Oxygen | George Koutlis

“I write for a generation of educated young people who do not go to the theater that often,” the leading spokesman of the New Russian Drama, Ivan Vyrypaev, stated in 2003, now ostracized by the Russian regime and a naturalized Polish citizen. A theatrical manifesto of the 00s generation, "Oxygen" was written as a prose narrated by two characters—a girl and a boy bearing the same name—accompanied by a live dj-set to allow its staging in theatrical venues and clubs equally. Structured in ten chapters, like a transcription of the Ten Commandments and a novel New Testament, it launched from a reversed “Thou shalt not kill” to culminate into a biblical Revelation, all the while permeated by the agonizing question, “What is oxygen to you?”

Twenty years later, the popular Greek director George Koutlis transcribes the work into today in the form of a Generation Z reflection, transforming the stage into a rave party with dj's Reign of Time on the decks and a young troupe that, like a post-dramatic chorus, seeks through the lens of blasphemous poetics the antidote to the psychopolitical suffocation of our times.

A rave party, a bacchanalian non-stop beat, a generational manifesto, beings vibrating to the DJ’s music, searching for a lost religiosity, giving the impression that if they stop dancing, they will stop breathing. They are looking for what oxygen is, what makes us breathe, and what deprives us of air. They try to talk to the audience alongside music, which brings the body into a trance. Two DJs at the decks, 11 actors, and a 12-member chorus of dancers. All of them are members of Generation Z. They dance non-stop, they get drunk, they fall in love, and some of them grab the microphones and talk. Based on Ivan Vyrypaev's play, “Oxygen,” with texts devised by the actors, we will tell the story of Sasha and Sasha, who open their souls―all the dirt, cruelty, and beauty of human nature―trying to answer a primordial, unanswerable question: “What is your oxygen?”

-George Koutlis

-10 conversations and commandments on the most pressing issues of today, from the September 11th attacks to the worldwide environmental crisis. Two young protagonists desperately sucking the oxygen out of the world around them, a man and a woman—both named Sasha—who have found each other in order to lay out their generational musings on the meaning of life, homeland, impotence, and conscience in ten compositions.

- A scene of improvisation is included in the performance. A single word, different at each show—such as ‘home,’ ‘caress,’ ‘sky,’ ‘child,’ etc.—appears on the stage screens. With that word as a starting point, actress Noemi Vassiliadou begins a spontaneous monologue of free associations. No two monologues are the same.

-“Oxygen” was first staged in Moscow in 2002, starring the author himself and an actress. It is Ivan Vyrypaev’s fourth play, and it was crowned the ‘manifesto’ of the New Drama movement, a symbol of the Russian dramaturgy of the 00s.

-George Koutlis’ research for the translation of “Oxygen” from Russian and its subsequent rewrite in Greek, in collaboration with Vasilis Magouliotis, was supported by the Onassis Foundation in the framework of the Onassis AiR Dramaturgy Fellowship.

-In Greece, Maria-Louiza Papadopoulou directed the play's first presentation in 2007 at Notos Theater (Amore Theater), with actors Petros Stathakopoulos and Penelope Markopoulou and musician Alexandros Voulgaris (The Boy) providing the live score. Assistant directors were the young Dimitris Karantzas and Thanos Papakonstantinou.

-In 2009, “Oxygen” was transferred to cinema as a musical drama film, directed by Vyrypaev. The film maintains the experimental and provocative temperament of the original theatrical play, exploring the contemporary era’s moral and existential dilemmas through a unique amalgamation of theater, music, and cinematic storytelling.

-In Ivan Vyrypaev’s “Oxygen,” New and Old Testament passages become the framework for a contemporary and acute examination of the era’s moral challenges. Through three monologues and seven dialogues, the play touches on the ethical impasses that haunt the modern world, profiling a generation that demands answers and collides with the past.

-George Koutlis’ adaptation transcribes the spirit of the work into today to render the latter accessible to a contemporary audience. The linguistic antics of the text regarding the measure, homophonic words, and alliterations guide the rendering of the text in Greek, with its translation maintaining the necessary musicality, rhythmicity, and physicality of the images as triggered by the sound of the words.

-As part of his teaching at the Drama School of the Athens Conservatory, George Koutlis worked on and presented a draft of the performance in 2020 together with the school’s students.

-Ivan Vyrypaev is wanted under the article of the Criminal Code by the Russian state, and his works are banned on Russian territory. In May 2023, he was convicted in Moscow on charges of "spreading false information" regarding the Russian military. He has resided in Poland for years and is a naturalized Polish citizen.

-As a director, Vyrypaev became internationally known with the film "Euphoria" (2006), which was awarded the Little Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

-In interviews, he said that he considers Eminem to be one of the most important poets and dramatists of the modern era and that ideally, he would like to create art with the meaning and depth of Tarkovsky and the means and boldness of Tarantino.

-He has also self-identified as an accidental "meta-translator" of some ideas floating in the universe, "a postman who delivers a parcel without being responsible for the parcel he delivers."

-He notes about theater: "Today, the question of the theater's position vis-à-vis the world is raised in an urgent manner. If the theater continues to cater to the public’s entertainment, we can expect many terrible outcomes. It is a choice we have to make for the theater and art in general."

-He also talks about rhythm in life and on stage: "Rhythm is the pulse of life. Everything consists of rhythm. Movement―that’s rhythm. All of the universe―that’s rhythm. A play―that is also rhythm. Music―that’s the rhythm of touched notes. A play is the same thing, only they’re words. Rhythm is the organizing force of a play’s action, but it derives from within the play, from how the play is written.”

Ivan Vyrypayev's "Oxygen" is published in Greek by Kapa Publishing House and is available at selected bookstores and the Onassis Shop. The book includes George Koutlis’ translation from the Russian original and his adaptation in collaboration with Vasilis Magouliotis for the needs of the performance.