ODC ENSEMBLE
© Alex Kat Photography
A key element in ODC’s work is their multi-disciplinary practice, which I see as an expression of the idea of multiplicity from which emerges ODC’s politics of desire, not only as a narrative device (that too), but merely as an aesthetic and ethical proposition. The political, in this sense, is not merely related to what ODC’s work means, but what it does.
– Philip Hager
Founded in 2002, ODC Ensemble has made more than 20 works for theatre, dance, film and media directed by Elli Papakonstantinou. ODC Ensemble founding members are: Dimitris Kamarotos, Elli Papakonstantinou, Tilemachos Mousas, Telis Karananos & Alexandra Siafkou, Adrian Frieling and Valia Papachristou. Further members include: Anastasia Katsinavaki, Pantelis Makkas, Rosa Prodromou, Ero Lefa, Chariklia Petraki.
ODC Ensemble was based at their own venue cultural space Vyrsopdeseio from 2011 until 2017.
The Group’s work include: ODC After Homer (2002), Viciousness in the Kitchen (2010), Μετά/After (2011), Woyzeck Quartet (2012), Skin (2012), Richard II (2014), Revolt Athens (2015), Louisette: the Backstage of Revolution (2017), Τhe Cave (2018), Każin Barokk (2018), The Kindly Ones (2019), Oedipus: Sex With Mum Was Blinding (2019) Traces of Antigone (2020), Aede of The Ocean and Land (2020), Hotel “AntiOedipus” (2021) all directed by Elli Papakonstantinou.
Among recent artistic achievements, the company has been nominated winner of the Music Theater Now 2018 International competition, the First Award Prize at the BE Festival for the REP, Birmingham, UK and also Amazone Award winner and nominated for the Italian critics award 2020. The company has been supported by The Greek Ministry of Culture, the Arts Council of Great Britain, Denmark and Sweden.

















Reviews
Totally mad and mesmerizing…
The Guardian | The Guide | 15.08.2002
An outstanding performance with a truly fresh approach…
BBC Worldwide
A brilliant performance…
Panayotis Kouparanis | Deutsche Welle | 13.11.2015
A work that redefines the meaning of contemporary musical theatre…
A work that redefines the meaning of contemporary musical theatre with social meaning away from any realistic reference to prosaic complaints. A substantial aesthetic event…
Dimitris Tsatsoulis
greek-theatre.gr | 13.10.2018
Punkopera: It’s strange and beautiful, ugly and cloudy…
A veritable bombardment of all senses. Eye, ear and not least brain fought to keep up… strange and beautiful, ugly and cruel…
Bent Stenbakken
nordjyske.dk | 11.08.2018
A view from Behind the arras…
BE Festival, Birmingham REP | 07.07.2018
A bomb exploding at the foundations of the Greek festival...!
Iliana Dimadi
athinorama.gr | 16.06.2018
Historical Truth and Realistic Politics
Yorgos Pefanis
CNN Ggreece | 25.06.2016
Cph Opera Festival goes avantgarde
The Greek ODC Ensemble is a solid, courageous and multi-faceted ensemble.
Se Mere | sceneblog.dk | 08.08.2018
writings
on ODC
The Theatre of Consciousness
[extract of the book Vyrsodepseio: a Θeatre in Times of Crisis]
[…] Already in its first foray into the Greek theatre world, ODC decided almost unconsciously to set up its headquarters at this very spot: the agora. As a theatrical movement with a distinctly political flavour, the Ensemble wanted, first and foremost, to be part of the city and occupy a central place in its consciousness.
[…] Let us take a look at the past: we can trace ODC’s distant ancestors to the stage experiments of Malina and Beck’s Living Theatre, the 1960s and 1970s conceptualisations of theatre as a political act; a space where artists can communicate among themselves, where artists and audiences can interact with the city.
[…] The buzz of a journey that is both ancient and timeless, a journey about individual and political self-awareness can be heard by the young people who are active players in this city, by Elli Papakonstantinou and her Ensemble, by artists and audiences. The vessel making this voyage will, once again, bear the initials ‘ODC’.
