{"id":774,"date":"2020-12-10T09:03:09","date_gmt":"2020-12-10T09:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/?p=774"},"modified":"2022-02-05T10:05:39","modified_gmt":"2022-02-05T10:05:39","slug":"exodos-the-body-is-the-oracle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/exodos-the-body-is-the-oracle\/","title":{"rendered":"Exodos<\/em>. The Body Is the Oracle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Penelope Chatzidimitriou*<\/strong>*<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attis Theatre, Exodos, <\/em>a synthesis of Pythia\u2019s oracles and monologues from Antigone<\/em>, Medea <\/em>and Alkestis<\/em>, directed by Theodoros Terzopoulos, 18 July 2020, Delphi, Greece.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pythia performed by Sophia Hill. Phot\u03bf: Katerina Tzigotzidou<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In our COVID-19 reality, is theatre still necessary? In the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic in July 2020, the European Cultural Centre of Delphi cooperated with the Greek theatre director Theodoros Terzopoulos and the local Ephorate of Antiquities of Phokis to organize its first live event of the COVID era. Entitled Exodos <\/em>(the final, concluding scene in ancient Greek tragedy but also exit in modern Greek), the event signified the exit from a reality that seems to be reaching a tragic end while heading towards a new era. The main event of this two day meeting was a performance, also entitled Exodos, <\/em>in the open-air archaeological site of Delphi, directed by Theodoros Terzopoulos. Terzopoulos\u2019 muse, Sophia Hill, the actress that Michael Billington in his review of Nora <\/em>(2020) described as \u201cone of the world\u2019s great actors . . . a feline Billie Whitelaw.\u201d (see also my review of Nora<\/a><\/em>), gave a solo performance based on oracles by Pythia, the High Priestess of Delphi in antiquity, and three monologues from the tragedies of Medea<\/em>, Alkestis<\/em> and Antigone<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Medea performed by Sophia Hill. Photo: Johanna Weber<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Exodos <\/em>is more than a remarkable performance of ancient Greek drama. It is the stage manifesto of an internationally acclaimed director for a New Theatre in our New Age. It is his response to the questions that the virus has posed, firstly about humankind and inevitably about theatre as an aesthetic and communal live event. Exodos <\/em>is the living declaration and evidence that the Oracle is still the body. For Terzopoulos, the Sacred Way that humankind and theatre alike should take always goes through the body and the senses, the sensual body: Doric bodies, like that of Sophia Hill in the Temple of Apollo, in harmony with nature, in an open dialogue with the miraculous but also the ruins of civilization, the latter\u2019s triumphs and traumas. Bodies open to the prospect of meeting the Other, thus bodies open to metamorphosis. Bodies dressed in their vibrating and pulsating physicality and\u2014in Sophia Hill\u2019s case\u2014also dressed in impressive, sober costumes and fabrics (designed by the distinguished Greek fashion designer Lukia, one of Terzopoulos\u2019 close collaborators in recent years). Their folds and flows extended the performing body to the lines, motions and transfigurations of the majestic, natural landscape at dusk. They also made it part of the imposing archaeological landscape, granting it equally monumental status among the colonnades of the Temple of Apollo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Alkestis performed by Sophia Hill. Photo: Katerina Tzigotzidou<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Wisely, the chosen monologues of Medea, Alkestis and Antigone did not directly comment on our global pandemic drama but showed us the way to see the present and what is to come. It is the performance of Sophia Hill, this prima donna of contemporary Greek theatre, which has made that possible. Her tragic voice and speech, \u201cunadorned\u201d and \u201cunperfumed,\u201d as Heraclitus would say of Sibylla\u2019s chants of numinous spells (Fragment 92), discarded all conventional tragic ornaments and archaic pomposity. On the contrary, it was deeply visceral and for that massively human. As early as the mid-1980s, Terzopoulos bridged the gap between animal and man with his acting method, lifting the boundary between the two to foreground the absolute alterity of the human condition, its animality. His method, the method of Dionysus, has always been a way of finding the animal in us, nature in us, our ecstatic \u201cother.