ALKESTIΣ

Hybrid
Text
Stage Direction
Concept
2021

Commissioned by the Royal Dramatic Theatre of Sweden

Co-produced by

Commissioned by DRΑΜΑΤΕΝ | In collaboration with The Royal Swedish Opera

Credits

Directed by: Elli Papakonstantinou
Written by: Elli Papakonstantinou (based on Euripides’s “Alcestis”)
Original music composition: Julia Kent
Dramaturge: Emma Meyer Dunner
Translation: Mara Lee
Set & Costume Design: Maria Panourgia
Set & Costume Design Assistant: Sotiris Melanos
Lighting Design: Jens Sethzman
Choreographer: Rasmus Ölme
Make-up design: Nathalie Pujol/Moa Hedberg
Video: Pantelis Makkas

Performers: Mia Benson (Admetos Mother), Karin Franz Körlof (Alkestis), Gunnel Fred (Herakles), David Fukumachi Regnfors ( Choir), Sten-Johan Hedman ( Feres), Göran Martling, (Choir), Torkel Petersson (Death), Shanti Roney (Admetos), Helmon Solomon (Alkestis II & Choir), Joel Valois (Apollo), Marcus Vögeli (Choir), Pierre Wilkner (Head of the Choir)

The Royal Swedish Opera Singers: Peter Achrén, Thorvald Bergström, Peter Haeggström, Henrik Hugo, Ian Power, Jan Söderberg

Dates

December 2, 2021 - March 27, 2022 DRAMATEN, Royal Dramatic Theatre Stockholm, Sweden

Alkestis_trailer_DRAMATEN

Gallery: ALKESTIΣ

Reviews

Lars Ring | Svenska Dagbladet

"The Dramaten has asked the Greek director Elli Papakonstantinou to make her own interpretation of Euripides’ more than 2,400-year-old text. She does it with live video and a direction that is as self-conscious as it is ironic. It is full of playful anachronisms, and winks to the audience […]. What impresses most is the cavalcade of images that the director rolls forward: scenes from various rites, as well as how Papakonstantinou draws mythological figures. […] The staging is effective and eclectic. […] an expressive visual world that sincerely wants to talk about gender, power and structures."

Rosemari Södergren | Kultur.se

"An invigorating way to deal with Euripides’ drama Alkestis. Yes, a thunderously hilarious flashy stage joy that is not afraid to underline and even exaggerate. […] The director breaks in several ways against traditional ways of telling with theater."

Kristina Lindquist | Remonews.se

"In Elli Papakonstantinou’s feminist reinterpretation, the female victim becomes even more enigmatic. […] As a commentary on the pandemic, the drama’s “Alkestis” is both obvious and surprising, unlike all the mandatory markers and analogies we’ve seen in culture in the past two Years. It is the painful movement in and out of the underworld, and the absurd negotiation of who has the most right to remain among the living. “I don’t want to die,” sings the choir – and Julia Kent’s music seems to be a sad miracle. The audience coughs. It is getting dark."

Gunilla Brodrej | Expressen

Stämningen är giftig och Karin Franz Korlöf självlysande. Spelet är granne med Norén.

The atmosphere is poisonous and Karin Franz Korlöf self-luminous. The play reminds writer Norén.

Lars Ring | SvD

Fylld av lekfulla anakronismer, och blinkningar till publiken och till sist ett dionysiskt, manligt raseri som är parodiskt, voyeuristiskt falliskt till sin natur.

Filled with playful anachronisms, and winks to the audience and finally a dionysic, male rage that is parodical, voyeuristic, phallic in its nature.