova

Choreography: Petrina Giannakou

Music, sound design: Byron Katritsis

Assistant director: Kiki Barbavasiloglou

Performers: Selina Diamantopoulou, Christos Kapenis, Dora Pardali, Vangelis Stratigakos, Orfeas Hadjispyrou

 

Production: WHAT IF?

 

 — I Remember

 

26 & 27 August • Ancient Messene

 

With small statements, we make a map of our soul. A list of memories, a list of the past. A collection of materials and images in a seemingly random order. A collage, an assembly of sentences that all begin with the phrase: I remember…

NOITI GRAMMI theatre group, with the promenade performance I Remember, proposes a dialogue between the Performing Arts and applied history, historical walks, the concept of a cultural promenade in the historical sites, and an experiential way of understanding the memory of every refugee in a world of turbulence and upheaval.

Two guides-performers attempt a tangible return to the past. They will lead a group of travellers on the routes of ancient topography, with the sound of voices being the supporter of collective memory. This tour will create sporadic and fleeting episodes of unexpected memories, in the form of a pre-recorded soundscape, which will be reproduced through the use of headphones.

 

Creative team

Concept, direction: Olga Pozeli

Texts & editing of interviews: Sakis Serefas

Associate director: Tasos Karakiklas

Studio & audio editing: Fabrika Music Studio (Stefanos Konstantinidis, Nassos Sopilis)

Guides-performers: Olga Pozeli and Tasos Karakiklas

Actors (on the recording): Isabella Kyriazi, Olga Pozeli, Lambros Papageorgiou, Konstantis Misaras

 

Production: NOITI GRAMMI

 

 

 — Islahane

 

5 & 6 September • Multifunctional Cultural Space “Islahane”, Thessaloniki

 

The Simio theatre company, using the unique contribution of Islahane to the history of the Greek state and Thessaloniki as a connective tissue, suggests a double approach, with 1922 always at its centre.

The work revolves around 10 short theatrical pieces that have the Islahane as their central theme. Created by very important writers and performed by acclaimed performers, actors, disabled dancers, dancers, opera singers, the works run through the history of adjacent peoples, religions, consciences, families, orphans, Muslims, Christians, metalworkers, people of labour, etc.

The celebration of the bicentennial of the Greek Revolution, last year, and of the centenary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe, this year, is an opportunity for evaluation and redefinition. The plays that will be presented in the exhibition, illuminate aspects of Greek social reality.

 

Creative team

Direction, dramaturgy: Nikos Diamantis

Scientific consultant: Eleni Kyramargiou

Curator of art exhibition: Fivos Sakalis

Visual artists: Dimitrios Antonitsis, Giorgos Lappas, Eva Stefani

Sets, costumes: Assi Dimitrolopoulou

Original music: Dimitris Maramis

Choreography: Konstantinos Mihos

Photographer: Stavros Habakis

Video: Michail Mavromoustakos

Public relations: Aris Asproulis

Assistant director: Danai Papoutsi

Authors, original texts: Akis Dimou, Isidoros Zourgos, Mihalis Makropoulos, Glykeria Basdeki, Sophia Nikolaidou, Giorgos Skabardonis, Tsimaras Tzanatos, Stelios Xatziadamidis, Christos Chrissopoulos, Giannis Chrisoulis

Actors, performers: Aspa Anogiati, Andreas Kolisoglou, Ioanna Makri, Lito Messini, Peris Michailidis, Konstantinos Mihos, Danai Beri, Mania Papadimitriou, Danai Papoutsi, Omiros Poulakis, Vagelis Rokos, Elena Topalidou

 

Production: Simio Theatre Company

 

 

 — Headlines

 

7 & 8 September • Monastic Complex of Nea Flogita

Four actors sitting around a table. The feast begins. Their food is newspapers, their laptops and mobile phones. They read and comment on the headlines of the Greek, Turkish and Cypriot press from 1922 to this date.

How does the Press work? As a propaganda mechanism or as an information medium? How is the event presented, as a defeat or as a victory? And what about refugees? Are they presented as people or as numbers? Is the national interest a Need? How do newspapers treat war, destruction, the uprooting, expulsion, and settlement of refugees?

What are the references to the Event throughout the years? How have the relationships among the three countries evolved? How have they been shaped?

 

Creative team

Dramaturgy, direction: Ilias Vogiatzidakis, Theano Metaxa, Ioanna Nasiopoulou

Dramaturgy consultants: Martha Frintzila, Stella Papakonstantinou

Translation from Turkish into Greek: Stella Papakonstantinou

Stage set: Spyros Angelopoulos

Lighting designer: Sofia Adamopoulou

Music supervision: Baumstrasse team

 

Performers: Spyros Angelopoulos, Ilias Vogiatzidakis, Theano Metaxa, Ioanna Nasiopoulou

Production: DROMOS ME DENTRA THEATRE COMPANY

 

 — Ivala Ivala, Oh, We Sail Along the Coast

10 & 11 September • Castle of Zakynthos

 

An ensemble of actors, a modern “chorus” that creates a ritual-like atmosphere, attempts to compose a musical theatre performance with narratives about Smyrna, the diamond of the East. How a vibrant and multicultural city is vanished by nationalism, imperialistic interests, hatred and immodesty.

Narrations, pieces of history of Asia Minor, recited like ancient Greek chorus create pictures of the catastrophe of Smyrna. These narrations and comments are disrupted by real personal testimonies that weave the painful bloody web of human lives. By borrowing elements from the Ancient Greek tragedy such as hubris, atis (ate), nemesis and the darkness caused by illusion finds fertile ground in the deep and unhealed trauma.

This relentless shifting fortunes of the war, the nemesis affects and changes the tragic fate of Christians of Asia Minor.

Creative team

Direction: Maria Louisa Papadopoulou

Dramaturgy: Maria Louisa Papadopoulou & the team

Historical consultant: Michalis Varlas

Dramaturgy consultant: Evangelos Mavroudis

Sets, costumes: Assi Dimitrolopoulou

Costume seamstress: Gianna Kouri

Sounds: Dimitris Iatropoulos

Lighting: Spyros Malapetsas, Apostolis Zontos

Programme, poster design: Sakis Fournogerakis

Performers: Leonidas Mikropoulos, Odysseia Bouga, Maria Louisa Papadopoulou, Eleni Makri, Tassos Rodovitis

Production: ANEMI

 

 

 — Ocean

14 & 15 September • Spinalonga

A performance that attempts to bring out the abrupt and violent process that turned Asia Minor refugees into infectious agents and a danger for the society. Asia Minor refugees were exiled, abandoned, or they died in quarantine hospitals that were set up in various regions of Greece.

The performance treats this historical phenomenon in a multifaceted way using contemporary scientific approaches: it explores –among other things– the power structures that cause it, its social and political considerations, and the concepts of morbidity / normality, “purge”, threshold, transition, and marginalisation as records of historical / social connotations…

The dramaturgical material is composed of real life testimonies and original fiction texts. The work is performed in an open space and at sea. It focuses on the body, its movement, the songs, sounds and voices of the actors, who blend with the audience from the beginning to create a community.

 

Creative team

Direction: George Sachinis

Idea, texts, dramaturgy: Evi Prousali

Research: Theofilos Diamantis

Art installation, sets, performer: Alexandros Kaklamanos

Composer, musician, performer: Thanos Kosmidis

Choreography, performer: Eirini Alexiou

Costumes: Anna Magoulioti

Performers: Miltiadis Fiorentzis, Eleana Georgouli, Zoi Dimitriou, Evi Prousali, Katerina Protonotariou

Production: Ohi Pezoume

 

 MUSIC

 — The Sounds of the Land of Aeolia

 

17 & 18 July • Fortress of Palamidi, Nafplion

 

Internationally acclaimed performer Erini presents an original music-theatre performance inspired by Ilias Venezis’ emblematic literary work, The Land of Aeolia.

Actor Ektoras Gasparatos in the role of young Petros, performs excerpts from the book, conveying images and situations of that era. Erini, accompanied by a classical string quartet with the participation of the permanent Concertmaster of the Thessaloniki State Orchestra, Simos Papanas, enrich the novel with much-loved melodies from Asia Minor, arranged by Grammy Award Nominee Gonzalo Grau.