\u201d This is an aesthetic choice with ontological and moral repercussions. It sees multiculturalism as biodiversity; it embraces Otherness exactly because the \u201cOther\u201d differs from us (Aloi 23). In such ways, an acting method, that of Terzopoulos<\/a>, can become a technique for cultural change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Antigone performed by Sophia Hill. Photo: Johanna Weber<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In the performance, Sophia Hill\u2019s diverse vocal score of volumes, frequencies and tones transformed the tragic words variously into an ecstatic bee buzzing, a volcanic eruption or speaking waters (Pythia\u2019s lalon ydor<\/em>) springing from the depths of the oracular body. Like the sacred waters of the Castalian spring in ancient Delphi, it purged us of the psychological and mental burden of our days in lockdown. And this is not a mere figure of speech. Hill\u2019s voice created a world of its own, an extra-ordinary space and time; extra-ordinary but, at the same time, so natural because it was physical, blending with the ceaseless sound of summer cicadas and the echoes from the Phaiedriades Rocks around. In this shared temporality and spatiality created by Hill\u2019s breath, voice and body, we grieved in our crisis. But we also emerged from our lockdown isolation to join together in a renewed, cathartic sense of a community that is united in the face of a shared destiny and a shared responsibility for the biological lives of others and nature itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The audience applauds. Terzopoulos foregrounds theatre as a live communal experience. Photo: Johanna Weber<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Upon our exit from the archaeological site of Delphi, we had already become aware that in both classical tragedy and our present historical tragedy, exodos is not a running away option but a time of reflection and realization that nature is not only outside but within us, each one of us carrying a small part of nature inside our bodies. With this stage manifesto, Terzopoulos confirmed that the live (performing) body is the Sacred Way that theatre should take if it wants to develop crucial techniques for cultural change today and coordinate all that is of its house (oikos<\/em>) with that of the city (demos<\/em>). Even if that implies the end of the director\u2019s omnipotence and the end of stage narcissism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Works Cited<\/strong><\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Aloi, Giovanni. \u201cAnimal Studies and Art: Elephants in the Room.\u201d Editorial. Antennae<\/em>, March 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Billington, Michael. \u201cTriumph from Tragedy: How Greece\u2019s Theatre Roared out of a National Crisis.\u201d Review of Nora<\/em>, directed by Theodoros Terzopoulos. The Guardian<\/a><\/em>, 2 Mar. 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chatzidimitriou, Penelope. \u201cNora. The Big Exit<\/a>.\u201d Review of Nora<\/em>, directed by Theodoros Terzopoulos. Critical Stages\/Sc\u00e9nes Critique, <\/em>no. 21, June 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heraclitus. Fragments<\/em>. Translated by T. M. Robinson, U of Toronto P, 1987.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Terzopoulos, Theodoros. \u201cThe Artist in Times of Crisis. Interview with Theodoros Terzopoulos<\/a>.\u201d Interview by Penelope Chatzidimitriou. Critical Stages\/ Sc\u00e9nes Critique, <\/em>no 15, June 2017. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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*<\/a>Penelope Chatzidimitriou\u00a0<\/strong>(MA in Theatre Studies, Royal Holloway University of London; PhD in Theatre Studies, School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki). Doctoral research in the complete opus of the internationally acclaimed Greek theatre director Theodoros Terzopoulos; collaboration with Attis Theatre (Athens) as a scholar; interest in modern directors, performance and performance art. In 2010, she published (in Greek) her book on the work of Terzopoulos. Other articles have appeared in editions of\u00a0Bloomsbury Methuen Drama<\/em>,\u00a0China Theatre Press<\/em>,\u00a0Cambridge Scholars Publishing<\/em>,\u00a0Theatre der Zeit<\/em>, etc. She lives and works in Thessaloniki as a theatre lecturer and critic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Copyright \u00a9<\/strong> 2020 Penelope Chatzidimitriou
Critical Stages\/Sc\u00e8nes critiques<\/em> e-ISSN: 2409-7411<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Creative<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This work is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution International License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":780,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performance-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/12\/PER-delphi-Photo-5.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":300,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/ceci-nest-pas-un-theatre-theatre-in-the-age-of-covid\/","url_meta":{"origin":774,"position":0},"title":"Ceci n\u2019est pas un th\u00e9\u00e2tre: Theatre in the Age of COVID","author":"Penelope Chatzidimitriou","date":"December 2, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Mark Brown* Abstract The response of many theatremakers to the crisis ushered in by the coronavirus pandemic has been to turn to making work on the internet. Some have seen online theatre simply as a necessity, a lifeboat in which theatre can survive until conditions allow for a return to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Special Topic"","block_context":{"text":"Special Topic","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/category\/special-topic\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/10\/featured-1.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/10\/featured-1.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/10\/featured-1.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/10\/featured-1.