I create multidisciplinary performances across different forms of art, from music and theatre to dance, visual arts, and literature, with a special emphasis on the political, collectivity, and new media. My aesthetic agenda is two-fold: challenging the "theatre of convention" and mobilizing citizens as an integral component of the art-making process.

About Elli

Elli Papakonstantinou connects notions of myth and gender philosophy by revisiting the classics and creating immersive experiences. Elli is a performance director, playwright, visual artist and cultural manager. She creates performances with an emphasis on music, and new media. She is the artistic director of the international theatre company ODC Ensemble. Elli has lived in the UK for over a decade and has created and presented her work internationally. Her most recent work “ALKESTIΣ”, is a feminist rewriting of the Greek myth and was commissioned by the Royal Theatre of Sweden & performed by the Dramaten Ensemble/ Royal Opera of Sweden Ensemble (2022).

The global lockdowns led Elli to experiment with a new form of digital theatre, that she named “theatre of seclusion”. “Traces of Antigone” -one of the first live digital performances- and “Hotel AntiOedipus” were presented around the world in organizations such as IRCAM/Centre Pompidou (Paris) and Romaeuropa Festival (Rome) to critical acclaim (Amazone Award and nomination for Italian Critics Award.) (2019-still on tour). “Oedipus: Sex with Mum was Blinding” had its sold out run at the famed  BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music), in New York (Opera WIRE choice of the Fall, the OBSERVER choice).  (2019) While in the US, Elli was commissioned to write and direct “The Kindly Ones” which was presented in the “Mauthausen” Concentration Camp, Austria and transferred to the “Camp Des Milles” in Aix-En-Provence, France (La Manifacture/off Avignon Festival) after a residency at the Center National des écritures du Spectacle, la Chartreuse. (2019, 2020)
Twice a proud Fulbrighter, in 2019 she spent 4 months researching new technologies in performance at CCRMA (Computer Center for Music & Acoustics), at Stanford University (US) and in 2004, she spent Spring at the Media Lab, at Princeton University with a “Fulbright Artist’s Award” and a “Stanley J. Seeger Visiting Fellowship”. Amongst other achievements, she has been credited with a “First Prize Award” at the Edinburgh Festival, (UK) and a “First Prize Award” for the REP, Birmingham (UK) as well as the ‘Music Theatre Now 2018-19’ international competition.

Elli has been commissioned by the European Capitals of Culture “Valetta18” and “Eleusis21” and has presented work at the European Parliament of Culture. Her creations have toured internationally at the Centre Georges Pompidou/ IRCAM (FR),Brooklyn Academy of Music (US),The Royal Dramatic Theatre of Sweden (SE), Avignon Festival (FR), Neukollner Oper Berlin (DE), Romaeuropa Festival (IT), LaMaMa E.T.C. (US), Edinburgh Festival (UK), National Theatre of Greece (GR) O. Festival (NL), Aalborg Οpera Festival (DK),  PUFF Festival (CR), Copenhagen Opera Festival (DK), New Drama Festival (CR), Stanford University (US), Currents Festival (US), National Theatre Genova (IT) etc. 

REVIEWS

It was as if a bomb exploding at the foundations of Athens Festival…

Papakonstantinou and her ensemble do not beat around the bush: what they really mean to do is to (re) negotiate our turbulent historical present.

Iliana Dimadi |  Athinorama | 16.06.2016

Explosive and epic work, by turns horrific and hilarious, appalling and endearing, is wonderfully brought to the stage thanks to Ellis imaginative direction…

Dimitris Maronitis |  To Vima | 30.08.2009

Elli, οne of the best representatives of Greek avant-garde, never seizes to surprise us…

ELLI’s 3 STRONG POINTS
Audience engagement:Elli shapes theatre into live experiences, driving audiences to long promenades within industrial spaces.
Music: Music works in a transcendental way, taking audiences into a space-time beyond the ordinary.
Extroversion: Her work evolves through international residencies and collaborations…

Maria Kryou | Athinorama | 28.01.2018

Α trip to Utopia…

If theatre is an empty space that is meant to be revisited, with each new performance presented at Vyrsodepseio, Papakonstantinou restructures the entire space to match her dramatic concept. 

Dimitris Tsatsoulis | Eleftherotypia | 03.06.2013

Elli Papakonstantinou dares to speak out about painful things…

Elli Papakonstantinou dares to speak out about painful things, both in Greece and abroad, toys with clichés and turns them upside down…​ After all, we should know by now that Papakonstantinou has a talent for bringing to life such moments of euphoric anarchy.

Giorgos Voudiklaris |  Popaganda : At the Athens Festival premier | 16.06.2016

A performance that made us believe, 500 years ago, Shakespeare was actually writing for Greece in crisis…

Christos Zografos | Eleftherotypia | 27.02.2014

Elli's Island

OUR SITEMAP
ODCity

ODC Ensemble

ODC Publi

A Θeatre in Times of Crisis
Nefeli Editions | 2018

Destiny

Destiny | 2004

Happiness Unl

Happiness Unlimited | 2016

Stream Voices

Streams of Voices | 2003

Utopia

Elli Papakonstantinou
Performance Director, Activist

NightSecret

A Night of Secrets | 2007

SoundGun

The Sound of the Gun | 2008

Mr Love

The Mysterious Mr Love | 2005

Happiness Tree

Tree of Happiness | 2017

Faith

Faith | 2006

PlayingSong

They’re Playing our Song | 2005

Louisette

Louisette: The Backstage of Revolution | 2017

Kitchen

Viciousness in the Kitchen | 2010

Cave

The Cave | 2018

Kazin

Każin Barokk | 2018

Nine Lives

Nine Lives, Ten Tails | 1997

Athens Revolt

Revolt Athenς | 2015

Debtocrazy

Debtocrazy Revolutions | 2015

Suppliants

The Suppliants after Aeschylus after Kossovo | 1999

Richard II

Richard II | 2014

Ajax

Ajax | 1998

OutCry 2

Out Cry | 2016

OutCry 1

Out Cry | 2011

LOeil

Sous l’oiel d’Oedipe | 2010

Skin

Skin [Δέρμα] | 2012

Woyzeck

Woyzeck Quartet | 2012

AtoΩ

From Α to Ω | 2010

Country

The Country | 2009

The Iron

The Iron | 2004

After Homer

ODC …After Homer | 2002-04

HomerODC

ODC, after Homer’s Odyssey | 2009

MaVie de Chant

Ma Vie de Chandelles | 2012

Sea Bottom

Touching the Bottom of the Sea | 2013

Oedipus

Oedipus: Sex with Mum was Blinding | Upcoming

FemmeLoup

Femme et Loup | 2014

Decameron

The Decameron of Women | 2000

Ships

The Ships | 2005

Meta

Mετά [After] | 2011

Lettre aux

Lettre aux Jeunes Acteurs | 2008

Vyrsodepseio

Vyrsodepseio
Art Space | Athens

WintersTale

A Winter’s Tale | 2021