The performance conveys the happy life of the Greeks of Asia Minor before the Catastrophe, but also the tragedy of the uprooting that still lives in the hearts of contemporary Greeks.

 

Creative team

Direction, singing, selection of texts: Erini

Arrangement: Gonzalo Grau

Sound editing, sound engineering: Makis Drakopoulos

Lighting: Kostas Triantafyllou

 

Actor: Ektoras Gasparatos

 

String quartet

Violin I, soloist: Simos Papanas

Violin II: David Bogorad

Viola: Angela Giannaki

Violoncello: Sofia Efklidou

Production: ArtShuttle

 — Kythera – Australia

19 & 20 July • Ancient Theatre of Gythio

A musical documentary – a “farewell ceremony” of people leaving their homelands to unknown destinations.

Kythera is a special place, whose modern history has been defined by migration and refugee flights. The performance is a compilation of stories, songs, photographs and other material from the island’s local population. It was on this material that the musical documentary – a “farewell ceremony” was based.

Kythera – Australia is a dirge-like original musical work centred around the human voice that offers the redemptive recollection of the relationship of people with their land, and the separation from it. A belated ceremony of relief and memory. A big timeworn Goodbye.

Creative team

Artistic direction, dramaturgy, voice: Erifili Giannakopoulou

Musical composition, live electronics, voice: Nikos Galenianos

Stage direction, narration, voice: Eirini Georgalaki

Accordion, live electronics, voice: Stamatis Pasopoulos

Sound engineering: Brian Coon

Poster design: Manolis Charos

Production: OPER(o)

 

 

 — Female Refugee

 

21 & 22 July • Ancient Theatre of Gitana

 

Island of Kos, the journey begins in 1890, in the homeland of the great Greek singer, Marika Papagika.

In 1913 she follows her parents who migrate to Egypt and two years later to the USA, where she settles and lives to the end of her life, in 1943. New York is the starting point of the great career of this special singer, who recorded more than 200 light music, Smyrnaean, folk and rebetiko songs. Her reputation spreads and her songs are loved through her records that reach every corner of the earth.

A music-theatre benchmark performance in honour of the legendary Marika, the first among all other important Greek female singers in the USA, whose life and creative trajectory have acquired the dimensions of a true legend.

Creative team

Artistic director, arrangement: Andreas Katsigiannis

Text editing: Thomas Korovinis

Director: Thanasis Zeritis

Sound engineering: Giannis Roupakas

Singing: Aspasia Stratigou

Narrator: Nefeli Maistrali

Estoudiantina of Nea Ionia

Piano: Filippos Retsios

Oud, mandolin: Kostas Gedikis

Violin: Sotiris Margonis

Double bass: Kostas Konstantinou

Guitars: Apostolos Valaroutsos

Accordion: Dimos Vougioukas

Percussion: Periklis Katsotis

Santur: Andreas Katsigiannis

Production: DIODOS POLITISTIKI KINISI

 

 — Of the Heart and of the Mind

 

22 & 23 July • Archaeological Museum of Thebes

The three artists offer a musical and poetic presentation of the relationship between Kalomiris and Palamas, a rare phenomenon of osmosis between two leading exponents of the Greek letters.

In his autobiography, the great composer from Smyrna, Manolis Kalomiris, recalls his life against the backdrop of Asia Minor, and also how he had dreamt since childhood to become one day the shaper of Greece’s musical language – a “Palamas” of contemporary Greek music. This music-theatre rehearsed reading is based on Tina Malikouti’s idea to combine the composer’s piano works with K. Palamas’ poem “The Twelve Lays of the Gypsy”, which had left a defining mark on M. Kalomiris’ entire artistic career, capturing the nature of the modern Greek soul.

Smyrna, Constantinople, Vienna, Athens. Images from the life of a cosmopolitan Greece spread over the East and the West.

 

Creative team

Concept based on an idea of Tina Malikouti

Text processing, editing: Nena Venetsanou

Set, costumes: Maria Karathanou

Lighting: Zoi Molyvda-Fameli

On stage

Narrator: Nena Venetsanou

Piano: Tina Malikouti

Actor: Vasilis Vlahos

Production: ALEXANDRIA

 

 — Smyrnaean Minore

28 & 29 July • Ancient Europos

A musical journey on the occasion of the centenary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe, featuring Glykeria, the most important singer of Smyrnaean and traditional songs.

Glykeria and her company on stage will take us on a journey to the musical paths of the East. From the sea of Smyrna to Constantinople and Bosporus, and from the Cappadocian market to the Greek ports and inland, where great composers from Asia Minor ended up as refugees, bringing along such songs as: “Apo xeno topo”, “Tzivaeri”, “Elli”, “Smyrnia”, “O Memetis”, “Hariklaki”, “T’ apofasisa”, “Armenitsa”, “I Xaveriotissa”, “Karotseri trava”, “Xerizomos”, “Kapia mana anastenazi”, “I Smyrni mana kaigete”, etc. Alongside her, singer Dimitris Kontogiannis and a multi-member orchestra.

With music supervision by composer and maestro Stelios Fotiadis.

 

Creative team

Singing: Glykeria, Dimitris Kontogiannis

Recorded narration: Leonidas Kakouris

Dancers: Local dance group

Orchestra: Eight-member orchestra of traditional instruments

Sound engineer: Nikos Rountos

Artistic director: Stelios Fotiadis

Musicians

Bass: Polykleitos Pelelis

Percussion: Petros Pelelis

Guitar: Kostas Fotiadis

Bouzouki: Giorgos Rokas

Violin: Manolis Kottoros

Qanun: Sakis Xenoudis

Accordion: Dasho Kurti

 

Production: ENERGIES TECHNIS KAI POLITISMOU 2020

 

 — Across

30 & 31 July • Temple of Apollo, Karditsa

The performance is set against the backdrop of the Asia Minor Catastrophe. Choristers, as passengers of a boat sailing in the Eastern Aegean Sea and heading to the Greek coasts, narrate –each one in their own musical language– memories of their past and homelands.

Rich and poor, old and young, daughters and mothers, some from Constantinople and Smyrna, others from Cappadocia, Pontus and the coast, one by one they all share known and unknown aspects of the everyday life they’re leaving behind.

In an abstractly natural space and using bodies and voices as a vehicle, the boat turns into an “arc” saving diverse musical references associated with a powerful common experience: the painful migration, the uprooting, the journey in search of a better life. The anticipation for the new land, the new motherland, a second chance at life.

Creative team

Artistic director: Marina Satti

Direction, research, dramaturgy: Giannis Panagopoulos

Score, music supervision: Antonis Apergis

Musical training, musical direction: Eirini Patsea

Choreography, movement: Markella Manoliadi, Stavros Ikbal

Costumes: Anna Sapka

Lighting: Sakis Birbilis

Sound design, sound engineering: Giannis Voulgaris

Onstage musicians: Antonis Apergis (guitar), Alexandros Fragoulatzis (percussion)

Performers: CΗÓRES: Anthi Efstathiou, Dimitra Giakoumaki, Maria Delaporta, Irini Zoutsou, Georgia Theologidou, Tonia Lappa, Emilia Papapetrou, Danai Stergiou, Eleni Tasopoulou, Eleni Chrysikou

Production: WOMO

 

 — Memory of Smyrna…

1 & 2 August • Ancient Theatre of Dion

In a directed performance of music and dance, the one hundred performers together with the orchestra and “Ionia” choir, the soloists, the dancers and the narrator meet the exceptional groups “Anatoliki Romilia”, “Horostates” and “Alismonites Patrides” Larissa, dressed in their authentic traditional costumes.

They take us a hundred years back to Smyrna with its sounds, colours, aura and culture. Smyrna was a multidimensional city that flourished but was finally destroyed and its residents give us a strong message of life and encouragement starting up new lives together in various places in Greece, such as Nea Ionia in Volos.

The great grandchildren of these refugees through performance of songs and dances, full of light and energy, bring us a message of hope, joy, life and promise for a better future.

