Onassis Stegi at the International Theatre Amsterdam
Brandhaarden Festival: Bridging Athens to Amsterdam.
For two weeks, from January 30th to February 10th, 2024, the stages of the renowned International Theater Amsterdam will exclusively showcase Greek productions, the majority of which were born and excelled at the Onassis Stegi. Are you ready for the Brandhaarden – From Athens to Amsterdam festival?
Photo: Andreas Simopoulos
Greek productions that mostly originated, and flourished, at Onassis Stegi will take over the ITA stages for a period of fifteen days, from January 30 to February 10, 2024. For the past 12 years, International Theatre Amsterdam has organized the two weeks Brandhaarden festival, which features performances from notable European theatre makers with a different theme each season. The theme of this year's Brandhaarden, Brandhaarden: From Athens to Amsterdam, is inspired by contemporary Greek theatrical production, as the ITA has been closely following Onassis Stegis' repertoire for the last decade.
The tribute will showcase the productions that formed the backbone of Onassis Stegi’s Greek programming for 2023: Vassilis Vilaras’s Earthquake, Sister Sylvester and Nadah el Shazly’s Constantinopoliad, Dimitris Karantzas’s The House, Yannis Angelakas and Christos Papadopoulos’s Nekyia, and Anestis Azas and Prodromos Tsinikoris’s Romaland. This year’s theater program also includes a performance –produced by the National Theatre of Greece– entitled “Goodbye Lindita” by Mario Banushi, who is an Onassis AiR Fellow for the season 2023-24. A parallel program will also be added, and Lena Kitsopoulou will conclude the festival event with a rebetiko concert. The Callas, the Greek artistic duo will present The Dancing Riot Parade which includes their pop-folk embroideries, textiles and paintings of ‘Working Class Madonnas’, as shown last year at Onassis Stegi art exhibition The Callas: Love Solidarity Death (LSD). Together these productions form a dense and diverse repertory that brings together various theatrical generations, creators, and approaches that reflect the vision of Onassis Stegi's Outward Turn program.
Brandhaarden Festival is an international theatre festival that brings performances from notable foreign theatre makers to Amsterdam. The festival provides a unique overview of a single creator, house, writer, region, or theme. In previous editions, we highlighted directors such as Katie Mitchell, Milo Rau, and the collective Rimini Protokoll, writer Édouard Louis, the Southern European region (Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece), and city theatres such as Münchner Kammerspiele, Volksbühne Berlin, and Peter Brooks Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord.
Brandhaarden Festival comments: “Central guest of Brandhaarden 2024 is the Onassis Stegi, one of Greece's most pioneering theatres. During the 12th edition of Brandhaarden, from 30 January to 10 February, we will highlight the importance and influence of the Onassis Foundation within the theatre landscape and the wider social context. From Athens to Amsterdam” Brandhaarden 2024 invites us to look at 'New Greeks', contemporary makers from the very country where ancient culture is celebrated as the origin of our theatre. We present no fewer than seven productions on contemporary Greek culture, through the eyes of Greece's most challenging and thought-provoking theatre-makers. With new forms, but also often referring back to the well-known figures of Ancient Greece. The fringe programme of Brandhaarden 2024 is dedicated to 'Modern Myths'. We invite the audience to reflect on the power of shared stories, but together we will also look at how this can turn into widespread ideas that are not necessarily true and thus can further marginalise vulnerable communities.”
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Photo: Fabian Calis
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Photo: Andreas Simopoulos
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Photo: Andreas Simopoulos
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Photo: Fabian Calis
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Photo: Fabian Calis
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Photo: Andreas Simopoulos
The Brandhaarden will welcome the Greeks at ITA's two stages as January draws to an end:
January 30-31, "Earthquake" by Vassilis Vilaras. A vibrant, colorful performance that defies all stereotypes: nonbinary individuals, trans femininities, sex workers, and individuals with fat bodies unite to sing their own stories fearlessly and passionately in opposition to the oppressive rise of racism and neo-conservatism.
February 1-2, "Constantinopoliad" by Sister Sylvester and Nadah El Shazly. The chronicle of Constantine Cavafy's violent flight from Alexandria to Constantinople is brought to life as the surviving manuscripts are read collectively by the audience. Visual artist Kathryn Hamilton, aka Sister Sylvester, teams up with Egyptian musician Nadah El Shazly to stage a hypnotic holistic spectacle. We are imaginatively drawn into the poetic charm of young Cavafy through the use of vocal, musical, and narrative motifs as well as sound and video installations. The performance debuted in New York in April 2023, as part of the Onassis Foundation's "Archive of Desire" festival, which commemorated the 160th anniversary of the birth of the great Alexandrian poet.
February 5-6, "The House" by Dimitris Karantzas. In the distinguished Greek director's first "mature" writing attempt, violence, intolerance, war, and decades of environmental collapse spill over from the public to the private sphere: the house of two unsuspecting people who pretend that they live an orderly life, while diligently burying skeletons in their closets.
February 7-8, "Nekyia" by Yannis Agellakas and Christos Papadopoulos. Musician and poet Giannis Aggelakas collaborates with established choreographer Christos Papadopoulos on Nekyia, a unique viewing and listening experience based on the most arresting rhapsody of the "Odyssey." The Homeric epic’s iconic rhapsody L, viewed through the hybrid lens of a performative and musical experience, culminates in a mystical ceremony about life after death.
February 9-10, "Romaland" by Anestis Azas and Prodromos Tsinikoris. This is the first time the voice of the Greek Roma has been heard on a theatrical platform. The creators of "Clean City," the most widely toured Greek theatrical production, Anestis Azas and Prodromos Tsinikoris, return with a project about the lives of Greek Roma that blurs the line between documentary and fiction. Five Roma experts recount events from their lives, weaving together a mosaic of racism, violence, exclusion, and state indifference.
February 10, "Rebetiko Concert" with Lena Kitsopoulou. Lena Kitsopoulou, Greece's most subversive playwright, director, and actress in the last 15 years, has her own "weaknesses." Kitsopoulou's creative madness comes to light through Greek folk music, particularly rebetika about passion and love.
January 30 – February 10, Love Solidarity Death (LSD), The Dancing Riot Parade by The Callas, a band, an arts duo, and brothers of course (in life and on stage), present a psychedelic spell of an exhibition, cast over the past, present, and future of the Greek visual arts and music scenes. The Dancing Riot Parade includes The Callas’ pop-folk embroideries, textiles and paintings of ‘Working Class Madonnas’, the fragmentation and the psychedelic patterns of East Beat, an oriental-punk installation crawling on the floor like an endless pavement and the hallucinogenic Soft Cosmos of the hand embroidered tapestries hanging on the walls like weirdo protest banners or anti-flags.
