George Koutlis: Ο2

"The Players" by Nikolai Gogol, which first opened in 2021, was the must-see show for theater lovers for at least two consecutive seasons. This time George Koutlis focuses on the prominent figure of the Russian New Drama movement, Ivan Vyrypaev, a naturalized Pole who has been targeted and criminalized by the Russian regime. With the support of Onassis AiR, he adapts and translates "Oxygen", Ivan Viripayev's manifesto for a new generation – a work that has been on Koutlis’s mind ever since he started working in the theater as a young student at the Russian Institute of Theatre Art in Moscow-GITIS (2001). The key dramaturgical question to be addressed is: how to best transcribe the ten (anti)commandments of the original in the "here and now" in a way that resonates with the needs, the dreams, and the demands of Generation Z and its own "psychopolitical suffocation"? Interviews and auditions will be conducted with young artists and potential collaborators, as part of the research process for the project. The goal is to present the work at “Onassis Stegi” during the 2024–2025 season.