 

Creative team

Direction, script: Μaria Thomopoulou

 

“Ionia” Choir

“Ionia” Orchestra

Conductor: Cornelia Francogianni

Singers: Sofia Papazoglou, Thodoris Kotonias

Narrator: Alexandros Zachareas

Artistic Director of “Ionia” Orchestra: Nektarios Demelis

With the participation of the dance groups: “Anatoliki Romilia”, “Horostates” and “Alismonites Patrides” Larissa

Production: IONIA (orchestra) – VOLOS

 

 — I Call These Songs My Motherland

 

17 & 18 August • Ancient Theatre of Pythagorion, Samos

Singer Eleni Tsaligopoulou, actress Eleni Kokkidou and six virtuoso musicians invite us to join them on a journey through notes and words in the beginning of the 20th century, a journey full of the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the city that will always be a reference point in modern Greek history.

Smyrna, in all its legendary beauty and with its tragic ending, will always be the most loved “lost motherland” of the Greeks.

One hundred years later, on the occasion of the sad anniversary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe, Eleni Tsaligopoulou performs timeless songs from Smyrna and of composers of the time, while Eleni Kokkidou narrates testimonies of the uprooting and excerpts from relevant works of Greek literature. A concert full of history, dedicated to the memory that calls these songs its motherland, by two leading artists.

 

Creative team

Programme curated by: Apostolos Tsardakas

Art direction, selection of texts: Christos Papamichalis

 

Musicians

Oud: Taxiarchis Georgoulis

Percussion: Vangelis Karipis

Double bass: Agis Papapanagiotou

Violin: Giannis Poulios

Qanun: Apostolos Tsardakas

Guitar: Spyros Hadjikonstantinou

Featuring: Eleni Tsaligopoulou, Eleni Kokkidou

Production: FILOI TOU RADIOFONOU KAI TOU MOUSIKOU POLITISMOU – ARTERO CULTURA

 

 

 — The Ritual of Amane

19 & 20 August • Ancient Abdera

This musical performance involves a structured interactive improvisation (stemming from the form of the amane itself), which is connected to the Greek poetry of the ’30s.

The music is inspired by the historical / traditional amane but also provides space to more modern and free musical experimentations. The aim is to emphasise the fact that this is not a music tradition in danger of extinction but a potentially living form, which can function in the present even outside the context of its historical frame of reference.

Respectively, regarding the lyrics, the form of amane will also be preserved, but, instead of using popular verses, this musical performance will use excerpts from 1930s “art” poetry.

 

Creative team

Idea, concept: Evgenios Voulgaris

Excerpts selection: Evgenios Voulgaris, Vasilis Vantarakis

Supervising director: Aspasia Lykourgioti

Actor, performer: Savina Yannatou

 

Musicians

Yayli tanbur, oud, vocals: Evgenios Voulgaris

Ney: Harris Lambrakis

Qanun: Ourania Lambropoulou

Viola da gamba: Andreas Linos

Production: Creativa

 

 — Memory and Deep Marks

23 & 24 August • Castle of Trikala (23/8), Courtyard of the Byzantine Church of the Dormition of Virgin Mary in Kalampaka (24/8)

On the occasion of the centenary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe, this concert will be based on two emblematic works of Apostolos Kaldaras released in 1972-73, Byzantine Vesper and Asia Minor.

Apart from Apostolos Kaldaras’ songs, the concert will also feature covers of emblematic songs from the countries of origins of present-day refugees. The set surrounding the orchestra consists of five large paintings by Kostas Kaldaras inspired by the 2015 refugee crisis, while it will also include screenings of historical documentary material and photographs having as their theme refugees over time – a selection made in collaboration with the Photographers of Trikala Team.

Andreas Karakotas and Ioanna Giannopoulou sing accompanied by a seven-member orchestra. Arrangements are by Sakis Kontonikolas.

Creative team

Song covers, arrangement: Sakis Kontonikolas

Artistic curator: Stelios Karagiorgos

Performers: Andreas Karakotas, Ioanna Giannopoulou

Production: Pelion Oros

 

 — Pontic Cantada – TETTTIX

24 & 25 August • Old Fortress of Corfu

The cicada (tettix in ancient Greek) is by nature associated with the process of transformation when it turns from a nymph into an adult. In the movement-based music performance Pontic Cantada the contemporary music ensemble TETTTIX (with a triple t) presents its own imaginary version of the forced “transformation” of a society.

After the Asia Minor Catastrophe and the Treaty of Lausanne, a part of Pontic Greek refugees settled in Corfu. The mingling of populations, mutually influencing one another, forced the two parties to reconsider their beliefs and habits.

Through drama and satire and in a quasi-vaudevillian mood, TETTTIX and Eugenia Demeglio (choreography / movement) transform the kemençe and the mandolin into a new entity, in a context where otherness evokes reflection and stigmatisation and is at the same time refreshing, invigorating and inspiring.

 

Creative team

Movement, stage direction: M. Eugenia Demeglio

Lighting: Eleni Choumou

Composition, coordination: Nikos Ioakeim, Stamatis Pasopoulos

Singing: Natasa Tsakiridou, Amalia Tsekoura

Musicians: Rhea Pickios (bassoon), Katerina Konstantourou (keybords), Charis Pazaroulas (bass guitar), Panagiotis Ziavras (percussion)

Production: EN EXALLO

 

 — The Rose of the East

 

27 & 28 August • Ancient Theatre of Dodoni

 

The work is set in 1950s Greece in a train compartment hosting refugees from various areas of Asia Minor, Pontus and Cappadocia. As is often the case with travelling, passengers start telling stories both about their motherlands before the uprooting and about the adventures of their settlement in Greece.

Through original songs and texts, six stories of people unfold, showcasing their memories from their motherland before the uprooting and their nostalgia for it, their adventurous journey to Greece and the problems of their adaptation and integration into the new environment, but also a series of positive influences, brought about by the refugee influx into the economic and intellectual life of Greece.

The wandering ticket inspector is the one who conveys how natives view the Greeks of the East.

 

Creative team

Singing: Maria Farantouri

Direction: Despina Sarafidou

Texts, narrator: Vasiliki Nevrokopli

Score, musical direction: Kyriakos Kalaitzidis

Sound design: Leonidas Palaskas

Lighting: Tilemachos Andreadis

 

En Chordais musical ensemble

Violin: Kyriakos Petras

Qanun: Thanasis Koulentianos

Singing: Nikos Andrikos

Cello: Christos Sykiotis

Lute, guitar: Thanasis Volas

Oud, singing: Kyriakos Kalaitzidis

Percussion: Petros Papageorgiou

Piano: Giorgos Kokkinakis

 

Production: En Chordais

 

 — Born in Smyrna (1883-1903)

 

28 & 29 August • Ancient Theatre of Mantineia

A beautiful aristocratic woman named Smyrna receives in her poor now home, somewhere in Kokkinia or Nea Ionia of the 1930s, six wandering musicians. Together they dig up and reshape precious moments from her turbulent life…

The Alcedo Folk Band, through the eyes and memories of a woman who’s also a city, Smyrna, compose a new and fresh musical performance and present their first Suite based on themes from the works of great Smyrnaean composers (Kalomiris, Konstantinidis and others) and other popular songwriters (Tountas, Peristeris, Papazoglou, Dragatsis-Ogdontakis and more).

The selection of songs by the above-mentioned songwriters as well as the original traditional songs from Smyrna featured in the performance are arranged by the Alcedo Folk Band.

 

Creative team

Adaptation, arrangements: Alcedo Folk Band

Supervising director, texts, performer (in the role of the aristocratic woman): Natasha Faii Kosmidou

Costume coordination: Eva Paradelli

Sound designer: Paschalis Kolentsis

Lighting designer: Alexandros Politakis, Katerina Saltaoura

 

Onstage musicians

Violin, voice: Maria Mihalaka

Flute, percussion: Stefanos Hadjianagnostou

Guitars, percussion: Giannis Tavlas

Bassoon, harmonica: Dimitris Koufalakos

Tuba: Menelaos Moraitis

Violin, mandolin, percussion, voice: Kostas Konstantatos

Production: Alcedo

 

 — Smyrnaean Fragrance for Violione Orchestra

 

2 & 3 September • Ancient Theatre of Maronia

 

A performance that will mostly feature old instrumental pieces from the wider region of Asia Minor ingeniously rearranged by the Violione Orchestra.

