{"id":96,"date":"2019-05-28T13:30:31","date_gmt":"2019-05-28T13:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/?p=96"},"modified":"2022-02-06T20:04:08","modified_gmt":"2022-02-06T20:04:08","slug":"eclectic-encounters-in-the-forest-festival-of-thessaloniki","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/eclectic-encounters-in-the-forest-festival-of-thessaloniki\/","title":{"rendered":"Eclectic Encounters in the Forest Festival of Thessaloniki"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Katerina Delikonstantinidou<\/strong><a href=\"#end\" name=\"back\">*<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-light-green-cyan-background-color has-background\"><strong>2<sup>nd<\/sup> International Forest Festival of Thessaloniki, Greece, <br>June 28-July 6, 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"621\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/04\/Photo-1-1.jpg?resize=400%2C621&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-98\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/04\/Photo-1-1.jpg?w=400&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/04\/Photo-1-1.jpg?resize=193%2C300&amp;ssl=1 193w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><figcaption>The official poster of the festival\u2019s 2<sup>nd<\/sup> edition<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"466\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/04\/Photo-2-Forest-Theatre.jpg?resize=700%2C466&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/04\/Photo-2-Forest-Theatre.jpg?w=700&amp;ssl=1 700w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/04\/Photo-2-Forest-Theatre.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><figcaption>Forest Theatre (or <em>Theatro Dassous<\/em>), Thessaloniki, Greece. Photo: Geo Kaza<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2015, the National Theatre of Northern Greece (NTNG) collaborated\nwith the Hellenic Festival to organize the first Forest Festival of\nThessaloniki in an effort to enhance the outreach and diversity of local\ntheatre. \u0399n 2017, a two-week International Festival was added to the Forest\nFestival. The nascent institution has sought to introduce new theatrical\napproaches, trends, and directions that are under-represented in Greek theatre.\nFour productions hosted by the 2<sup>nd<\/sup> International Forest Festival\ntestify eloquently to that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"video-1\">Video 1<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<div align=\"center\" style=\"text-align: center; font-size: 12px\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"700\" height=\"393\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cGzkcyqLOfM?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><br>2<sup>nd<\/sup> International Forest Festival Promotional Video<\/div><br>\n\n\n\n<p>The first is <em>Vangelo <\/em>(<em>Gospel<\/em>), a piece that draws together\nphysical theatre, documentary theatre, and operatic strands. The highly\noriginal musical performance was created and directed by Pippo Delbono and\npresented by himself and the members of the Pippo Delbono Company. With <em>Vangelo <\/em>Delbono offers up for\ncontemplation a multimedia sermon, humane, transgressive and paradoxical; as\nparadoxical as the premise of its creation, since a self-proclaimed\nnon-Christian has crafted an interpretation of the gospels for a faith-troubled\nage with playful and benign devilry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"466\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/04\/Photo-3-From-Vangelo.-ERT-and-Pippo-Delbono.png?resize=700%2C466&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-100\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/04\/Photo-3-From-Vangelo.-ERT-and-Pippo-Delbono.png?w=700&amp;ssl=1 700w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/04\/Photo-3-From-Vangelo.-ERT-and-Pippo-Delbono.png?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><figcaption>Bob\u00f2, the late Vincenzo Cannavacciuolo (1936-2019), and Pippo Delbono. Delbono\u2019s encounter with deaf and mute Bob\u00f2 in 1996, while the latter was interned in a psychiatric hospital, marked a turning point in his work. <br>Photo: ERT and Pippo Delbono<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Delbono, master of ceremonies in this ritualistic performance, explains\nearly on that the show has been developed as his response to his mother\u2019s dying\nrequest to create a work on the Gospels that would convey the message of love.\nDisparate elements spun their way into it: holy and unholy Virgin Marys, nuns\nand go-go girls; Christ-like figures, pop Christ-related products and\ncontemporary refugees-<em>cum<\/em>-martyrs;\nspectacular devils and caricatured buddhas; his own struggle with AIDS and\nothers\u2019 experience of disability, social stigma, oppression; and lots of\nallusions to high and low culture, ancient and modern, some evocative and\nothers obscure. Finally, he composed a visual panorama, bizarre and enchanting\nlike a Hieronymus Bosch painting, which comes to life through dance and\nmusic\u2014the latter owing much to Enzo Avitabile\u2019s musical genius. Delbono\u2019s\nwords, whether drawing from the gospels, his autobiography, or others\u2019\n(hi)stories, sew seams where seams could not be imagined. They are touching,\nraving, feverish, their truth taking us by the throat, their humour by\nsurprise. At times, they allow us to navigate through his composition and, at\nothers, let us get lost in it, disarmed and vulnerable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"455\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/04\/Photo-4-From-Vangelo.