Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 19.30 - The National Grand Theatre of China

The Greek Art Theatre Karolos Koun has the honor to present during the “Cultural Year of Greece in China” on February 27th 2008, in Beijing a performance of Ancient comedy, the revival of the legendary “The Birds” of Aristophanes.

The theatrical events of the Cultural Year of Greece in China begin with the most avant-garde production of an Ancient Greek drama.

This refers to the revival of the legendary production of Aristophanes’ ‘Birds’, as staged by the Greek Art Theatre, Theatro Technis, under the historic direction of the most significant Greek director, Karolos Koun.

Aristophanes’ most popular comedy was first presented by the Greek Art Theatre and Karolos Koun in 1959 at the Herod Atticus Odeon. The participation of leading Greek artists contributed to the artistic triumph. Eminent writer Vasilis Rotas, responsible for the adaptation and translation, one of the most important Greek painters and set designers Yannis Tsarouchis, responsible for the sets and costumes, charismatic composer Manos Hatzidakis, responsible for the music, exceptional choreographer Zouzou Nikoloudi, responsible for the choreography, and a multitude of talented Greek Art Theatre actors created a production, which today, 47 years after its first staging, has not only remained unsurpassed, but is moreover considered as the most successful post-war Greek Drama production to travel all over the world.

The third revival of this production will be presented to the Chinese audience at the new spectacular venue in the city of Beijing, the National Grand Theatre. Thus, the most modern theatre in the world will host this gem of world drama, in a historic production, a digest of Modern Greek culture and a benchmark in Modern Greek cultural history. Through this lyric masterpiece, imbued with a subtle melancholy, Aristophanes’ timeless words will remind us all of the values which make life worth living. 2008 is the 100th year of birth of Karolos Koun. Surely the most appropriate memoriam that Koun’s disciples could offer him is this revival of Birds.

The director
Karolos Koun (1908-1987), the founder of the “Greek Art Theatre” had a long service in theatre, modern and ancient, tragedy and comedy when he decided to stage Aristophanes’ Birds, in 1959. He gathered around him a constellation of artists then at their zenith: Ralou Manou and Zouzou Nikoloudi for the choreography, Vasilis Rotas for the translation, Manos Hadjidakis for the music, Yannis Tsarouchis for the costumes. Each a master of his craft offered generously colours and shapes, rhythms and melodies for the “Birds”. The production caused a furor at first, not because it was “scandalous”, as was claimed, but because the powers that be-and the audience up to a point- were not mature enough to accept and appreciate such an avant-garde artistic achievement. It needed time. Absolute quality is indomitable, however. And when the storm at Athens had abated, in London and Paris, in Venice and Leningrad, wherever Birds was presented, critics and public, Greek and foreign, received it with unanimous applause, and turned it to a “legend”.

The play
The Birds is certainly Aristophanes most ornate, his most spectacular play: a work of inspiration, forged with care and facility, which the dramatist loved and on whose ornamentation he spent the colours of his palette with generosity.

A passing joke in Peace, staged in 421 BC, shows that Aristophanes had for some time had it in mind to take a “journey to the land of birds”, but, of course, we do not know when the idea rounded itself out into a plot for the composition of the comedy to begin. The Birds was first produced in 414BC, while the (disastrous) Athenian campaign in Sicily was still under way. One could question any direct connection between this campaign and the opportunistic journey of Peisthetairos and Euelpides, but not the internal link between their “escape” and the gloomy atmosphere which had gathered over during a long and not always victorious war. It was certainly no coincidence that at such a difficult time Aristophanes chose to tell a tale in which the political essence is dressed in the lively colours of fantasy and in which conflicts of all kinds are given a brighter aspect and relieved in the optimistic world of the dream. Aristophanes is simultaneously didactic and entertaining-the duty of the writer of comedy.

“A Bit of Everything” would be a good title for the play, in which the dramatist found a way to accommodate almost all the themes which concerned him: he lampoons the bound-less litigiousness of the Athenians as in Wasps, he ridicules Socrates and his disciples as in Clouds, he reveals the fraudulence of the soothsayers, as in Peace, the arrogance of the connoisseurs, the self-interest of the diplomats- and, of course, in the field of literary criticism he has no hesitation in poking fun on stage not only at the nameless “poet” but also, at the dithyrambist Kinesias, by name, and many others. The Birds is Aristophanes’ longest comedy: it has an extensive Prologue, a double Agon (of acts and words), a long sacrifice scene, two lengthy Parabaseis (in which the chorus speaks directly to the audience) closely linked to the story, two series of intrusive visitors, two messenger scenes, three interposed choruses, a war scene with Iris, the treachery of Prometheus, the embassy of the gods and a triumphal Gamos (wedding scene) at the end. There would be no point in this list if it were not for the fact that all these scenes are delicately worked with inspiration and evident enjoyment, if they did not blend harmoniously into a tightly-knit and panoramic whole.