The goal of this alternative twenty-member ensemble of exclusively bowed strings is to bring out a romantic and at the same time communicative and outward-looking mood, with elements of earlier and more modern techniques, taking us on a musical journey from the past into the future with abundant improvisations while creating a dynamic continuation of the old style of performing bowed strings into the contemporary one.

The orchestra is conducted by Giannis Zarias, assistant violin professor in the Department of Music Science & Art of the University of Macedonia.

 

Creative team

Violione Orchestra: Twenty-member orchestra of bowed strings of students specialised in violin from the Academic Division of Traditional Music of the Department of Music Science & Art of the University of Macedonia

Violione Orchestra conductor: Giannis Zarias

Production: I ISTORIA TIS ELLINIKIS MOUSIKIS

 

 

 — emigranti: Songs, Words, and Images of the South and of Homecoming

6 & 7 September • Ancient Plevrona

 

On the occasion of the centenary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe, the encardia ensemble presents a special and very topical musical programme.

An excellent anthology of songs and texts that will illuminate the ever-topical issue of refugeeism and migration.

A focal point of the performance will be human solidarity, the only thing that can alleviate the “Foreigner’s” pain, even transform it into hope and optimism.

 

Creative team

Musical compositions, songs: encardia

Movement supervision, choreography: Yannis Lavner, Anastasia Drouga

Sound design: Paschalis Kolentsis

Dancers onstage: Anastasia Drouga, Yannis Lavner

 

Musicians onstage

Accordion, harmonica, voice: Vangelis Papageorgiou

Guitar, voice: Michalis Kontaxakis

Voice, percussion: Natalia Kotsani

Double bass: Dimitris Tsekouras

Voice, mandolin, percussion: Kostas Konstantatos

 

Production: ENCARDIA

 

 — The Dark Side of Memory / The Pier

 

7 & 8 September • Archaeological Museum of Chalkida, Arethousa

 

The Dark Side of Memory / The Pier is a musical multimedia performance about the collective trauma of “the Asia Minor Catastrophe” and the twofold substance of our roots. It is structured around testimonies of historical unnamed protagonists, which, during the performance, are voiced by an unseen person.

Small pieces of living memory, gleaned from the sacred pool of the dead, drip their blessing onto the present, weaving the ground on which every wound rejoices and heals. The living root of the catastrophe sprouts underground in the body of Greece, founding an Asia Minor which is more real than the actual one.

Everything is abandoned to the ocean of the inevitable, transforming the throng of the uprooted into an international symbol. Music is an islet of consolation, a hint about the inner homeland, towards which the refugees unceasingly march.

 

Creative team

Arrangement, script, selection and sound processing of testimonies, original texts and music, classical and midi guitar: Yorgos Mouloudakis

Video & sound synthesis, sound design, video & multimedia design and programming, camera, video, photography, editing: Vasilis Kountouris (Studio 19st)

Sound design, audio & multimedia design and programming, live multimedia mix for the performance: Kostas Bokos (Studio 19st)

Vocal delivery of texts, performance (unseen person): Sofia Hill

 

Production: SIMATOROS POLITISTIKI

 

 — At the Crossroads of East and West…

 

8 & 9 September • Ancient Theatre of Larissa – B

 

A music and dance performance in collaboration with the Athos Danellis shadow puppet theatre and Kyriakos Gouventas’ musical company, which will attempt to showcase the musical and dance tradition of Asia Minor through a journey across the time before its destruction, the subsequent uprooting of its inhabitants, and the transformation of their tradition in the new setting of Greece of the time.

Asia Minor has always been a crossroads of nations and cultures, a melting pot of musical traditions of the West and the East.

The folk songs and tunes still surviving to a great extent to this day are known to be an age-old legacy coming to us from a region that is at once so close, yet so far from us: Asia Minor.

 

Creative team

Shadow puppet theatre of Athos Danellis

Musical company of Kyriakos Gouventas

Research: Cultural Traditional Research Centre, Larissa

Production: CULTURAL TRADITIONAL RESEARCH CENTRE

 

 

 

— Eternal Smyrna

 

10 & 11 September • Ancient Theatre of Philippi

 

A proposal that combines the original traditional music of Asia Minor, from the days of joy and prosperity to the days of the uprooting, folk-rebetiko music as it evolved in metropolitan Greece, and contemporary music.

Three different orchestras co-exist onstage, the original traditional orchestra of Smyrna, the Folk-Rebetiko orchestra in the form it acquired in inland Greece, and a Classical Symphony Orchestra performing the Oratorio. The latter will present in its world premiere Christos Samaras’ work Mnimes (Memories).

This musical journey is a sequence and co-habitation of music, poetry, dance, images and performing, composing a complete, ripe, and interdisciplinary performance-concert that illuminates the eternal Asia Minor of Greeks.

Creative team

Presenter: Alexis Kostalas

Composer: Christos Samaras

Oratorio narrator, actor: Giannis Stolas

25-member Symphony Orchestra: Sinfonietta of the International Festival of Karditsa

60-member Choir: Mixed Choir of the International Festival of Karditsa

8-member Traditional Orchestra with Asia Minor instruments: Orchestra of the International Festival of Karditsa

8-member Folk-Rebetiko Orchestra with bouzouki

Traditional dancers: Refugee associations of Karditsa

Text editing, libretto: Serafim Mylonas, Olga Gortzi

Piano: Marios Kazas

Sound, screenings, lighting: Vasilis Tsikrikas

Soprano: Eleni Danai

Traditional singer, qanun: Dimitra Kaliara

Orchestra & chorus training, musical direction, conducting of the Oratorio Mnimes, performance supervision: Nikos Efthymiadis

Filming, video editing: Vasilis Stathis

Production: INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF KARDITSA

 

 DANCE

 

 

 — Asia Minor: Everything Here Exists to Bring Memories

 

15 & 16 July • Castle of Lamia

 

This work involves collaboration between contemporary dance and original music and it is inspired by images and emotions emerging from the texts of well-known authors and poets (Sotiriou, Venezis, Seferis, Hemingway, and others) who wrote about the Asia Minor Catastrophe.

The despair, sorrow, terror, pain and the struggle for survival and inclusion of the Asia Minor refugees are dramatised through contemporary dance choreographies, which are enriched with contemporary music compositions and songs interlacing electronic soundscapes with Asia Minor music scales and rhythms. The lyrics of the songs are inspired by images and emotions emerging from the texts.

The goal of this work is to highlight the ability of the Asia Minor refugees to transform pain and sorrow into art.

 

Creative team

Dramaturgy, direction: Sevi Dimitriadou

Music compositions and songs: Yannis Pisimisis

Costumes: Labrini Katsaounou, Yorgos Katsiaounos

Lighting: Dimitris Tsolakis

Singing, vocals: Anastasia Hadjipavlou

Dancers, choreographers: Nikos Damo, Stavros Boutsikas, Yorgos Papadopoulos, Daniela Pisimisi, Phaedra Pisimisi, Kelly Rapti

Musicians: Othonas Bikakis (lyre), Andreas Fasakis (lute), Yannis Pisimisis (synthesizers, percussion)

Production: ECHODRAMA Cultural Group

 

 — Ichne

15 & 16 July • Tsiatsiapa Mansion, Kastoria

 

A search for the paths of events, images, and ideas, through time: Die Wolke art group presents Ichne (“traces”), a contemporary dance performance that sources its materials from interviews, focusing on the workings of memory and oral communication towards the development of imagery originating from the Asia Minor cultural identity.

Movement, along with musical and sonic compositions, approaches the inherent subjectivity of descriptions, low fidelity, gaps, and negative space that reveals the dimension of time in poetic imagery, thus focusing on the intersubjectivity of narrative refractions.

 

Creative team

Choreography: Drosia Triantaki

Music composition, performance: Dimitris Dalezis, Dani Joss

Performers: Drosia Triantaki, Olina Economidou, Savvina Romanou-Pylli, Foteini Kontouli

Production: Die Wolke Art Group

 

 — Apotypoma

 

10 & 11 August • Archaeological Museum of Olympia

 

Apotypoma negotiates the conceptual dimensions of being uprooted, accepted, and integrated, and by extension of the respect for diversity. How would our life be if we accepted the experiences of the persons living next to us? Where is our fear of the Other, the Foreigner, based?

