Plays and puppets in Syros spectacle for Alexis Solomos
The Yellow Pages of state telephone company OTE is sponsoring this special event A composite spectacle dedicated to director Alexis Solomos will be the highlight of the Ermoupoleia 2001 festival on Syros from Friday through Sunday. Metamorphoses is a combination theater, visual arts and dance exhibit, the focus of which will be an exhibition of Takis Loukatos’s puppets on display in the foyer of the Apollon Theater from September 7-15. Loukatos constructed the puppets from an unusual mixture of materials – porcelain, clay, silver, gold leaf and brass. Apart from the exhibition, there will be four one-act plays by Jean Cocteau, which Alexis Solomos first directed in 1950 with Elli Lambeti in the leading role. The plays are Liar and The Specter of Marseilles, with Anna Fonsou in the leading role; Human Voice with Mina Heimona, and Celebration with Takis Loukatos. In the intervals between the plays there will be dance pieces based on texts by Cocteau performed by the Elliniko Horodrama dancers of Rallou Manou’s dance school and visual presentations by Takis Loukatos. The spectacle begins Friday at 8 p.m. in Miaouli Square in Ermoupolis, Syros. The actors and dancers will move on from there to the exhibition, and then on to the Apollon Theater. Giorgos Kitovas, who made the proposal for the presentation to the Ermoupolis Municipal Cultural Center, is responsible for the direction, scenery, costumes and lighting. Loukatos directs the plays; the choreographer is Varvara Paximada; the drama coach is Vera Zavitsianou, and the translation is by linguist and art historian Maria Christodoulidou. Sharing the stage with Steiger is Greek actress Maria Lambrou, along with six dancers. The production’s concept was developed by Tassos Alexopoulos and Bernd Kammermeier and the script is by Kammermeier and Michael Pfrommer. Light design is by Egon Werdin.