Grigoris Ioannidis | pp.55-56
ODC and the Politics of Desire
[extract of the book Vyrsodepseio: a Θeatre in Times of Crisis]
[…] A key element in ODC’s work is their multi-disciplinary practice, which I see as an expression of the idea of multiplicity; a multiplicity from which emerges ODC’s politics of desire, not only as a narrative device (that too), but merely as an aesthetic and ethical proposition. The political, in this sense, is not merely related to what ODC’s work means, but what it does.
[…] In this sense, the performance devised by ODC produced an affective multiplicity, an assemblage that interacted with spectators and space not as a way into the ancient text, but as a way out of habitual conceptions and ideological uses of ancient Greek literary tradition.
Philip Hager | pp.68-71
Performances of Engagement and Disruption
[extract of the book Vyrsodepseio: a Θeatre in Times of Crisis]
[…] Upon watching ODC’s performances we get a sense of intense loneliness, as well as the gruelling endeavour to create something new.
Filimon Patsakis | p.103
Lived Aesthetics of Crisis and Performance Politics of Discontent
[extract of the book Vyrsodepseio: a Θeatre in Times of Crisis]
[…] ODC’s performative energies and live art strategies go beyond the representation or anticipated avant-garde theatricality. Capitalising on lived experiences and socio-political awareness, ODC’s work bursts with the power of live art, urging us to revolt by way of questioning our empirical reality and critically engaging with it.
Maria Konomi | p.180
FAITH
[extract of the book Vyrsodepseio: a Θeatre in Times of Crisis]
[…] Fortunately, ODC is as realist as it is romantic. If that was not the case, the Ensemble would have never gone on to tackle a project as extroverted and collectively demanding as Louisette 4, presented at the Old Oil Mill of Eleusis in the summer of 2017.
[…] ODC Ensemble […] through endless hours of group work in the hopes of creating a lively hot-spot, a meeting point for art and activism […] was fully aware that […] the? / The space had to serve as a bridge between the past and the present, promoting the concept of continuity and highlighting the individual as an active agent.
[…] The shift from a theatre of convention (which by no means should be identified with conventional theatre) to a live spectacle, free of traditional conventions (which can, in turn, also become deadly, that is, conventional and dull, according to Brook) can be realised only if invested with a vital meaning. […] The idea was to reject formulaic and formalist art in favour of art that is substantial, grounded to reality, poignant and moving. That was my first time at Vyrsodepseio.
Dimitra Kondylaki | p36, 42 and 48
Greek Theatre in the Age of Depression (Greece)
As Elli Papakonstantinou, director of the avant-garde multi-ethnic performance group ODC, claims, “[our] ensemble is a politically oriented group. As practitioners and as citizens of a country that stands as a worldwide ‘showcase’ for politicians and bankers and for the ongoing struggle to preserve democracy, we are motivated by an urge to reinvent the role of Art. For us, Art must now stand in the front line of opposition and questioning.
ODC ensemble creates engaged art, out of the box, in unexpected spaces and with the participation of volunteers who have no previous art experience. Our aim is to provoke, question and in times of national shock, break taboos and theatrical conventions”. An observation that recalls Walter Benjamin’s description of the Dadaists’ art as an “instrument of ballistics that hits the spectators like a bullet” (Benjamin 1968: 197), removing them beyond their realm of understanding to a new way of perceiving actions and events.
ODC’s deconstructive work on the end of grand narratives engages fiercely with the postmodern dramatic idiom and local forms of popular entertainment and political rhetoric. A good example of that is META, the group’s recent site- specific performance put on in an abandoned tannery in Botanicos (Vyrsodepsio, 2010), with the help of experienced actors and activists. As the director makes the point in ODC’s electronic page, “META is not just a performance; [but] a public discussion on WHAT COMES AFTER (META)?”; a work on the meaning of the end (TELOS) of narratives and the relation of people to society in a moment of crisis”.
This same idea of loss is also central in their next site-specific project, Derma (Skin, 2012), a “tribute to mechanical work, monotony, mourning and apathy,” as the director claims. By incorporating dance, music and visual arts, both performances dramatize what is going on now in Greece and the world in general and at the same time bridge the gap between the real and the theatrical, the professional actor and the amateur, the realistic and the bizarre. It is the ensemble’s answer to the question of the country’s two major national theatres, “What is a homeland?”: a series of estrangements.
Savvas Patsalidis | Critical Stages: The IATC webjournal | June 2013, Issue No.8
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