History is often made of floors and ceilings, and in The Great Tamer, Dimitris Papaioannou doesn't hesitate to challenge his eleven performers to find their balance and projection points on an inflated stage constantly going through a process of deconstruction, swelling up, absorption, and even rejection. Starting from this metaphor of man in a position of research, the show becomes a sensorial and primitive epic. “The point is to dig and bury, then reveal. We're talking about identity, about the past, about legacy and interiority.” Revealing the small tragedies and great absurdities of our modern lives, bringing together well-known and ambiguous figures from the world of the circus—the clown, the acrobat—the work of the Greek choreographer is at once melancholic and funny, and plays on theatrical conventions with the audience, in all simplicity. Between levity and tragedy, within a plastic world that pays homage to some of the greatest European painters—Botticelli, Raphael, El Greco, Rembrandt, Magritte, Kounellis—Dimitris Papaioannou sets the bar high and asks all of us to “exhaust our lives” and to give everything we can before leaving this world. This quest for grace and beauty is neither relaxing nor contemplative.
Distribution
With Pavlina Andriopoulou, Costas Chrysafidis, Ektor Liatsos, Ioannis Michos, Evangelia Randou, Kalliopi Simou, Drossos Skotis, Christos Strinopoulos, Yorgos Tsiantoulas, Alex Vangelis
Conception, visualization and direction Dimitris Papaioannou
Set design and art direction Tina Tzoka
Lights Evina Vassilakopoulou
Costumes Aggelos Mendis
Sound Kostas Michopoulos, Giwrgos Poulios
Music Johann Strauss II, An der schönen blauen Donau, Op. 314
Musical arrangements Stephanos Droussiotis
Sculpture Nectarios Dionysatos
Costume - props painting Ilia
Assistant to the director Pavlina Andriopoulou, Stephanos Droussiotis, Tina Papanikolaou
Rehearsal Director Pavlina Andriopoulou
Assistant to the Set Designer and Set Painter Mary Antοnopoulou
Assistants to the Sculptor Maria Papaioannou, Konstantinos Kotsis
Technical Director Manolis Vitsaxakis
Stage Manager Dinos Nikolaou
Assistant Sound Engineer Nikos Kollias
Creative - Executive Producer Tina Papanikolaou
Production Assistant Tzela Christopoulou, Kali Kavvatha
Tour Manager + International Relations Julian Mommert
Production
Production Onassis Cultural Centre (Athènes)
Executive producer 2WORKS
Co-production Culturescapes Greece 2017 (Suisse), Dansens Hus Sweden, EdM Productions, Festival d'Avignon, Fondazione Campania dei Festival – Napoli Teatro Festival, Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, National Performing Arts Center (Taiwan), Seoul Performing Arts Festival, Théâtre de la Ville/La Villette-Paris
With the support of Alpha Bank and for the 71st edition of the Festival d'Avignon : Centre culturel hellénique de Paris