The "Other" Home
En Dynamei theater ensemble / Directed by Eleni Efthymiou
Dates
Tickets
Venue
Time & Date
Information
Tickets
Full price: 12 €
Reduced & Groups (5+ people): 9 €
People with disabilities: 5 €
Companions: 10 €
Unemployed: 5 €
Duration
1 hour and 50 minutes
Introduction
“Life is better when we all share it creatively”. With this motto the En Dynamei theater ensemble, which consists of people with and without disabilities, creates sensitive, humorous productions.
Photo: Stavros Petropoulos
What role does imagination play in the real world? How can it shape personal and public space? What is a ‘home’? Is a person with disabilities free to mould the environment in which they live? Is the welfare system equipped to cater for individual needs and desires? And who’s there to answer the anguished question every parent asks: “What will happen to my child when I am gone?”.
Following on from “The fan man or how to dress an elephant”, this new production from the ever-restless En Dynamei company is directed once again by the charismatic Eleni Efthymiou and explores the concept of space as a reflection of personal identity. Situated in the grey zone between conceptual and documentary theater, the work of the En Dynamei company, which consists of people with and without disabilities, is rooted in personal stories about disability collected from its members. Using this authentic material as its starting point, En Dynamei express without hang-ups, but with sensitivity and unexpected humour, the angst and unconfessed secrets of people who know what it’s like to be labelled ‘the Other’ .
“The ‘Other’ Home” is the end results of months of research carried out by means of special workshops set up especially for the purpose and via questionnaires, group improvisations and interviews with people who find themselves in the difficult situation of living, without wanting to, outside the structure and protection of the family (in old people’s homes, asylums, orphanages and other residential institutions). The production brings together society—the ‘big house’ in which we all live—and the ‘other’ home which society provides for vulnerable social groups, as well as the hopes, dreams, fears and expectations of En Dynamei’s members. Different views of a reality which usually remains hidden from sight are brought to light with a view to bridging the gap dividing us from the Other beside us.
Morning performances for schools:
Dates: Tuesday 12, Wednesday 13, Thursday 14, Friday 15, Tuesday 19, Wednesday 20, Thursday 21 and Friday 22 January 2016
Hours: 11:00-12:45
Addressed to: Students of Middle and High School
Evening performances for the public:
Saturday 9 January | 21:00
Sunday 10 January | 19:00
Saturday 16 January | 12:00 and 21:00
Sunday 17 January | 19:00
Saturday 23 January | 12:00 and 21:00
Sunday 24 January | 19:00
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Photo: Stavros Petropoulos
“The ‘Other’ Home” is the second play that forms part of the trilogy with the general title “The Other is the normal”, based on an idea of Eleni Dimopoulou, the artistic director of the En Dynamei Theater Ensemble. This trilogy arose from the burning need of the members of En Dynamei to publicly share their personal stories through the prism of an artistic event.
The first part of the trilogy, “The Fan Man or How to Dress an Elephant”, directed by Eleni Efthymiou, premiered in February 2014 at the Municipal Theater of Kalamaria in Thessaloniki and was part of the Athens Festival in 2015.
Onassis Stegi, participating in networks that aim to commission, create, and showcase performances and educational programs involving people with disabilities, incorporates projects that lie on the intersection between restless artistic practice and social awareness. In this context, Onassis Stegi has been organizing the Unlimited Festival since 2014 and has introduced a series of important performances to the Greek public, such as “Disabled Theatre” by Jérôme Bel and Theater Hora, as well as “Ganesh Versus the Third Reich” by the distinguished Australian company Back to Back Theatre, returning to Onassis Stegi this year with the production of “Small Metal Objects”.
A testing ground for the performance was the exhibition-installation “Home? Sweet littlest home”, which took place in January 2015 at the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki, curated by Thouli Misirloglou. The members of En Dynamei, collaborating with the set designers Richard Anthony and Maria Kavalioti and the cinematographer Dimitris Zahos, imagined a room, as each creator had it in mind, and recorded it, transformed it into mock-ups and built it in real size. In this way, the dream space became a life choice, an attempt at happiness. The research continued for months, with the collection of true story-texts, to form the basis for conceiving “The “Other” Home” during the rehearsal process.
The En Dynamei Theater Ensemble was founded in 2008 by Eleni Dimopoulou and Maria Ioannidou, with the conviction that life is better when you share it creatively and with the aim of fully integrating people with potential abilities in society. Actress and director Eleni Dimopoulou has been the artistic director of En Dynamei since 2008. A student of Roula Pateraki, she was a core member of the “Peiramatiki Skini” Performance and Art Group since 1987, studying theater as the essential site where the power of collectivity multiplied the cumulative effect of the artists’ individual participation. She envisions a theater that is direct, warm, familiar, genuine, and, at the same time, restless, unusual, dynamic; a theater that, while claiming its place in the contemporary art scene, represents its birthplace. Since February 2015, she has been the artistic director of the Municipal and Regional Theatre of Kozani.
Eleni Efthymiou participated as a director in the project “X Apartments Athens” organized by Onassis Stegi, in the context of the 2nd Fast Forward Festival. The play “The Fan Man or How to Dress an Elephant”, presented at the Athens Festival in 2015, was her first collaboration with En Dynamei.
Saturday 16 January
After performance talk with Eleni Efthymiou
Moderated by Sophia Eftichiadou, theater specialist
Children with or without mental disability work with each other in an experimential, visual art project and build the room of their dreams!
Dates: On Sundays 10, 17, 24 and 31 January & 7 and 14 February 2016
Time: 11:00-14:00
Addressed to: Children 8-12 years old with or without disabilities
Cost: 36 € (for the whole series)
Credits
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