Theophilos
All performances are in Greek.
FOUGARO is pleased to welcome to FOUGARO GALLERY the first staging of the original play Theophilos, directed by Olia Lazaridou, for a limited number of shows in March 2024.
Coproduced by the ANTHOS-FOUGARO and NERA EIDA non-profit companies, the play is a first-person account of the life and work of the great folk painter; it borrows elements from folk spectacles, which combine with a circus-like atmosphere and with music that make it accessible to audiences of all ages.
The personality of Theophilos was quite close to that of a child. It is no accident that his best friends in his life were the children; he organised them, dressed them up and they all staged open-air performances of plays created by him. His life model can serve as a valuable lesson for today’s “different” children who may be subjected to school bullying.
ABOUT THE PLAY
The life of Theophilos is a fairy tale, at once fascinating and instructive. It combines a childish naiveté and sincerity with the wisdom and solemnity of a great master. Theophilos, the humble itinerant painter exalted by Elytis, Seferis and so many others, was treated as unhinged by his contemporaries who saw him say and do strange things; they would mock him and play rough pranks on him. He dealt with the scorn, the pranks and the irony for his being different by painting incessantly and letting the work speak on his behalf. He never despaired, never lost courage, never stopped painting! That was his secret weapon, as he says himself at some point in the play. He was a rare example of inexhaustible creativity.
Olia Lazaridou
Text: Sampson Rakas
Stage director: Olia Lazaridou
Actors: Emiliani Stavrianidou, Ariadne Konstantakopoolou
Stage & costume design: Katerina Yannaka
Lighting: Thomas Oikonomakos
Dates:
Friday 22 March | 8 pm
Sunday 24 March | 7 pm
Saturday 30 March | 8 pm
Sunday 31 March | 7 pm
Additional morning shows for schools
on 20|21|22 and 27|28|29 March at 11 am
The show lasts 60 minutes
booking for schools
27520 47370 | 6941 601388
Olia Lazaridou
A graduate of the school of the Art Theatre Karolos Koun, in her early acting days with the Art Theatre she performed in tragedies and in Goldoni’s Servant of two masters, directed by G. Lazanis.
She worked also with Elli Lambeti in Filumena Marturano, directed by M. Bolognini, and with the Jenny Karezi-Costas Kazakos company in Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf, directed by Jules Dassin; the following year she worked again with Dassin in the National Theatre’s production of George Bernard Shaw’s Heartbreak House. In 1986 she left for France, where she attended classes at the school of Α. Vitez. Since her return to Greece she has worked in leading roles with most of the older and younger generation of stage directors, including Terzopoulos, Vogiatzis, Houvardas, Papaioannou.
She has directed five plays, published three poetry collections and awarded three times for her acting in Greek films.