The fear of that which is different and unknown is the catalyst in a psychological process based on the principle of similarity. The ones who are like us belong to the same group, therefore they are harmless.

But it is this moment of danger, these meetings, that build one’s personality, there where one overcomes their fear, separate themselves from the group, and explore life through their senses. It is from these meetings that the authentic self emerges.

Creative team

Choreography: Christina (Arianthi) Mertzani

Rehearsal assistant: Eirini Damianidou

Music, sound design: Minas Emmanuel

Dramaturge: Tasos Ratzos

Performers: Elina Demirtzioglou, Gian Angelos Apostolidis Isaak (Fuerza Negra), Alexander Qejvanaj, Antonia Pitoulidou, Fevronia (Fay) Gkoutzampasouli, Dimitris Lagos

Production: ELEFTHERI PTOSI

 

 — As Above So Below

12 & 13 August • Archaeological site of Kabeirion, Lemnos

 

As Above So Below: an experiential performance designed for the Kabeirion of Lemnos, the oldest known Greek Sanctuary connecting the spiritual heritage of the Asia Minor refugees with ritual memories of antiquity and the worship of Cabeiri. Sacred Fire, the element of destruction and regeneration, becomes the thread connecting Greeks with the Light and the greatness of the Universe.

The creator of the first underwater performance in Sounio and the vigil night in Fygaleia, director and choreographer Apostolia Papadamaki, connects cultural heritage with performing arts in a performance-ritual by renowned artists Savina Yannatou, Thanasis Efthymiadis, Maria Papageorgiou, professional dancers, and local volunteers under the full moon.

The music is composed by Trifon Koutsourelis.

 

Creative team

Direction, choreography: Apostolia Papadamaki

Original score: Trifon Koutsourelis

Dramaturgy: Apostolia Papadamaki, Panagiotis Gkiokas

Costumes: Ifigeneia Daoudaki

Lighting: Valentina Tamiolaki

Scientific partners: Dr Pavlos Triantafyllidis (archaeologist and supervisor at the Ephorate of Antiquities of Lesbos), Malamo Mari (archaeologist)

Text editing: Dr Athena Despoina Potari

Marketing & communication: MENTOR

Graphic & visual designer: Areion Stefanidis

Photography, video: Pantelis Ladas

Ancient Greek pronunciation training: Eleni Koulizaki

Performers

Refugee mother: Savina Yannatou

Daughter /Cabeirus: Maria Papageorgiou

Narrator / Cabeirus: Thanasis Efthymiadis

Mnemosyne / Hermes: Apostolia Papadamaki

Dancers: Plotinos Iliadis, Konstantina Liontou, Antonis Strouzas, Maria Papakonstantinou, Natasha Sarantopoulou, Spyros Christakis

 

Production: QUASI STELLAR / PERFORMANCES WORKSHOPS RETREATS

 

 

 — In the Presence of Absence

20 & 21 August • Ancient Theatre of Milos

 

A work that attempts to explore the question of collective memory, the way History stands not only on the experience of the past, but also of the present. In a historical path, that it is unclear whether it is linear or circular, bodies progressively learn how to handle the fragility of coming together and the search for new land.

Concepts such as uprooting, alienation, violent expatriation, rupture of the sense of “belonging” and identity, constantly recur and alternate with each other.

A thread from yesterday to today, where collective memory meets the personal, lived history, the locus of the body and its claims. Perhaps one should undergo many small, successive deaths, wander beyond the boundaries and the dividing lines that exist mostly inside them, to manage to seek a redemptive utopia, an “elsewhere”, a new place.

Creative team

Concept, choreography, direction: Athanasia Kanellopoulou

Original music composition: Konstantina Polychronopoulou

Choreographer’s assistant: Vassiana Skopetea

Sets, costumes: Sotiris Melanos

Scientific research: Vasilis Paggos, Athanasia Kanellopoulou

Photography, video: Xenia Tsilochristou, Stratos Tsialikis

Production assistant: Filio Louvari

Graphic designer: Maria Christopoulou

Narrator: Elena Topalidou

Performers: Vassiana Skopetea, Maria Fountouli, Lia Chamilothori, Matina Kostiani, Athanasia Kanellopoulou

 

The performance features an excerpt from K. H .Myris’ poem “I stahti poy taxideve” (The travelling ash).

Production: Athanasia Kanellopoulou Performing Arts

 

 

 — By fire…

 

14 & 15 September • Fortezza, Rethymno

 

The common elements that compose the core of the project is the relationship between disability and asylum, through their current dimensions, regarding the oppression experienced by refugees, the freedom of action given to them by societies, and their integration into the social web.

Taking into account social, economic, class, ethnic, psychological parametres and influences, we explore the spectrum and processes of integration and acceptance of these populations, through authentic narratives, and their role in the evolution of culture.

A redefinition of art, of the “different other”, of the refugee, of the disabled, of life itself, of the self, of emotions, of the relationship with one’s own body, mind and soul.

Creative team

Conception, choreography: George Christakis

Direction, dramaturgy: Eugenia Arsenis

Music composition, performance: Costas Livadas

Lighting: Sakis Birbilis

Singer: Eleni Tsaligopoulou

Narration: Antonis Kafetzopoulos, Sotiris Tachtsoglou

Dancers: Fay Malama, Klito Tsigri, Eleni Kontzila, Maria-Zoi Terzopoulou, Ioli Spiliopoulou, Giannis Chaldaios, Alekos Blatze, George Christakis

Guest: Irini Mavromataki

Production: DAGIPOLI DANCE Co

 

 

 

 

 

 

MUSIC THEATRE

 

 — Exodus

 

30 & 31 August • Museum of Byzantine Culture, Thessaloniki

 

A musical performance that engages in a dialogue with the digital painting of George Kordis, who digitally creates a series of murals depicting refugee processions titled Anestii (Hearthless). Fenia Papadodima converses with the works, following George Seferis’ journey to Cappadocia, testimonies of refugees, and poems.

With her voice she travels across hymnody, singing, improvisation, speech. She leads audiences to an inner approach of the tragedy of the hearthless people of all eras.

From the person to the loss of the person.

 

Creative team

Music, concept, voice: Fenia Papadodima

Soundscapes: Giorgos Palamiotis

Video: Kostas Aloupogiannis

Lighting: Stevi Koutsothanasi

Oud: Thomas Meleteas

Harp: Gogo Xagara

Cello: Ivi Papathanasiou

 

Performer: Giorgos Papastylianos

Production: MARINA

  

 — Koutaliani or The Weight of History

 

2 & 3 September • Archaeological site of Anaktoropolis

The Music Theatre Company Rafi collaborates with the Oros Ensemble, composer Apostolis Koutsogiannis, poet Marios Hadjiprokopiou and visual artist Petros Touloudis to create a musico-visual cantata that illuminates moments from the life of Koutaliani, as strongmen from Asia Minor used to be called, over different historical periods: from the late 19th century to the postwar era.

The legendary life of these persons also serves as an allegory for the transition from the late-19th-century world to the successive displacements of the early 20th century, the Asia Minor Catastrophe, and the suffocating borders of the modern Greek state.

The work features the legendary Panagis Koutalianos and his descendant Dimitris, Haris Karpozilos and Giannis Keskelidis or Sampson, the giant of the Greek catch known as “Attilio” or “the Asian” (sic).

Creative team

Concept, artistic supervision: Music Theatre Company Rafi

Score: Apostolis Koutsogiannis

Verses: Marios Hadjiprokopiou

Art director, lighting designer: Petros Touloudis

Performers: Lito Messini (soprano), Anastasia Kotsali (mezzo-soprano)

Oros Ensemble

Vasilis Zigkeridis (qanun)

Konstantinos Zigkeridis (bayan)

Eirini Krikoni (violin)

Antonios Tsachtanis (clarinet)

Production: Music Theatre Company Rafi

 

 — HECUBA / S.T.R.I.N.G.S. – Bygone Troys

7 & 8 September • Roman Agora, Delphi

 

Troy. Smyrna. The face. The mother. The land. The motherland. The Queen. Hecuba. She crosses time. Like a curved arrow.

Ruins. Corpses. A city. Troy. Smyrna. Lost motherlands. Lost lives. Whose walls are ruined. Burnt down. By the fire of war. Thousands of people. Becoming refugees. They saw their port turning into a river of blood. They buried there a piece of their soul. Their heart hasn’t forgotten. The body was tortured, to put down roots elsewhere.

