A Brief Guide for Prospective Tightrope Walkers on Tour
By Stathis Markopoulos - Ayusaya Puppet Theater
The performance is based on the Greek translation by Christoforos Liontakis of Jean Genet’s “Le Funambule – Le Condamné à mort” (“The Tightrope Walker – The Man Sentenced to Death”), published by Ekdoseis Eikostou Protou (21st c. Editions), Athens, 2016.
The performance was originally created and presented during 2018-19 season as part of the yearly ‘away off-site’ performances produced by the Onassis Stegi for high-school students, teachers and other special audience groups, such as inmates, senior citizens, the chronically ill, people in rehabilitation centers, people with disabilities and everybody who is unable to access the arts easily, or is in remote areas.
Produced by Onassis Stegi
Creation 30/11/2018, Athens
Jumping-in-the-air-and-gravity-defying puppets come to meet you and tell you their big secret: “Nothing ties you to the ground; dance, you shan’t fall!”
A contemporary, lyrical puppet theater for all ages, with live music; puppet players, musicians and dancers give life to hand-made puppets.
We are all tightrope walkers, hence worthy of attaining freedom; this is what Jean Genet seems to be telling us in his famous lyrical manifesto “Le Funambule” (“The Tightrope Walker”, 1955), which has inspired this performance by the Ayusaya Puppet Theater.
Drawing inspiration from Genet’s instructions to the tightrope walker Abdallah Bentaga, to whom he dedicated his allegorical essay, the performers invite us to discover the craftsman-artist inside us all and respond to the challenges he sets us in the art of living.
“In this performance, Jean Genet’s famous text, which addresses the human being’s relationship with his liberating self and the attempt to reach it, is presented to the public in a world-wide first by puppets. Why? Because puppets as soulless objects, and puppeteers as their invisible servants, are legendary beings which know better than anyone else the game of life and death. From the very beginning they are designed and built to be what they are and sacrifice their short lives for our joy. The tightrope walker, the artist in general, the prospective poet or people as a whole can learn something about art, about their tools and/or lives from this harsh, condensed sincerity of mastered freedom.”
Stathis Markopoulos studied at the Department of Alternative and Puppet Theater at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts, and served his apprenticeship in workshops and street performances with the Spanish company Marionétas del Matadero. He has been working with his own productions in Greece and abroad since the foundation of the Ayusaya Puppet Theater in 1992, but also collaborates with other companies.
The puppets used in the performance are based on paintings by Colombian artist Fernando Botero, on the traditional Japanese Bunraku puppet theater and on the European Punch and Judy tradition.
The audience can engage with the company after the performance in the form of a free-ranging discussion with members of the company and a hands-on game played with the puppets.
The aim is sharing the experience, exploring the work and its themes, and investigating the animation process, the nature of puppets and their unique relationship with their puppeteers in an amusing way.
Constructions-Puppets: Stathis Markopoulos (Ayusaya Puppet Theater)
Dramaturgy: Vicky Georgiadou
Movement: Antonis Koutroumbis
Original Music: George Kastanos
With: George Kastanos, Vassiliki Maltsaki, Stathis Markopoulos, Anneta Stefanopoulou, Maria Fountouli
Executive Production: Delta Pi