EROTIC POSTCARDS FROM GREECE

A performance that leaves nothing standing in its wake, exposing everything to the hot Greek sun. Old habits, pathogens, summertime themes, epidemiological loads, tanned bodies, music hits, the desperate times of 2020, Greek lovers and ’70s-style flirting, fleeting love affairs, pills, empty pockets, and people who hate summer. Which Greek summer myths are we left with after the strangest summer in recent times? Is Greek summer a way of thinking? A way of looking at things? How does it unfold in the midst of a pandemic? What have been the effects on the emotional state and daily lives of today’s Greeks, and on the country’s once roaring tourist trade? At the end of it all, what was it we missed most out of everything summer means?

“Erotic Postcards from Greece” – an episodic musical farce on the myth that is Greek summer – was stopped five days before its premiere in March due to the lockdown. The work is finally to be presented on the Onassis Stegi Upper Stage on October 22, 2020, with the inclusion of additional elements that sprang readily from the new ways life is being lived since March.

Before Lena Kitsopoulou, Kostas Koutsolelos, Ioanna Mavrea, Theano Metaxa, Sofia Priovolou, Gary Salomon, and George Vourdamis bring their winter clothes out from storage, they grab their beach tents and bats, and talk to us about the compulsive notion that is Greek summer, all dreamy and erotic – a thing recognized here as a collective, national and, in part, international fantasy constructed out of various social stereotypes. They also align themselves perfectly with the times, with the situations we currently face, offering lessons on surviving 2020 filled with cutting honesty and caustic humor. Scenes of everyday life in a pandemic are set to famous seaside songs and threaded through with clichés that equate the touristic with the sexual in Greece’s marketing as a summertime retreat.

In this, their first collaboration, Anestis Azas and Lena Kitsopoulou explore the dark side of Greek summer: a moment for exceptions and relaxation, a point that helps define time itself and the ways in which it is perceived in Greece, and a season filled with expectant hopes and their denial. It is a performance that strikes a balance between autobiographical and fictive elements, exploring a variety of allusions to summertime imagery in order to comment on the patriarchy and national identity, on sexuality and sexism in our society today, and on frustration and panic in our new post-Covid economic, social, and cultural realities.

Credits

Concept & Direction: Anestis Azas

Texts: Lena Kitsopoulou and the team

Dramaturgy Consultant: Prodromos Tsinikoris

Director's collaborator: Ilias Adam

Lighting Design: Eliza Alexandropoulou

Set Design: Eleni Stroulia

Costume Design: Vassilia Rozana

Video Editing: Dimitris Zachos

Sound Design, Music Supervision & Adaptations: Panagiotis Manouilidis

Assistant to the Set Designer: Zaira Falirea

Production Manager & Line Producer: Kostis Panagiotopoulos

With: Lena Kitsopoulou, Kostas Koutsolelos, Ioanna Mavrea, Theano Metaxa, Sofia Priovolou, Gary Salomon and George Vourdamis

An Onassis Stegi Production

Suitable for audiences aged 18+

Performance includes provocative scenes and strong language.

At the weekends 24 & 25.10, 31.10 & 1.11, 7.11 & 8.11.2020 with English surtitles.

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Anestis Azas, a veteran of documentary theater, returns to Onassis Stegi four years after “Clean City” (co-directed with Prodromos Tsinikoris), which has toured more than 40 stages across Europe and beyond since 2016 – including the Münchner Kammerspiele (Munich), Théâtre de la Ville (Paris), the Sharjah Biennial (United Arab Emirates), and the Festival Grec (Barcelona) – with the sustained support of the Onassis Stegi “Outward Turn” Cultural Export Program. With this new work, he goes beyond the limits of purely documentary theater to arrive at a hybrid form that re-examines the relationship between documentary and fiction, negating and redefining the borders between them.

The singular author, director and actor Lena Kitsopoulou collaborates here as the writer of the text, upending everything we thought we knew about the Greek tourism industry in her inimitable renegade way.

Information

Onassis Stegi

Syngrou 107

October 22th – November 8th, 2020

Upper Stage | 20:00

Performances: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday

Duration 110 minutes

General presale: from 15 Oct 2020 17:00

Upper Stage

For the safety of our visitors they will be entering the stage in 4 time slots of 15 minutes each, starting from 20:00.

Analytically: A' time slot: 19:00-19:30 – Rows Ε-Θ

B' time slot: 19:30-20:00 – Rows Ι-Ν

Tickets

Full price: 15 €

Reduced, Friend: 12 €

Neighborhood residents: 7 €

People with disabilities, Unemployed: 5 €

Companions: 10 €

Group sales on groupsales@onassis.org

Age guidance: 18+

Tickets line

Tel.: +30 210 9005800

Mon-Fri 10:00-21:00

Sat-Sun 17:00-21:00

Onassis Stegi Friends line

Tel.: +30 213 0178200

Mon-Fri 10:00-18:00

Online Ticket Sales

Purchases can be made using credit and debit cards – Amex, Visa, MasterCard & Diners.

Onassis Stegi Friends can buy tickets through their electronic profile. By logging in with their personal ID and password, they can unlock discounts and presale opportunities.

Onassis Stegi Box Office is temporarily closed

infotickets@onassis.org

Purchases can be made using credit and debit cards – Amex, Visa, MasterCard & Diners.

Third party points of sales

Public stores network

Onassis Stegi, having as a priority the safety of the public and its employees, follows all prevention measures on sight to avoid possible transmission of the coronavirus. In this context, the Onassis Stegi Box Office will remain closed. Face coverings are required everywhere inside Onassis Stegi.

General Audience Instructions

The use of non-medical masks are mandatory everywhere inside Onassis Stegi.

All who enter are required to have their temperature taken.

Safe distancing (two meters) must be maintained by everyone at all times.

Hand sanitizer stands are available everywhere inside the Onassis Stegi.

Visitors must make their way directly to the auditoria and are not allowed to linger in the public areas (such as the foyer).

Crowding and congestion in the building’s public areas must be avoided. Audiences are required to print out their own tickets, or present them in electronic form.

Audiences must arrive within the time slots designated on their tickets.

Tickets are strictly for personal use and non-transferable.

Onassis Stegi box office will remain closed. Tickets cannot be printed on sight.

Please note that there are no intermissions during the performances.

The ground floor cloakroom and Liquid Bar will remain closed.

Audience members must sit in the seats indicated on their tickets – no seating changes are allowed.

Follow staff instructions to enter and exit the auditoriums.

The use of the elevators is restricted to vulnerable groups, disabled persons, and pregnant women, accompanied by one companion. The use of face mask is mandatory.

The use of the elevators for all events on the Upper Stage is allowed (max. 2 persons). The use of face mask is mandatory.

Only drivers are allowed to enter the underground parking garage. The use of face mask is mandatory.

Tickets are available at onassis.org, Onassis Stegi Call Center and Public stores. Audiences are required to print out their own tickets, or present them in electronic form.

Read more: https://www.onassis.org/whats-on/erotic-postcards-greece