-Photo-Luca-DelPia.jpg?resize=700%2C455&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-101\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/04\/Photo-4-From-Vangelo.-Photo-Luca-DelPia.jpg?w=700&amp;ssl=1 700w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/04\/Photo-4-From-Vangelo.-Photo-Luca-DelPia.jpg?resize=300%2C195&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><figcaption>Music is one of the most captivating elements of <em>Vangelo<\/em>. Enzo Avitabile\u2019s contribution to its sweeping power has been immense. Photo: Luca DelPia<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Delbono\u2019s peculiar \u201csermon\u201d can become more effective and convincing if\nspeech does not remain the reserved domain of its creator, too often reading\nfrom his notes and far too wordy. That way the inclusivity Delbono reputedly\nstrives for would not be limited to the level of scenic presence and his\ntwo-hour-long monologue would not end up raising suspicions of an undercurrent\nof self-gratification. That way the excluded of the world, those really\nexcluded from the privileged narratives of the world and lacking the means of\nconjuring a stage for themselves, could acquire an actual voice of their own,\nand thus the possibility of enhanced agency, besides a far more easily\nmarketable visibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"577\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/04\/Photo-5-1.jpg?resize=700%2C577&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-102\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/04\/Photo-5-1.jpg?w=700&amp;ssl=1 700w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/04\/Photo-5-1.jpg?resize=300%2C247&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><figcaption>Hybridation, presented by Olivier de Sagazan in the 2<sup>nd<\/sup> Forest Festival. Photo: NTNG<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Through Olivier de Sagazan\u2019s two performance pieces, <em>Hybridation<\/em> and <em>Transfiguration<\/em>, the festival audience was allowed to re-enter the realm of ritual and mysticism. In Sagazan\u2019s pieces, as the artist sculpts and mutates his (and his partner\u2019s) body using wet clay, allusions crop up not to some big-name religion but to the local shamanic traditions of Congo where he was born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"video-2\">Video 2<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<div align=\"center\" style=\"text-align: center; font-size: 12px\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"700\" height=\"393\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nqikjL1Us9s?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><br>Selected moments from the performance of <em>Hybridation<\/em><\/div><br>\n\n\n\n<p>With <em>Hybridation<\/em>, Sagazan\nlends a thoroughly visceral and tragic dimension to the philosophical notion\nthat a human being only discovers their individual self through and in relation\nto another self. Two humans (Sagazan and St\u00e9phanie Sant) strip off their\neveryday clothes and start sculpting each other with clay and paint. They use\ntheir naked bodies as canvases and portals to the abyss of human love. As layer\nafter layer of matter covers them, the two sculptors are materially and\nexistentially drawn to one another, their dialogue of mutual re-creation marked\nby eager experimentation with ways of achieving togetherness, until they merge.\nLiterally and figuratively blind within their new, shared flesh of clay, the\ncreators soon begin to consume one another at the same time as they struggle to\nchange the other\u2019s self into their own. Creator thus turns into destroyer,\ncloseness into rivalry, love into tragedy. The effort to create the perfectly\ncompatible \u201cother self\u201d ends up a cannibalistic game, ultimately leaving one\nhuman sculptor lifeless and the other life-drained; both alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"489\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/04\/Photo-6.jpg?resize=400%2C489&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-103\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/04\/Photo-6.jpg?w=400&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/04\/Photo-6.jpg?resize=245%2C300&amp;ssl=1 245w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><figcaption><em>Transfiguration<\/em>, a profoundly affecting study into the human existential quest.Photo: Valeria Tomasulo<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Fortunately, the spectators who left <em>Hybridation\n<\/em>with a heavy heart would have the opportunity to cheer up two hours later\nwith the solo piece <em>Transfiguration<\/em>.\nEmploying his characteristic method of creating a living sculpture out of his\nown body, the artist sets out on a journey to discover the essence of the human\npresence and the ultimate meaning of life through successive stages of\ntransfiguration: into an animal, a spirit\/demon, a monster, a hybrid posthuman\nentity. A series of masterly staged breakdowns (in the human), breakaways (from\nthe physical), and breakthroughs (toward the spiritual beyond), allow the\nsculptor\/sculpture and the spectators to confront and be strangely emboldened\nby the truthfulness of ugly distortion which echoes the truth of existential\nagony. Alas, the wandering\/wondering creature soon realizes that even as bird\nit cannot fly, even as spirit it cannot abandon human need, even as monster it\ncannot defeat fear, even as hybrid it cannot be free of identity. Raging with\ndespair, it thrashes around and against the background of metal walls\u2014the bars\nof its proverbial cage. Yet, by the end of the piece the very source of despair\nemerges