What makes you breathe? What deprives you of air? What do you believe in? Where do you swear by? “Oxygen” by Ivan Vyrypaev, a theatrical manifesto for the 00s, is presented as an antidote to the “psychopolitical suffocation” of Generation Z. A troupe of 25 individuals, all members of this generation, participating in a spiritual rave experience.
“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.
Director's note
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
Credits:
Direction, Translation & Adaptation: George Koutlis
Adaptation & Dramaturgy: Vasilis Magouliotis
Choreography: Alexandros Stavropoulos
Movement: Alkistis Polychroni
Music & DJs on stage: Reign of Time
Music & Sound Design: Jeph Vanger
Set Design: Constantine Skourletis
Video Design: Uncharted Limbo Collective
Costumes Design: Eva Goulakou & Dimos Klimenof
Lighting Design: Eliza Alexandropoulou
Assistant to the Director and Artistic Collaborator: Eleni Koutsioumpa
Assistant to the Costume Designers: Alexandra - Anastasia Ftouli
Assistant to the Lighting Designer: Marietta Pavlaki
Performers (alphabetically):
Gavriela Antonopoulou, Electra Barouta, Ioannis Bastas, Nikolas Chatzivasiliadis, Chara Giota, Nikos Gonidis, Marios Hadjiantoni, Eleftheria Iliopoulou, Panos Kladis, Despina Lagoudaki, Marianna Mathia, Alexandros Nouskas Varelas, Evini Pantelaki, Kostas Phoenix, Antonia Pitoulidou, Gal A. Robissa, Katerina Samara, Natalia Swift, Thodoris Theodorakopoulos, Giannis Tomazos, Anastasia Valsamaki, Noemi Vasileiadou, Jason Vrochidis.
With English subtitles:
Saturday 23/11, Sunday 24/11, Saturday 30/11, Sunday 30/11, Sunday 1/12, Saturday 7/12, Sunday 8/12, Saturday 14/12, Sunday 15/12, Sunday 22/12 and Sunday 29/12/2024.
