MANIPULATION AND OTHER ROMANTIC STORIES

· NAPOLI ·

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Washing machines are useful.

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While societies continue to justify violence under the pretext of love, the relationship of a couple is revealed within a futuristic-baroque universe. A psychologist-DJ helps a woman to see how lucky she is that her husband gives her his hand when they need to dance in front of others or when he distinguishes spiders from insects. The work explores the manipulativeness of psychologicalization and the arrogance of knowledge without love, through an absurd narration about relationships in need of revision. Social pressure, ideologies and conspiracy theories cultivated by patriarchy are obscured through a rebellion of original text, electronic compositions and polyphonic songs, glorifying the utility of washing machines or a painting in Uffizi Palace. Climate change, femicides and human vanity establish the need for cultivating a tenderly courageous look at the world, influencing the play that reminds of a psychiatric session, a concert, a mystical gathering or a manual of instructions, three years after its premiere at Frankfurt LAB.

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Do you feel this emptiness too?

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Written, Directed by Artemis Chrysostomidou

Music by Lia Stavropoulou

Technical assistance by Demetra Chrysostomidou

Performed by Leigh Sayers, Lia Stavropoulou, Matina Pergioudaki

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ITALY

19-23 June 2024

Altofest, International Performing Arts Festival Naples

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Duration: 1 hour

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Funded by Frankfurt LAB, Das Musik, Theater und Tanzlabor der Moderne für Frankfurt Rhein Main, Stiftung Polytechnische Gesellschaft Frankfurt am Main, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, My Mind is Full of Bach Company, Altofest, International Contemporary Live Arts Festival Naples, TeatrInGestAzione