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Waiting for Goodbye Lindita  (Eleni Papadaki Stage - Rex Theatre, Athens - 20 April 2024, 18:00) © Mehmet Kerem Özel Waiting for MAMI   (Onassis Stegi, Athens - 16 March 2025, 14:00) © Mehmet Kerem Özel Born in 1998 in Tirana, Albania, residing in Greece since 2004 and graduated from the Athens Conservatory Theatre School of Acting, director Mario Banushi is currently the youngest rising star in Europe, and even the world, in the performing arts.  Following the end of the pandemic period, in 2022, he garnered significant attention with his inaugural work, entitled Ragada (Stretch Marks). This was followed by Goodbye Lindita , staged in 2023 upon an invitation from the National Theatre of Greece, which played to sold-out crowds in Athens for a period of three years, while also touring the world. Invited to the Amsterdam Brandhaarden Festival in February 2024, the Madrid Festival de Otoño, Dresden and Munich in the fall, and the prestigious Adelaide Festival in Australia in...

©Kenneth Morton  Celebrating its 5th anniversary this year, the Istanbul Fringe Festival, which took place between 16th - 23rd September, presented innovative and alternative shows in theatre, dance and performance from Turkey and around the world, as well as workshops and panels.  This week's guest is The How Theatre, an international ensemble of movement artists, actors and musicians based in New York. The How's mission is to create a space where audiences and artists can be challenged by a variety of perspectives, forms and stories. The company members believe in taking the emotional warmth of the world and manifesting it in physical form, breaking convention. Experimenting theatrically and involving musicians in their work, The How Theatre presented My Favorite Person at the festival, a two-person movement theatre piece that explores the dynamics of relationships between men and women using space, form and sound. Now it's time for our interview with the its director, P...

INK, Megaron-Athens, 2023, January 12th, World Premiere © M ehmet Kerem Özel 15 January 2023, on the plane, on the way back to istanbul  there are two worlds: one lived inside, the other projected outwards. the first is at the level of the stomach; full of water, turbulent, whirling, swirling, emotional, sensual; naturalness, sexuality reside here, this is where man is born. the second is at the level of the head; the mind, thoughts, lights scattered around... the old man on the stage, in black trousers and a black shirt with rolled up sleeves, has these two worlds...  in the first moment, the old man suddenly grabs an octopus from the ground, pulls it out, tames its flesh by beating it, bites off a piece, eats it, then sits down on a chair and rests... at that moment, the fountain moves in a certain radius from the level of the man's head and sprays water, the water hitting the curtain behind him...  the hunt for octopus is a very greek phenomenon, it's something that al...

Our series, which we devoted to Dimitris Papaioannou's Transverse Orientation , which is currently touring the world stages, started with a playful essay written by our writers Ayşe Draz and Mehmet Kerem Özel. We continue our series with an interview with Jan Möllmer, one of the performers of the piece.  © Simon Baucks Dimitris Papaioannou, in an interview with Mehmet Kerem Özel in Athens in December 2019 and published in Art Unlimited in February 2020, told performers from all over the world, from Canada to Korea, participated the audition for Transverse Orientation , which was under creation at that time. He said he was excited to be working with an international team for the first time, saying about the eight-person team, two of whom are Greek: “Now it seems that these talented people are willing to leave their homes and take an apartment in Athens in order to work with me. So, I’m taking advantage of the circumstances and I’m curious about what will happen. I’m enthusiastic wit...

For this article, that consists of sort of a play within itself, Dimitris Papaioannou selected and sent to the authors six images, previously not shared with the press, particularly for this article, from Transverse Orientation that the authors have watched together two nights in a row, on the evenings of October 10-11, in Plovdiv, within the scope of One Dance Week 2021. The authors then selected five images each and wrote down their recollections and impressions independently of each other. Just as Papaioannou does, for all his works, inviting a trusted friend for final rehearsals to give a title to the work, the authors invited choreographer/dancer Gizem Bilgen to give a title to this article. (Left aligned bold text by Mehmet Kerem Özel. Right aligned normal text by Ayşe Draz) Black orb-headed creatures that make vaguely mechanical noises; they're cute, they're happy. They are easily distracted, they can easily get involved in a game, but they can easily lose themselves ...

before the end of 2019, i met a new name in performing arts: euripides laskaridis. besides following the artists i know and love, i enjoy discovering new artists i haven’t known before. however, only a few of the shows, which i watched with hope and anticipation by artists whom i did not know before, affects me. i watched works of many artists that i had not known before at the festivals i attended in 2019 but i did not come across a name that appealed to my heart and aroused the desire to follow until my last trip to athens.  when i went to athens to watch the last performances of dimitris papaioannou's the great tamer at the end of november 2019, one of my evenings was free and there was the world premiere of  elenit,  the new piece by euripides laskaridis, one of the former performers of papaioannou. i can say that on my trip to athens i witnessed the death of one work and the birth of another as inspired by papaioannou's description of these last performances of ...

Dimitris Papaioannou- Portrait (Photo: Julian Mommert) At the end of November, when I was at Megaron Hall in Athens to attend the final performances of Dimitris Papaioannou’s The Great Tamer , I was introduced, in the foyer, to a lady by my Greek friend: Vicky Marangopoulou, the founder and former artistic director of the Kalamata Dance Festival, Greece's most famous and well-established dance festival. When my friend told her that I came all the way from Istanbul just to watch this piece, Ms. Marangopoulou said with her sparkling eyes: “ Years ago, the director of your festival, Dikmen [She refers to Dikmen Gürün, who was the director of the Istanbul Theater Festival between years 1993-2012] asked me to recommend a Greek company, and I told her Papaioannou's Medea . ” In other words, before Papaioannou became famous with the Opening and Closing ceremonies of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games , and long before he became a sought-after and praised figure worldwide in the last...

[The Turkish translation of this interview is published and can be accessed on  art.unlimited .] Dimitris Papaioannou- Portrait (Photo: Julian Mommert) On the first Sunday morning of December in a sunny and warm weather, we meet with the painter, director and visual artist Dimitris Papaioannou in a cute café in Pangrati, one of Athens’ bohemian and green neighborhoods. Dressed in a black tracksuit Papaioannou is in an emotional and sad mood. Following its 2.5-year-long world tour in 38 cities of 23 countries with more than 70,000 spectators, his last work The Great Tamer was performed for the last time on two previous sold-out evenings (29-30 November 2019) at the Megaron, Athens' largest theater of 1750 people. When I ask him about how he feels, Papaioannou describes the final performance of The Great Tamer as “ the funeral, the funeral of the show ” and adds: “ I very much like the fact that we closed The Great Tamer , we finished it, but I’m also very emotional about th...