The story of a city. The destruction of the “cradle of civilisation”. Troy is still on fire…

Creative team

Musical composition: Yorgos Tamiolakis

Direction: Konstantinos Chatzis

Director’s assistant: Panos Zygouros

Text composition: Sofia Hill, Konstantinos Chatzis

Libretto: Antigone Karali

Costumes: Ifigenia Daoudaki

Performer: Sofia Hill

Singing: Theologos Papanikolaou, Kalliopi Mitropoulou

Violin: Babis Karasavvidis, Theologos Papanikolaou, Kalliopi Mitropoulou

Violoncello: Yorgos Tamiolakis

Viola: Stelios Papanastasis

Viola de gamba: Andreas Linos

Production: Art Colour

 

THEATRE / ACTIVITIES FOR CHILDREN AND TEENAGERS

 

 

 

 — Multicolour Asia Minor

 

19 & 20 July • Bridge of Arta

 

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 Giles Milton’s Paradise Lost – 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.

Creative team

Compilation of texts, script adaptation: Oneirodrama Group

Script editing: Nagia Papapanou

Direction: Vasilis Papalazarou

Sets, costumes: Konstantinos Gougounis

Music composition: Panos Dokomopoulos

Photography: Lefteris Kalogios

Communication, public relations: Evangelia Skrompola

Psychologist, child specialist: Stella Moudatsou

Vocalists: Sofia Psouhlou, Zoi Psouhlou

Actors: Giorgos Menediatis, Christina Moudatsou, Vasilis Papalazarou

With the participation of the Orchestra of the Arta Conservatoire

Production: MI ANASTREPSIMOI

— The Young Asikis

 

20 & 21 July • Roman Odeon of Nikopolis

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”.

 

Creative team

Libretto: Yannis Filias

Musical composition, conductor: Thodoris Lempesis

Direction: Marina Mergou

Stage construction, costumes: Maria Papadopoulou

Lighting: Melina Mascha

Graphic design: Patitiri Design

Photography: Ioulia Ladogianni

Production manager: Anna Sitareniou

 

Performers

Mezzo-soprano: Artemis Bogri

Tenor: Υannis Filias

Baritone: Marinos Tarnanas

Actor, νarrator: Dimitris Rafailos

Accompanied by the Chamber and Traditional Instruments Orchestra

 

Production: SYRIX PRODUCTIONS

 

 

 — Little Asia

 

26 & 27 July • Archaeological site of Ancient Corinth

 

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.

 

Creative team

Director: Roubini Moschohoriti

Original score: Kostas Nikolopoulos

Sets, costumes: Giorgos Lyntzeris

Visual art consultant: Myrto Stamatelou

Lighting: Melina Mascha

Performers: Eleni Stergiou, Konstantinos Elmatzioglou, Stefanos Papatrechas and Senior High School students

Production: anima theatre group

 

 — Stories From Gahoutan: We Have the Same Mom

 

27 & 28 July • Archaeological Museum of Aiani, Kozani

 

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.

Creative team

Direction: Koldo Vio

Author, text adaptation: Stella Michailidou

Sets, puppets: Maria Manasi and Marmita team

Theatre-based pedagogical project designer: Martha Katsaridou

Score, onstage musician: Achilleas Mesaikos

Production manager: Giannis Gountaras

 

Performers: Myrsini Karmatzoglou, Panagiotis Gizotis

Production: L.R.P.A. – LABORATORY OF RESEARCH OF PERFORMING ARTS

 

 

 — Camp 22

2 & 3 August • Byzantine Walls of Drama

 

Camp 22 is a performance that focuses on the “Hi-story”: the Hi-story of our nation, the Hi-story of a show, our personal hi-story, a Hi-story from the human perspective.

Whether we actively participate in them or we are just a spectator, we, ourselves, create our Hi-stories. And in order to keep them in our memory we photograph every moment, to recall where we were, whom we were with, and how we were.

That’s why Camp 22 asks the right questions to start a dialogue. There where time does not exist, where everything is possible, where there are no borders. At Camp 22 they play “breaking” music. At Camp 22 the world, the stories and our lives belong to its people. At Camp 22 history is written by its protagonists.

 

Creative team

Concept, research, direction: Katerina Alexaki, Marilena Triantafyllidou

Dramaturgy: Dr Irine Moundraki

Music: Vassilis Kazis, Petros Koumpios

Sets, costumes: Georgia Bourda

Lighting: Giorgos Ayiannitis

Performers: Katerina Alexaki, Vassilis Kazis, Kleoniki Karachaliou, Marilena Triantafyllidou

 

Workshop facilitator: Maria Chalari, PhD

Production: Artika

 

 

 — A Captive’s Story or How I Crossed the Borders

4 & 5 August • Zincirli Mosque

 

The work is a theatrical adaptation based on Stratis Doukas’ novel of the same title that incorporates participatory activities of an educational nature. The story of the original text is about the adventures of a Greek man who was arrested by the Turks during the Smyrna Catastrophe in 1922. It vividly describes his escape and his struggle to survive until he is rescued.

The novel is dedicated to “the common sufferings of nations” and has an internationalist character. The references and comparisons to the refugee waves shaking today’s world are obvious. The work’s main focus is human resourcefulness and the preservation of human dignity amidst the horrors of war and the bitterness of being uprooted.

The performance is enriched with interactive parts, which –using Educational Drama as a vehicle– aim at the further exploration of the work’s thematic core.

Creative team

Text: Stratis Doukas

Theatrical adaptation, direction: Alexandros Raptis, Fotis Dousos

Director’s assistant: Sissy Ignatidou

Dramaturgy consultant: Ioanna Lioutsia

Educational activities designer: Kalliopi Fykari

Sets, costumes: Katerina Hatzopoulou

Music, arrangement: Giorgos Dousos

Movement: Mika Stefanaki

Production manager: Alexandros Raptis

Poster: Chrysoula Korovesi

Video, photography: Dora Kalakidou

Public relations responsible: Maria Konstantopoulou

Performers: Marinos Orfanos, Eleni Papaioannou, Konstantinos Parasis

Production: HIPPO XIPO

 

 

 — The Memory of Water

 

7 & 8 August • Castle of Mytilene

 

Based on oral history and experiential-biographical material, The Memory of Water foregrounds the value of memory and the importance of its preservation for reasons of historical and cultural cohesion and continuity, bringing out traces of the refugee identity of the island of Lesvos through the eyes of the young generation.

The project consists of two creative parts. The first part is the planning and implementation of an experiential documentary-theatre workshop with the participation of adolescent students of Lesvos, in collaboration with the Model General High School of Mytilene of the University of the Aegean.

The second part includes the creation of a documentary-theatre performance, with the participation of the same teenagers as “experiential performers”, handing over the baton to them so that they can explore, own, and bring to life the stories of their ancestors through experiential research and performance art.

 

Creative team

Planning and implementation of the workshop, direction of the performance: Martha Bouziouri (director, social anthropologist, Artistic Director of the International Documentary-Theatre Network)

Director’s assistant: Paraskevi Lypimenou (theatrologist)

Coordinator of educational programmes, workshop coordinator: Maria Makrynikola

Actor, director: Eva Oikonomou-Vamvaka

Dramaturgy consultant: Martha Koskina (theatrologist)

Scientific consultant: Giorgos Tsimouris (Associate Professor, Department of Social Anthropology, specialist in refugee and migration issues)

Production: plays2place

 

 

 

— The Town Aloft

17 & 18 August • Archaeological site of Ancient Pella

 

A land of rebirth, a place of co-formation, an old café with contemporary music. Spectators, habitués, refugees, residents, leaving back their memories, keeping personal narratives as a legacy.

The performance crosses the historical paths with theatrical tools, but also with the use of our mobile phones, our smartphones, our modern technological need, which can finally allow us to create our own personal narrative with new media, to find our place in this world.

The story can be shaped, if we are a part of history.

 

Note: The visitors of the archaeological site of Pella, from 19.00, will have the opportunity to participate in the art installation, which will be coordinated by George Gerontidis, and in the performance, which will unite the site with the show and its spectators.

