"Les estivants" by Maxim Gorky
tg STAN
Dates
Tickets
Venue
Time & Date
Information
Tickets
18 €
Concs 10 €
Language
In French with Greek surtitles
Introduction
tg STAN’s staging of Maxim Gorky’s “Les Estivants” promises to be an experience.
Photo: Tim Wouters
Following on from the success of "Antigones", the celebrated Flemish company returns to the Onassis Stegi with Gorky’s most Chekhovian play, “Les Estivants” [“Summerfolk”, 1904]. Their pared-down but supremely powerful production exemplifies “real theater”, and while the action may take place in pre-revolutionary Russia, its focus remains firmly on the here and now.
In this rarely performed play so profoundly influenced by Anton Chekhov, Gorky uses a multitudinous cast to present a group of Russian intellectuals and bourgeois at their summer retreats, engrossed in their faltering marriages and fleeting passions, their ennui and inactivity, their clashes over beliefs and petty disagreements over trifles shortly before the Russian Revolution changes their lives forever.
A powerful allegory for our present and the entrenched intelligentsia of every era, the work takes on flesh and blood in this singularly intense and cinematic spectacle. Rejecting any sense of ‘playing a part’ and fusing with their roles, the nine actors fill the stage with their energy and their humor.
Toneelspelersgezelschap STAN was founded by four actors who graduated together from the Antwerp Conservatoire in 1989. Jolente De Keersmaeker, Damiaan De Schrijver, Waas Gramser and Frank Vercruyssen did not wish to join any existing companies, in which they seemed to perceive only an excessive aestheticism, unworldly formal experiments and the hand of (all too) authoritative directors. They wanted to place the emphasis on themselves, as actors, on their own abilities and manifest failings. They wished to blow up the illusion and to focus on pure acting – if necessary in mutual contradiction –, on a highly personal and rigorous commitment to the character and the story he/she has to tell. After a few productions Waas Gramser left the group and Sara De Roo joined it. Thomas Walgrave became its regular scenographer.
Two keywords characterise Tg STAN: ‘actor-oriented’ and ‘undogmatic’. The undogmatic aspect is reflected in the name – S(top) T(hinking) A(bout) N(ames) – as well as in the repertoire. Their confrontational working method prompts them to acquaint the most diverse audiences (preferably foreign ones, too) with their work, sometimes in several languages. In addition to the original, Dutch, version a great number of their pieces are also performed in English and/or French. This offered a new sounding board to the group: when performing in another language the words acquire a different meaning. Moreover they created several plays in a foreign language and in another country: "Point Blank" and "Berenice" were made in Lisbon (Portugal) and "One 2 Life" in Oakland, California (USA) – all of them in English. "Les Antigones", created in Toulouse (France), was STAN's first such venture in French.
After performance talk with tg STAN
29 November 2012
Upper Stage
Moderated by:
Dimitra Kondylaki: dramatologist, translator
Language:
English/Greek
Three-day workshop by tg STAN
28 & 30 November and 1 December 2012
11:00-16:00 (with intermission) | 5th floor - Young Theater Workshop | 21 €
During this three day workshop in Athens tg STAN wants to focus on the following aspects:
1) We want to present ourselves, who we are, what we do and why, and how we got to where we are now.
2) We want to get to know you, who you are, what you do and why, and how you got to where you are now.
3) We want to walk the way to a performance together without giving one.
4) We want to talk about living in the same part of the world but in such different circumstances, despite everything they promised.
5) We want to tell stories.
The actors of tg STAN have the intention of working with text fragments.
Addressed to:
Drama students, directors, professional actors and others
Language:
English
Requirements:
The participants will need to prepare themselves / learn lines on Thursday 29 November. The material will be sent beforehand, so that the participants have time to prepare.
Reservations:
T: 213 017 8004 | Email: education@onassis.org
