AKROPOLIS
RECONSTRUCTION

Based on Wyspianski's play and Grotowski's performance

“The play,with its fantasticality and symbolisation surpassing over all previous works, is an image of evolving humanity in its warlike and pastoral aspects, with the power of a song prevailing over all.”

THE PLAY
Wyspianski, one of the most important classic writers of Poland, wrote «Acropolis» in 1904. He wrote it occasioned by the reconstruction of the Cathedral of Wawel in Krakow-that's why the term Re-construction is kept in the title of the show-and his vision Wawel becoming the Acropolis of the Polish nation.

The plot:
The night of Resurrection-which comes only once per year- angels, monuments, characters from the Old Testament, and Trojan heroes like Paris and Helen, which embellish the cathedral come, to life in front of our eyes in order to live the reformation of their story.

THE PERFORMANCE
A visit to a Museum. A visit to a classic text. The first exhibit is the language. The second are the bodies within this language. A visit to a place of collective memory and History. Seven actors emerge from a tank of water as the river of oblivion, in which they often return to during the show. The performance is divided into three seemingly separate acts.

ACT I: AWAKENING In the first act, as an awakening to life angels and monuments form a complete study of the energy and magic of desire. Gravitate towards each other, learn to touch, identifying the bodies through emotions and instincts. In this effort of awakening the word FORGET comes back again and again.

ACT II: JEWISH CHORUS- GROTOWSKI In Wyspianski's play the characters of the Jewish story, who are depicted in one of the two tapestries of Wawel's Cathedral, come to life. In the legendary show of Acropolis by Grotowski all the characters are seen as prisoners in Auschwitz. In Acropolis Re-construction the starting point for the second act is Grotowski's show. Since it is part History and somehow it is one of the monuments of the Worlds Theatre. A slide show of archive material and photographs from Grotowski's performance is the background on which the actors with precision double scenes.

ACT III: THE RAPSODY OF TROY The Trojan heroes climb down from the tapestry of the museum which depicts the Trojan War. Like the monuments, they are also imprisoned inside the Walls of Troy, a little before their own Holocaust

Translation from the Polish Text: Dimitris Chouliarakis
Direction - Dramaturgy: Michael Marmarinos
Music: Dimitris Kamarotos
Set Design: Antonis Daglidis
Costum Design:Dora Lelouda

Light Design:Giannis Drakoularakos
Assistant Director: Myrto Pervolaraki
2nd Assistant Director -Polish Tuition: Stamatina Papamichali
Production:

Video from the performance in Wroclaw, Polland