Creative team

Direction, dramaturgy: Anna Maria Iakovou

Dramaturgy consultant, artistic associate: Themis Panou

Dramatologist: Lena Sitara

Art installation, set designer: George Gerontidis

Music: Familie Lautari, Nikos Mitsis

Costumes: Eliza Moschopoulou

Production manager, director’s assistant: Alexandros Kaltzidis

Visual identity, graphic design: Ania Vouloudi

Performers: Sofia Apostolidou, Alexandros Kaltzidis, Margarita Koutova, Nikos Mitsis, Periklis Stavrou, Costas Chatzigeorgiou, Themis Panou (video), and the visual artist George Gerontidis

The research for the archival material and the oral testimonies is carried out in collaboration with the Asia Minor association of Efkarpia “OUSAK”.

Engineering design by Dimitris Dontsios.

Production: Dulcinea

  

— Parallel Texts or The Visitors

18 & 19 August • Archaeological Museum of Etetria

 

What a sweet summer evening… Everything you need for a soirée, a reception, a garden party at least. This is how paradise must be like, don’t you agree? A place of recreation perhaps. A heavenly city. And then nothing.

At the Eretria Museum refreshment room, four visitors drink soft drinks, eat chips, and through the museum’s audio tour of the Asia Minor Catastrophe, they become connected to history, memory, the meaning of the city, cosmopolitanism, extermination and destruction. As time goes by, the questions from the loudspeaker, the songs and the dances alternate with the historical information, the meaning of Hellenism, History, the mythical cities, the conditions that changed the world, the literary narratives and the image of Smyrna.

Finally, what should one remember from the world memory? And what should one erase?

 

Creative team

Direction, lighting: Vasia Attarian, Mirto Makridi

Choreography: Elena Gerodimou

Music supervision: Dimitris Tasenas

Sets: Alexia Chryschoidou

Photography: Anastasia Giannaki

Poster design: Iliana Paspala

Performers: Evdoxia Androulidaki, Mirto Makridi, Promitheas Nerattini-Dokimakis, Maria Filini

Voice over by Dimitris Tasenas

Production: BUG THEATRE GROUP

 

 

 — The Girls in the Sailor Suits

 

27 & 28 August • Ancient Zone

 

The Girls in the Sailor Suits unfolds the thread of the true story of an urban family in Smyrna. It presents the drama and the greatness of Hellenism in Asia Minor through the eyes of two children born where “everything was soft and warm like a hug, where people enjoyed the blessings and the wealth of the East and the love of each other and were happy.”

As the events unfold, pushed forward by time, everything that marked the smiling and kind people of Ionia passes in front of the eyes of the central heroines, the twin girls Katinaki and Maritsa: from the happy days, the culture, and the beauty of life in Asia Minor to the obligatory settling down in refugee settlements and the contribution of refugees to modern Greece.

A theatrical performance about History that time fights to cover with its ashes. For a country that insists on declaring its presence in people’s eyes because, in the end, homeland is people themselves and everything that dwells in our soul. Like the wish the little girls in the sailor suits make: “Let tomorrow be a day of happiness…”

 

Creative team

Adaptation: Ioanna-Markella Chalkia

Direction: Giannis Rigas, Ioanna-Markella Chalkia

Music composition: George Christianakis

Sets, costumes: Sofia Tsirigoti

Choreography: Konstantinos Gerardos

Video art / Mapping: Olga Sfetsa

Performers: Kyriakos Daniilidis, Zoi Efthymiou, Kiki Karaiskou, Nikos Milias, Fenia Salouka, Chrysi Serafim

Production: Neo Theatro Thessalonikis

 

 

 — The Great Farewell

 

3 & 4 September • Byzantine Museum Argos, Argolis

 

Galatia Grigoriadou-Soureli’s awarded novel The Great Farewell is presented in its first staging for children aged 10 years and over and teenagers.

The 4PLAY theatre company tells the adventure of the novel’s heroes, who take part in the Asia Minor Expedition in the beginning of their adult life, through a theatre performance that combines contemporary dance techniques with contact improvisation and an original music score.

A journey from Athens to Smyrna, from youth to maturity, and from peace and love to war and loss. A story binding the old world today with today’s world, using Ionia as a connective link. A story of coming of age and humaneness.

 

Creative team

Original text: Galatia Grigoriadou-Soureli

Adaptation, direction, choreography, lighting supervisor: Paris Mantopoulos

Artistic supervision: Vassilis Mavrogeorgiou

Original music score: Giorgos Fountoukos

Sets, costumes: Sofia Pantouvaki

Research, selection of dramaturgical material: Alexandra Liakopoulou

Lighting & sound technician: Renos Varlas

Photography, graphic design: Paris Mantopoulos / 4PLAY Theatre Company and Konstantina Efthymiou

Performers: Michalis Koutskoudis, Konstantina Efthymiou, Maritina Koutsohioni, Dialekti Poursanidou, Vasilis Stamatakis, Giannis Tsaniras

Production: 4PLAY Theatre Company

 

 — Uprooted LIKE YESTERDAY, 1922-2022

 

10 & 11 September • Roman Odeon of Kos

 

On the occasion of the centenary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe, we commemorate the uprooting of innocent civilians through a project that aims at making children from Kos historically aware about the events that occurred during the Asia Minor Catastrophe.

The children will participate in a two-week seminar (29/8/22 – 9/9/22), where they will construct “hero”-puppets depicting refugees from 1922 and onwards, while also learning how to animate them. Through theatrical improvisations, children will express the pain, violence, and cruel treatment experienced by immigrants. The workshops will come complete with a performance that will be held at the Roman Conservatory in Kos (10 and 11/9/22).

The purpose of these performances is to raise awareness and invite people to reflect on peace and show solidarity towards refugees of wars of the past and of the present.

Creative team

Concept, educator, director, guidance: Emmanouela Kapokaki

Video, editing, education assistant, audio editing: Alexis Yannakoulias

Research of educational material, historical introduction, assistant director: Maro Bourdalou

Act coordinator, project manager: Zetta Koutsokera

Production: Visual Puppet Theatre “Prassein Aloga”

 

 — Catch (19)22

14 & 15 September • Courtyard of Royal Burial Clusters of Aigai

Catch-22 –the title of Joseph Heller’s novel– means “vicious circle” and has become established as an expression denoting the irrational of human existence, the irrational of war, where success and disaster are inextricably linked.

For what else is war but one more Sisyphus rolling his rock up the mountain and then repeating the process all over again? Catch (19)22 explores the Asia Minor Catastrophe, through the irrationality of war and dares to contrast it with the peak and decline of the Macedonian civilisation. There, over the tombs of the great kings, where grandeur and death are the two sides of the same coin.

The site-specific performance Catch (19)22 unfolds in the archaeological site of the Royal Burial Clusters of Aigai, based on a collection of oral and written testimonies about life in Asia Minor and with the artistic contribution of students of the 1st Junior High School of Veria.

Creative team

Direction, dramaturgy, coordination of artistic workshops: Athina Hadjiathanasiou

Texts, dramaturgy: Sofia Gourgouliani

Music supervision: Nefeli Bravaki

Sets, costumes: Evgenia Vissariou

Lighting: Giannis Zervas

Performers: Evgenia Vissariou, Giannis Zervas, Anta Kougia, Panagiota Haidemenou, Athina Hadjiathanasiou

Local actors (To be decided after audition)

With the participation of students of the 1st Junior High School of Veria (Philippeio), members of local amateur theatre groups

Production: CALD Productions

 

 

 — Playing in the Neighbourhoods of Asia Minor

14 & 15 September • Archaeological Museum of Thebes

An experiential event for children, with elements of dramatised documentary and narrative performance and with original music, revolving around the games in the neighbourhoods of Asia Minor, which “tell” in their own way the everyday life of the communities prior to the 1922 Catastrophe. Games that seem forgotten, played without ever being told, left to perish along with the hope for the return to the motherland.

The thread of collective memory unfolds through a story that travels in time, through playing with children games that were passed down by those who saw pain in refugee yards, along with the smile of a carefree childhood.

Stories of integration and rebirth in a new land as well as ways used to express resourcefulness, the grace and imagination of a people, will be presented with the help of contemporary audiovisual means and restored old toys.