as a source of energy, as the cradle of possibility. The human\nmanifests the species\u2019 triumphant resilience. While it cannot go on, it will go\non\u2014Beckett\u2019s influence hard to miss. And we can all stop holding our breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"463\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/04\/Photo-7.jpg?resize=700%2C463&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-104\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/04\/Photo-7.jpg?w=700&amp;ssl=1 700w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/04\/Photo-7.jpg?resize=300%2C198&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><figcaption><em>Your Kingdom<\/em> by the Hungarian Forte Company, an imaginative reworking of S\u00e1ndor Tar\u2019s short stories using the tools of physical theatre. Photo: NTNG<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, Forte Company\u2019s <em>Your\nKingdom<\/em> (<em>A te orsz\u00e1god<\/em>) is\nanother instance of physical theatre. Since its foundation, in 2005, by\ndirector and choreographer Csaba Horv\u00e1th, this Hungarian company has been\nexperimenting with a rigorous kind of physical theatre in which speech and\ntext, gesture and dance, voice and music, as well as the human body are\nenlisted for the development of an alternative \u201cstage language.\u201d Their <em>Kingdom<\/em> speaks in that tongue and\ninvites the audience to rethink what they know about storytelling, dramaturgy,\nand the performance space as the site par excellence on which narrative worlds\nare erected and fall into ruin in the blink of an eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"video-3\">Video 3<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<div align=\"center\" style=\"text-align: center; font-size: 12px\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"700\" height=\"393\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/p-zpeK10Mgo?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><br>Forte Company\u2019s <em>Your Kingdom<\/em><\/div><br>\n\n\n\n<p>The narrative worlds this work engages are those of S\u00e1ndor Tar\u2019s (1941-2005) short stories. In this reworking of Tar\u2019s fiction, a literal dimension is given onstage to the historical edifice of socialism and to the human building blocks, scaffolds, and machines used to elevate, support, and operate it, the ones that were buried in the debris of its crumbling under the weight of reality: the un-dealt-with workers, the disenfranchised fringe figures of recorded history. It was these figures that Tar\u2019s work sought to rescue from the ruins of selective, because conditioned, memory, and the disintegration which unfolds onstage is both the disintegration of an era and the mental disintegration of those most pitiful bearers of the former\u2019s devastating consequences. Praise is due to playwright Judit Garai, writer Tibor Keresztury, and the performers of Forte Company for their nuanced treatment of Tar\u2019s oeuvre, but also for managing to make their take on Tar\u2019s view of the Hungarian <em>Kingdom<\/em> resonate with the audience of the Greek \u201ckingdom.\u201d<a name=\"end\">&nbsp;<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/04\/Me.jpg?resize=150%2C150&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-97\" alignnone=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/04\/Me.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/04\/Me.jpg?w=230&amp;ssl=1 230w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p><a name=\"end\" href=\"#back\">*<\/a><strong>Katerina Delikonstantinidou <\/strong>holds a PhD in Theatre Studies from the School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Her articles have been published in numerous volumes and journals, her research work has been presented at national and international conferences, and she is the recipient of several grants and scholarships. She is currently employed as a lecturer in Adult Education institutions while working on her post-doctoral research on Digital Theatre (in) Education. She has been a member of the web team for and a regular contributor to <em>Critical Stages<\/em> since 2014. Her research areas include Theatre and Performing Arts, Greek Tragedy, Ethnic Studies, Digital Literacies and Education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">Copyright <strong>\u00a9<\/strong> 2019 Katerina Delikonstantinidou<br><em>Critical Stages\/Sc\u00e8nes critiques<\/em> e-ISSN: 2409-7411<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/88x31.png?w=750&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Creative Commons Attribution International License\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">This work is licensed under the<br>Creative Commons Attribution International License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Katerina Delikonstantinidou* 2nd International Forest Festival of Thessaloniki, Greece, June 28-July 6, 2018 In 2015, the National Theatre of Northern Greece (NTNG) collaborated with the Hellenic Festival to organize the first Forest Festival of Thessaloniki in an effort to enhance<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":101,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-96","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performance-reviews","tag-by-katerina-delikonstantinidou","","tg-column-two"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/04\/Photo-4-From-Vangelo.-Photo-Luca-DelPia.jpg?fit=700%2C455&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paUXOT-1y","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1305,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions\/1305"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}