Stones & Bones | 2021-22 | RootlessRoot

For their latest piece, “Stones and Bones”, RootlessRoot worked with the English sculptor Peter Randall-Page to create a performance about the transience of human existence. White marble – a material with metaphysical dimensions that constitutes the bedrock of European civilization – lies at the core of the work, even though its natural place lies inside majestic mountains, far outside theater convention.

In “Stones and Bones”, five female performers – dancing to an original score by Vassilis Mantzoukis – carve out a poem about the fragile nature of human existence and the need to leave our mark on the world.

Artist's note

I won’t lie
If I tell that
I search
Not knowing
What I am looking for

Art is as forceful as science
It just focuses on what we can’t measure

Why did nature come up with mortality?
How is it that
We live
And disappear
Before we have a chance to understand
The story of life?

Language and bodies
Can break
The arrow of time
Stretch the Boltzmann‘s
Almost always increasing entropy
Order and diversity
That are destined to become
Dead and cold universe

Stones
-The oldest memory-
Bones
-I start with more
And die with less-
4 women
3 stones
And IMAGINATION

This performance
It is about the stone
About memory
The Perception of time
The Scale of time
The Life of the stone
The Life of life
—RootlessRoot

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Photo: Andreas Simopoulos
Stones & Bones | RootlessRoot

The performance – an Onassis Stegi production – began rehearsals at the start of 2020 and was to have premiered in April that same year. Three weeks before its scheduled premiere on the Onassis Stegi Main Stage, all preparations came to a halt due to the pandemic, and this turn of events was repeated once more in the fall, when all performance venues in Greece were shuttered.

A filmed version of "Stones & Bones" was screened for 24 hours on the Onassis Foundation YouTube Channel.

Watch "Stones & Bones" the Making of

Video

I am a Hunter by Andreas Loukakos and Sofia Sfyri

Video

I am a Hunter by Andreas Loukakos and Sofia Sfyri

Credits

Artistic Directors & Choreographers
Rootlessroot - Linda Kapetanea, Jozef Fruček
Performed by
Linda Kapetanea, Elena Topalidou, Iro Konti, Hyaejin Lee
Music Composition
Vassilis Mantzoukis
Songs performed by
Martha Frintzila
Musicians on Stage
Vassilis Mantzoukis, Kostas Nikolopoulos, Nikos Papaioannou, Lampros Papanikolaou
Set Design & Visual Contributors
Thomas Randall-Page, Peter Randall-Page
Set supervision
Paris Mexis
Sound Design
Christos Parapagidis
Sound Engineer
Yiannis Skandamis
Light Design
Periklis Mathiellis
Costumes Designer
Isabelle Lhoas
Texts
Jozef Fruček
Texts Editing
Ioanna Nasiopoulou
Photography
Alexandros Papathanasopoulos
Production Management & Touring
Cultόpια
Supported by
Iktinos Marmaron
Produced by
Onassis Stegi

“Stones & Bones” tour is supported by Onassis Stegi - “Outward Turn” Cultural export program and funded by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports for its European tour production coordination

Additional Song "How Should I Your True Love Know" / Lyrics: The first of Shakespeare's Ophelia's ‘Mad Songs,’ “Hamlet,” Act IV Scene 5 (traditional music of unknown author)