After the great success at the Experimental Stage of the National Theater of Greece, the performance ” The Ignoramus and the Madman” by Thomas Bernhard, directed by Yannos Perlegas, will be presented at the THEATER of MICHAEL CACOYANNIS FOUNDATION in September 2016. A great opera diva is to sing Mozart’s Magic Flute for the two hundred and twenty second time. Exhausted by the discipline she has imposed on herself, and tired of repeatedly exposing herself to the opinion of the critics and the public, she decides to cancel her planned engagements and withdraws with her blind father to the countryside. He however, alcoholic and avaricious, has invested all his hopes in his daughter’s singing career. With them is a coroner, who is passionate about human anatomy, but indifferent to human existence.

 

What is the effect on an artist of perfectionism, narrow specialisation, excessive concentration and strict self-restraint? Art, science, and even the parent-child relationship prove insufficient and detrimental to the fulfilment of human needs. Bernhard transforms medicine into a science of decay and music into an art of depersonalisation and destruction. 

The great Austrian writer employs a grotesque, bitter humour to underline the existential angst of his characters. A fierce comedy about the tragedy of art, science and parental manipulation.

 

Translation: Yorgos Depastas

Direction: Yannos Perlegas

Sets and costumes: Loukia Houliara

Movement: Dimitra Efthymiopoulou

Lighting: Nikos Vlassopoulos

Video: Iason Arvanitakis

Assistant director: Magda Kafkoula

Assistant set designer: Georgia Boura

Make-up design: Evi Zafeiropoulou

Hair design: Hronis Tzimos

Sound design: Dimitris Tsoukas

Voice teaching: Evaggelia Karakatsani

Make up: Ioanna Mpaka 

Photographers: Karol Jarek, Iason Arvanitakis, Giannis Priftis

Graphics – Design: Antonis Lyras

Communication: Anna Theodosi

 

Queen of the Night: Anthi Efstratiadou

Mrs Vargo/Winter the Waiter: Giannis Kapeleris

Father: Christos Malakis

Doctor: Yannos Perlegas

GREAT SPONSOR:ATHINAIKI ZITHOPOIA (ATHENIAN BREWERY S.A.)

 

 

“Yannos Perlegas directed the most interesting and complete, in all aspects, performance of this winter … a theater performance that “smells” like real theater…”

Matina Kaltaki , Lifo

 

“…The actors have a wonderful balance between the bitter humor and the concealed tragedy…”

Stella Harami, tospirto.net

 

“…We watched some wonderful and demanding acting… we saw intelligent scenery findings that emphasize all aspects of the original text…”

Olga Sella, Kathimerini

 

“… In a cultured, sophisticated grotesque style, with a sense of measure and with molded, balanced, homogeneous acting performances, the play rewards its audience!”

Leandros Polenakis, Avgi

 

“… This is not a show, it is an overcome!… Yannos Perlegas presented the best performance of the year … 4 actors led wisely, beyond human dimension and were finally transformed into “real artistic human beings” … all the production team gave the maximum of their art…”

Mania Zousi, artplay.gr