A visual performance in 7 scenes
Plefsis Company, together with the puppet theatre Ayusaya and the Antamapantahou marionette theatre, presents its new creation entitled «Body (of) Absence», a physical theatre performance along with contemporary puppet theatThe main line of the performance is the «handmade narrative» physicality of the interpreters and the theatrical puppets. In a dreamlike atmosphere, the performers, the marionettes (of different sizes and handling techniques) and the natural materials come together to talk about loneliness, physical closeness, and the absence of body contact; as well as the dystopia the human existence experiences nowadays. Quest, connection and memory are the motifs defining and linking the images and the states of the narrative. The scenic installation, an improvised ‘stadium’ of stripped-down aesthetic, dominates the space. It gradually comes to life through a series of autonomous and emotionally charged stories about the absence of the ‘other’. Emphasis is put on the use of cinematographic means (live camera projection) and the composition of electroacoustic landscapes and live electronics that build multiple layers of reality. Viewers become part of a ‘different world’ of metaphors and discoveries.The visual universe of the performance is based on a threefold inspiration from contemporary art: the visual artist Jannis Kounellis, and the Spanish sculptors Juan Muñoz and Isaac Cordal. This new production proposes a narrative that focuses on the presence of the performers, the postures of their bodies, their gestures and their energies. It aims at bringing back and enlarging the recurring topics in the artistic universe of the company: transformation, virtual reality and the performer’s relationship to props; and above all, to serving a stage language that begins and ends with the expressive body.
CAST
Creation, Performing: Olga Gerogiannaki, Stathis Markopoulos, Panagiota Kotrona, Antonis Koutroumpis,
Sound art, Live electronics: Luc Messinezis
Live camera: Pavlos Mavrikidis
Idea, Direction: Antonis Koutroumpis
Music composition: Minas Emmanouil
Making puppets: Stathis Markopoulos, Eleni Panagiotou, Nikos Tombros
Light design: Elisavet Alexandropoulou
Costumes: Olga Gerogiannaki
Stage sets: Stathis Markopoulos, Thenia Koutroumpi, Antonis Koutroumpis
Cinematography, trailer: Pavlos Mavrikidis
Photographs: Thanasis Karatzas
Public relations: Ourania Krassaki
Duration: 105’
Co-producers
International Puppet Festival of Bilbao, International Puppet Festival of Kalamata
Company Plefsis is subsidized by the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports.
