Iphigenia at A… by Wlodzimierz Staniewski with the Company of the Centre for Theatre Practices, “Gardzienice”
Featuring the company of the Centre for Theatre Practices, “Gardzienice” of Poland and the landscape of Greece-ancient and modern, directed by Wlodzimierz Staniewski
The film, shot in 2008, juxtaposes scenes Gardzienice’s Iphigenia at A… (after Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis) theatrical performances to a filmed procession by the costumed cast of the play, together with musicians, film crew, Greek student-actors, local inhabitants, goats and donkeys through panoramic and historically significant landscapes in the region of Delphi and Parnassos.
The procession departed from Delphi, continued up the Kaki Skala (the Evil Steps), peaked in the purple hollows Corycian cave and descended to the valley of Aghia Triada. This pageant is punctuated by scenes from the Iphigenia at choice locations such as the Phaidriades, a pen full of wild boars, a goat farm in Parnassos and includes a choral scene on a small desert island off Galaxidi in the Corinthian gulf. The film ends with Iphigenia’s sacrifice in the hollows of the Corycian cave, an ancient site of sacrifice to Pan and the nymphs, associated with Parnassian Apollo and Dionysos and allegorically the passageway to the world of birth and death beyond.
The Iphigenia at A… is a culmination of many years of Gardzienices expedition work and the fulfilment of Staniewski’s inspiration to re-inhabit the sacred areas in Greece and to release the ancient energies.
The procession was part of events in July 2008 held under the auspices of the European Cultural Centre of Delphi’s “Culture and the Environment” programme directed by Maro Nikolopoulou and the film was produced by PWA (Polskie Wydawnictwo Audiowizualne).
The film is in Polish, ancient Greek and English and there are English subtitles.
Yana Sistovari
Hon. Research Associate of the Oxford APGRD (Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama).
The performance is a co-production of the Centre for Theatre Practices “Gardzienice” with Teatr Stary (The Old National Theatre) in Krakow.