Creative team

Director, trainer: Yanna Deligianni

Archaeologist, author: Dr Evangelia Papadopoulou

Lighting: Eliza Alexandropoulou

Sets: Evangelia Therianou

Composer, musician: George Kasavetis

Sound engineer: John Antypas

Filmmaker, photographer: Christos Petropoulos

Filmmaker, technical manager: George Tataris

Front, designer: Sakis Stritsidis

Communication manager: Eleanna Georgiou

Production: CINEMATHESIS

 

 

VISUAL ARTS – PERFORMANCE

 

 — 2291

20 & 21 July • Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki

 

Art installation: until 15 September

An interdisciplinary project by Bill Balaskas, which attempts a poetic reading of the anniversary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe (1922). It revolves around a new large-scale neon installation consisting of the phrases “THERE IS NO SEA WITHOUT A LAND” and “THERE IS NO LAND WITHOUT A SEA”.

The project proposes a more contemplative or –even– optimistic approach to historical trauma, and is accompanied by a bilingual publication, two workshops, a dedicated website, and an international conference co-organised by Kingston University, London.

Through the project, 2291 becomes an imaginary date that refers not only to the universal and timeless nature of refugee disasters, but also to the hope that they will disappear sooner rather than later.

Creative team

Artist, Director of Research, Business and Innovation at the School of Art & Architecture of Kingston University, London: Bill Balaskas

Production: ΕRGON – CULTURE

 

 

 — Prunus Armeniaca / An Intertemporal Narration Through Images and Sounds

29 & 30 July • Archaeological Museum of Florina

Exhibition duration: 26/7-28/10/2022 (in the Archaeological Museum of Florina)

Musical performance: 29/7 and 30/7/2022 (in the courtyard of the Archaeological Museum of Florina)

Two separate inter-artistic projects: a photography installation titled Compositions and a musical performance titled Zruits I-II, which means Dialogues.

Compositions presents stories from the interwar period and historical moments of the Armenian community through 150 unique pictures from the archival photographs of the Armenika magazine, curated by Vangelis Ioakimidis.

Zruits I-II is a meeting of duduk with classical guitar, a conversation between the traditional and contemporary Armenian music by Vahan Galstyan and Lefteris Chavoutsas, performed by singer Maria Spyridonidou.

Compositions and Dialogues take root in the same place and call attention to stories and memories, whole worlds that are brought to life in the shade of an apricot tree, a Prunus Armeniaca – the symbol of Armenia.

Creative team

Production, implementation: Ergastirio Filosofias kai Fotografias in collaboration with the Azatamard Association

Project managers: Alexandra Athanasiadou, Vangelis Ioakimidis

Visual identity, graphic applications: Thomas Ginoudis

Project coordinator: Sofia Mikaelian

 

Compositions

Photography installation’s curator: Vangelis Ioakimidis

Research and photographic archive manager: Maik Tsiligirian

Consultant: Anais Kazantzian

Zruits-I-II (Dialogues)

Duduk: Vahan Galstyan

Guitar: Lefteris Chavoutsas

Singing: Maria Spyridonidou

Consultant: Takoui-Kouin Minasian

Production: Ergastirio Filosofias kai Fotografias

 

 — From Asia Minor to Northern Evia

 

2 & 3 August • Vlachothanasis Residence, Northern Evia

 

Seventeen refugee settlements were integrated into Northern Evia. Four out of these transformed into separate refugee villages that took their names from respective regions of Asia Minor: Neos Pirgos, Neo Mousarli, Nea Egin, Nea Sinasos.

Refugees from Prokopi of Cappadocia, Makri and Livisi, Marmara, the region of Smyrna, Ardassa in Pontus, Michaniona in the area of Kyzikos in Propontis, and Yosgati in the far reaches of Asia Minor, settled in Northern Evia, bringing along their traditions and know-how, and breathing new life into the place.

A performance combining the screening of stories of present-day descendants of refugees and archival photographs with the live presentation of original compositions based on the rhythms and melodies of Asia Minor, attempts to capture the contribution of refugees to the shaping of this place’s new identity, taking the audience on a journey across a past yet recent space-time continuum.

 

Creative team

Video direction, editing: Alexandros Vozinidis

Composition, orchestration: Vangelis Vrachnos, Periklis Vrachnos

Research: Alexandros Kalemis

Idea, production direction: Tessie Giannakina

Musicians onstage: Andriana Achitzanova Petala (ney), Makis Baklatzis (violin), Nikos Varelas (percussion), Vangelis Vrachnos (double bass), Periklis Vrachnos (lavta, viola), Elena Moudiri Hasiotou (narration, percussion)

Production: OLIPOLI

 

 — Ammophila vol.3: There was land here before

23 & 24 August • Archaeological Museum of Neapolis Voion

 

Modern art exhibition duration: 18-28/8/2022 (School of Elafonissos, Laconia)

Musical performance: 23/8 and 24/8/2022 (Archaeological Museum of Neapolis Voion, Laconia)

 

Ammophila vol.3: There was land here before is an exhibition that renegotiates the way in which we perceive and experience places and the dominant narratives projected onto them.

We are concerned with places, which we regard as our subsoil, rituals of coming together and coexisting, and stories that have shaped these relationships. The exhibition is inviting us to give new interpretations and stories to places that can be real or made up through our collective phantasies: phantasies of a non-existent land, a land that is different, a land that is differently inhabited.

A land that can shake us, a land in decomposition, a land in bloom, a land that trembles, a limitless land.

 

Creative team

Featured visual artists: Marina Velisioti, Christos Venetis, Paky Vlassopoulou, Dionysis Kavallieratos, Fotini Kalle, Loukas Kalliantasis, Panagiotis Kefalas, Ilektra Maipa, Persefoni Nikolakopoulou, Ilias Papailiakis, Dimitris Rentoumis, Nana Sahini, Nana Seferli, Eva Stefani, Kleopatra Tsali, Manos Tsichlis, Alexis Fidetzis, Poka-Yio, Sasha Streshna, Vaskos

Featured authors: Stefanos Giannoulis, Kostis Zouliatis, Emmanuela Kyriakopoulou, Anastasia Michopoulou, Christina Papoulia, Eleni Riga, Theofilos Tramboulis, Vicky Tsirou, Evita Tsokanta

Curated by: Ammophilia

Production: Ammophila

 

— IN PRESENTIA

1 & 2 September • Bastion of Saint George, Medieval City of Rhodes

Performances: 1 & 2 September, at 20.30 – Advance bookings are compulsory

Exhibition duration: 15 July – 2 September, on Sundays & Tuesdays, 9.30 – 17.00 – Free admission

IN PRESENTIA deals with the Asia Minor Catastrophe through the notion of mourning and the encounter with the sea. The work highlights the complexity of the trauma’s longevity, combining light, the sea’s movement, and sound. A visual and sound installation – it functions as a score for the performance.

A silent “in-memoriam” tribute to all refugees who experienced the trauma of displacement, who lost their lives in this very sea or moved on to a new life. We attempt a dialogue inside the silence of loss, recollecting memories from our past, like invaluable flashes of insight that shed light to the darkness of mourning.

We bring the dead to life within our memory, with tenderness towards what remains in presence, as a part of our lives, invaluable.

Creative team

Visual art: Christina Nakou, Anna Pangalou

Lighting: Dimitris Pantelias, Paninos Damianos

Performing artist, voice soloist: Anna Pangalou

Production: SILENT ISING

 

 

 — Before Now After

 

2 & 3 September • Archaeological Museum of Leros

Before Now After is an interdisciplinary project bringing together contemporary dance, traditional live music, oral history, documentary film and photography.

Through a contemporary journey on the island of Leros, the project creates movement while focusing on the meeting with “the other” body (that of the local population, the co-creator, the place, the object) and a dialogue across the collective past, present and future.

The project explores the excavation of the past as an opportunity to listen through the body and to meet with opinions and events of another era. A chance to converse through art with the local community, to set in motion different ways of relating to our history and exploring the collective undertaking of shaping our future.

Creative team

Concept, choreography, research, performance: Polena Kolia Petersen, Chloe Aligianni

Documentary direction & editing, research: Xenia Tsilochristou

Live music: Antonis Ntallaris

Photography-reportage: Giorgos Kalkanidis

Production: Third Planet