Survival on a roof shared with your enemy
The Mikri Porta theater is about to open its doors for the new season with a joint production with the Athens Festival that was staged last June. While rehearsals take place for the theater’s next production, Nino d’Introna and Giacomo Ravicchio’s «Robinson and Crusoe» will be staged for a limited run, beginning tomorrow through November 4. In the play, which is addressed to children 6 years old and older but which also appeals to adults, a flood forces two soldiers from opposite camps to seek refuge on a roof which they are forced to share although their countries are at war, they are enemies and don’t even speak the same language. In the beginning, they keep clashing and embark upon a power game. «When they get tired of the pointless fighting, they understand that they have been trapped together by nature,» explains the play’s director Lilo Baur. «Their attitude gradually changes and they realize that survival is easier for two instead of just one. They spend their time making up games and the fact that they don’t speak the same language leads to funny instances. They become children once more.» Baur, who has worked with Peter Brook and the Theatre de Complicite, knows how to teach the art of communication through body language. It should be noted that when the play was staged in Israel, the two parts were played by an Israeli and a Palestinian. The production stars Petros Spyropoulos and Theodoris Skyftoulis. Xenia Kalogeropoulou translated the play and the sets and costumes are by Christina Kostea. After «Robinson and Crusoe,» Mike Kenny’s «Rumpelstiltskin» will take the stage. Mikri Porta, 59 Mesogeion, tel 210.771.1333.
