“FASOULIS – Story of Love and Death” by Ayusaya! Puppet Theatre

FASOULIS- story of love and death

The History of Fasoulis and The Performance

Greece has two traditional comic puppet characters. One is called Karaghiozis and the other Fasoulis (=the bean). Karaghiozis is a shadow figure and arrived in Greece from Turkey. Fasoulis is a hand puppet and is said to be a direct brother of the Italian Fagiolino (and of course a member of the big puppet family of Pulchinella, Punch, Kasparek, Petruska, etc) . He arrived from Bollognia, through Corfu, in 1840. Before the end of the 19th century he was well known to Athens. In the early 20th century and until 1930, he was a serious antagonist of Karaghiozis but a company of him as well, for many performers used to play both characters. Since the influence of the eastern civilization is much stronger in Greece, Karaghiozis has always been the main traditional comic character of the Greek people.

Ayusaya! Company’s approach is not exactly the traditional “Fasoulis”: The text has been substracted, the voices have been distorted, the forms have been changed.  The show has kept the “carnavalistic” signs and concentrated to them as a universal characteristic of the popular traditions, aiming to produce a compact comical effect, always familiar and always contemporary.

Ayusaya! Puppet Company
Ayusaya! Puppet Company is a professional puppet company based in Athens, Greece. Since 1992, it travels around performing in the streets and in theatre venues, with all kinds of puppets. It has collaborated with other theatre and puppet theatre groups, in Greece and abroad.

Stathis Markopoulos
He studied at the State Academy of Puppetry and Alternative Theatre of Prague (ALD-DAMU) and he aprenticeshiped at the workshop and street performances of the Spanish puppet company Marionetas del Matadero, in Prague. Since 1992, he works professionaly the art of puppet theatre in Greece and abroad, in productions of  “Ayusaya! Puppet Company” (6 performances for the street and for the theatre), as well as in collaboration with other theatre and puppet companies (more than 20 productions). He has participated in many International Festivals, congresses and training programs on various aspects of puppetry, in collaboration with independent organisations. In the workshop of Ayusaya! Puppet Company, he runs an annual adult training course on the theatre marionete, from which have derived many of today’s young professionals. Since 1994 he is the chief editor of the puppet magazine NIMA (publication of UNIMA-Hellas). Since 2001, he is the President of the Greek Centre of the International Union of Puppetry (UNIMA).