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":795,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/macmillans-pandemic-theatre-in-latvia\/","url_meta":{"origin":774,"position":1},"title":"Macmillan\u2019s Pandemic Theatre in Latvia","author":"Penelope Chatzidimitriou","date":"December 10, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Lauma Mell\u0113na-Bartkevi\u010da* Duncan Macmillan\u2019s Every Brilliant Thing, directed by R\u0113zija Kalni\u0146a at Riga Russian Theatre and by Inese Mi\u010dule at Valmiera Theatre. At Daile Theatre, Lungs and Monster directed by Dmitrijs Petrenko. Who is the most staged British playwright? Shakespeare? This might have been true until 2020, when Duncan Macmillan\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Performance Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Performance Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/category\/performance-reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/12\/PER-Macmillan-Monster.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/12\/PER-Macmillan-Monster.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/12\/PER-Macmillan-Monster.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/12\/PER-Macmillan-Monster.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":579,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/fabulamundi-workbook\/","url_meta":{"origin":774,"position":2},"title":"Contemporary Playwriting and Theatre Translation Cultures in Europe: A Report on Current Systems, Conventions and Perceptions","author":"Penelope Chatzidimitriou","date":"December 1, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Margherita Laera* Abstract Commissioned by the E.U.-funded project,\u00a0Fabulamundi: Playwriting Europe Beyond Borders, this report assesses current practices, perceptions and norms in the field of contemporary playwriting and the translation of contemporary plays in nine different European countries: Austria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain and the U.K. Mapping\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Essays"","block_context":{"text":"Essays","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/category\/essays\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/12\/image11.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/12\/image11.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/12\/image11.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/12\/image11.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1101,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/the-young-peoples-stage-of-the-national-theatre-of-greece-cultural-politics-and-pedagogical-paradigms\/","url_meta":{"origin":774,"position":3},"title":"The Young People\u2019s Stage of the National Theatre of Greece: Cultural Politics and Pedagogical Paradigms","author":"Penelope Chatzidimitriou","date":"January 16, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Zafiris Nikitas* Abstract The article looks into the cultural politics of the Young People\u2019s Stage of the National Theatre of Greece (2017\u201320) and examines the various initiatives of the institution that reinvigorate theatre for young audiences in Greece. Its focus is the social engagement and the pedagogical aspect that is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Critics on Criticism"","block_context":{"text":"Critics on Criticism","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/category\/critics-on-criticism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2021\/01\/image5-4.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2021\/01\/image5-4.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2021\/01\/image5-4.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2021\/01\/image5-4.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":536,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/mission-im-possible-in-search-of-identity-and-the-aesthetics-of-hong-kong-contemporary-theatre\/","url_meta":{"origin":774,"position":4},"title":"Mission Im\/possible: In Search of Identity and the Aesthetics of Hong Kong Contemporary Theatre","author":"Penelope Chatzidimitriou","date":"November 30, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Bernice Kwok-wai Chan* Abstract Hong Kong, a borrowed place where her stories are always narrated by others. Theatre, a mediated platform where theatre makers look for ways to voice out their concerns and at the same time, audiences who expect to hear resonance of their lives and times. 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While theatre never became friends with Internet and digitilization, it considered itself an alternative, instead of acknowledging the possibility that theatre\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Special Topic"","block_context":{"text":"Special Topic","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/category\/special-topic\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/09\/featured-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/09\/featured-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/09\/featured-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/09\/featured-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=774"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1446,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774\/revisions\/1446"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}