The performance
The art of the theatre discloses itself to us through the performance, and each performance has a fate of its own. The first performance of the Birds, at the Great Dionysia, did no better than second prize; yet the production of Karolos Koun is one which critics and audiences in Greece and abroad have for years hailed and enjoyed as perhaps the most successful modern rendition of an ancient drama. This is no coincidence, given that it was worked on by fine craftsmen at the golden peak of their maturity: Vasilis Rotas, the modern Greek translator, who more than any other captured the style and movement of the modern vernacular; Yannis Tsarouchis, whose painter’s brush brought life to bird-men and men-birds; Manos Hadjidakis, who with sensitivity reproduced the rhythms of the drama in his music; Zouzou Nikoloudi, who choreographed the flock of birds, and, first and foremost, Karolos Koun, with his invincible instinct for the theatre and his magic hands.

The performance that the Chinese audience will enjoy is the third revival of the original performance. Disciples of Karolos Koun, Yiannis Tsarouchis, Manos Hadjidakis and Zouzou Nikoloudi have worked with great respect and love in this revival.

ARISTOPHANES’S

THE BIRDS

Translation-Adaptation: VASSILIS ROTAS
Direction: KAROLOS KOUN
Sets and Costumes: YANNIS TSAROUCHIS
Music: MANOS HADJIDAKIS
Choreography: ZOUZOU NIKOLOUDI

Associate Directors: DIAGORAS CHRONOPOULOS
KOSTIS KAPELONIS
THEODOROS GRAMPSAS

Costume/Set Supervisor: KATERINA SOTIRIOU
Musical Supervision - Chorus Master: THEODOROS OIKONOMOU
MARINA CHRONOPOULOU
Choreography Supervision: MARIZA TSIGKA
VIKTORIA TASSOPOULOU
VANESSA ANDRIKOPOULOU

THE CAST
Peisthetairos: NIKOS BOUSDOUKOS
Evelpides: CHRISTOS NINIS
Trochilos: GIORGOS PAPADOPOULOS
Epops (Hoopoe): ILIAS LOGOTHETIS
A Priest: DIMITRIS DEGAITIS
A Poet: VASILIS LEMPEROS
A Soothsayer: KOSTAS VELENTZAS
Meton, the geometrician: GIANNIS KARATZOGIANNIS
A Commissioner from Athens: ILIAS LOGOTHETIS
A Vendor of Decrees: MICHALIS KOILAKOS
First Messenger: KONSTANTINOS GAVALAS
A Sentinel: MICHAIL KONSTANTINIDIS
Iris: LINA MARKAKI
A Herald: PANAGIOTIS SOULIS
Kinesias, the dithyrambic poet: THANASSIS AKOKKALIDES
An Informer: KOSTAS VELENTZAS
Prometheus: CHRISTOS NINIS
Poseidon: GIANNIS KARATZOGIANNIS
Hercules: DIMITRIS DEGAITIS
Triballus: ARISTEIDES STAVROU
Second Messenger: MICHALIS KOILAKOS
Royalty: LINA MARKAKI
Servant: GIANNIS DIAKAKIS
The Singer: DOROS DEMOSTHENOUS
The Nigtingale: EIRINI STRATIGOPOULOU
LILA VLASSEROU
Three Owls: MARGARITA GEROYIANNI,
CHRISTINA DALAMANGKA
ILEKTRA KAPETANAKI

CHORUS OF BIRDS
KOSTAS VELENTZAS, MICHALIS KOILAKOS, MICHALIS KONSTANTINIDES, PANAGIOTIS SOULIS, VASILIS LEMPEROS, ARISTEIDIS STAVROU.

CHORUS
MARIZA TSIGKA - VIKTORIA TASSOPOULOU - VASSIA AGGELIDOU - LILA VLASSEROU - MICHALIS MARANGOS- EIRINI STRATIGOPOULOU- MONICA KOLOKOTRONI- THANASSIS AKOKKALIDES- KONSTANTINOS GAVALAS

The Cultural Year of Greece in China, to be held from September 2007 to September 2008, will present the modern and also diachronic character of Hellenic Culture and Greece. Theatrical performances, cinema tributes, dance, archaeological and modern art exhibitions, opera, folk concerts, modern and popular music, conferences and book exhibitions are among the diverse activities taking place during the Cultural Year of Greece in China.

For more information, please contact:

Embassy of Greece – Cultural Section
Ms. Susan Gao
Ms. Lina Mao
Tel：010-65324513/65324713
Fax：010-65324426
E-Mail: grculture.pek@mfa.gr

Embassy of Greece – Press Office
Stelios Korkidis, Press Counselor
Euthymios Athanasiadis, Press Attaché
Tel：010-58696755
Fax：010-58696757
E-Mail: grpress@sohu.net

Upstream Asia Beijing Office
Ms. Cathy Fu
Ms. Cynthia Guan
Tel: 010-65307200-204/217
Fax: 010-65307340
E-Mail: cathy.fu@upstreamasia.com
cynthia.guan@upstreamasia.com