With the support of
the Greek Ministry of Culture & Kulturrådet
the Greek Ministry of Culture & Kulturrådet
Traces of Antigone
new creation at the
Epigraphic Museum of Athens
Epigraphic Museum of Athens
A girl runs through olive groves and school yards. The red dry dust swirls up from the ancient Greek
landscape and falls over a 1970s school yard in Sweden. She runs to get away from assailants, tyrants,
and male teachers.
The story of the girl is ancient and incessant. It is a story of fear which is implanted in the girl’s body, it
takes roots and it grows there. The story of the girl is intertwined with the story of Antigone, of the
sister, of the brother and the war, the war that killed her beloved brother but which occurs in the girl’s
body. In “Traces of Antigone” we find the tyrant and the society of rape that he preserves. We find the
distressed strive of authority to cover up the uncertainty and the brutality that it provokes.
In “Traces of Antigone” the story is performed by an ensemble of voices where speech is a part of the
narration and the lines the way of the narration. At the same time the image of the self is being
presented, the individual identity is being directed. It is a narrative that attempts to define and
preserve personal truths and social constructions.
Credits
Concept & Direction: Elli Papakonstantinou Playwright: Christina Ouzounidis Translator: Margarita Mellberg Musical Composition: Nalyssa Green Choreography: Valia Papachristou Set & Costume Design: Mary Zygouri
Performers: Tania Tsanaklidou, Serafita Grigoriadou, Nalyssa Green, Katerina Papachristou, Valia Papachristou, Gemma H. Carbone, Sophia Manoli and a chorus of women Guest Performer: Eleftheria Gerofoka
Performances
Epigraphic Museum of Athens: 11 – 17.05.2020
Helena Nursery Hospital, Athens: 21.05.2020
Under the auspices of Club for Unesco Piraeus and Islands & the Greek General Secretariat for Gender Equality
Introduction to Ouzounidis work
Her language is rich and alternates instantaneously from the everyday language to the heightened poetic. In many of her plays she marks the beginning and end of a line in the same way music scores are marked. And it is those specific lines that have been the research subject of Ouzounidis’s own doctoral thesis: “Doubt: The poetics of the theatrical lines” (2016)
It is mainly through her discourse with Ancient Greece that Ouzounidis achieved such success and critical acclaim. The technique with which she connects the myths is superb, because she supports and negates them at once…
During the performance the linguistic surface falls apart and a primordial darkness spreads out that will result in vicious violence.
Jon Sventemark, Theater critic – translator, Stockholm
From the printed edition of “Traces of Antigone” translated by Margarita Mellberg and published by “PERISPOMENI”, October 2018, ISBN: 978-618-5212-23-
