THE GREAT TAMER DIMITRIS PAPAIOANNOU 8 - 12 FEB 2019 STATE THEATRE CENTRE OF WA AUSTRALIAN EXCLUSIVE - Perth Festival
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Image: Julian Mommert GREECE DIMITRIS PAPAIOANNOU THE GREAT TAMER 8 – 12 FEB 2019 STATE THEATRE CENTRE OF WA AUSTRALIAN EXCLUSIVE
Image: Julian Mommert
THE GREAT TAMER
HEATH LEDGER THEATRE
Fri 8 & Sat 9 Feb 7.30pm
Sun 10 Feb 5pm
Mon 11 & Tue 12 Feb 7.30pm
Duration 1hr 40mins
Post Show Conversation
Sat 9 Feb 9.10pm
Wheelchair accessible with assistive listening
Please note: Contains nudity
Perth Festival acknowledges that our events take place on the lands of the Noongar people.
LOOKING FOR SOMETHING TO DO AFTER THE SHOW?
Wind up or down and grab a drink BAR UNDERGROUND CHEVRON GARDENS
and bite to eat with artists, friends Venture down below here at the at Elizabeth Quay
and strangers at our Festival hubs. State Theatre Centre and slide into Kick back under the stars to
the late-night world of Perth Festival enjoy late-night DJ tunes
open every night until late. Thursday–Sunday.
FANFARE
You were called to your seat tonight by ‘Fanfare for Ramanujan’s Tau Function’ composed by 18-year-old
UWA student Victor Anand Arul. Visit perthfestival.com.au for more information on the Fanfare project
and this composition.CREDITS
Conceived, Visualised & Directed by Assistant to the Set Designer – Set Painter
Dimitris Papaioannou Mary Antonopoulou
Assistants to the Sculptor
With Maria Papaioannou & Konstantinos Kotsis
Pavlina Andriopoulou, Costas Chrysafidis, Dimitris Kitsos, Production Assistant
Ioannis Michos, Evangelia Randou, Kalliopi Simou, Tzela Christopoulou
Drossos Skotis, Christos Strinopoulos, Yorgos Tsiantoulas, Tour Manager & International Relations
Alex Vangelis Julian Mommert
Executive Production Assistant
Set Design & Art Direction in collaboration with Kali Kavvatha
Tina Tzoka
Artistic Collaborator for Costumes Produced by
Aggelos Mendis Onassis Cultural Centre - Athens (Greece)
Lighting Design in collaboration with Co-produced by
Evina Vassilakopoulou CULTURESCAPES Greece 2017 (Switzerland),
Artistic Collaborator for Sound Dansens Hus Sweden (Sweden), EdM Productions,
Giwrgos Poulios Festival d’Avignon (France), Fondazione Campania dei
Sound Design Festival – Napoli Teatro Festival Italia (Italy),
Kostas Michopoulos Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg (Luxembourg),
National Performing Arts Center – National Theater &
Music
Concert Hall | NPAC-NTCH (Taiwan),
Johann Strauss II, An der schönen blauen Donau, Op. 314
Seoul Performing Arts Festival | SPAF (Korea),
Music Adaptation Théâtre de la Ville – Paris / La Villette – Paris (France)
Stephanos Droussiotis
Sculpture Design
Executive Producer
Nectarios Dionysatos
2WORKS
Costume – Props Painting
With the support of
Maria Ilia
ALPHA BANK and MEGARON –
Executive Producer & Assistant Director THE ATHENS CONCERT HALL
Tina Papanikolaou
Assistant Director
Stephanos Droussiotis
Assistant Director & Rehearsal Director
Pavlina Andriopoulou
Technical Director
Manolis Vitsaxakis
Stage Manager
Dinos Nikolaou
Assistant Sound Engineer & Operator
Nicholas Kazazis
‘For the Ancient Greeks the “all tamer” is time. So the
title is a game with this concept – the concept of time.’
Dimitris PapaioannouQ&A WITH
DIMITRIS PAPAIOANNOU
Where did the idea for The Great Tamer come from? A lot of the human condition and human history has been
crystallised by the Masters and that became evident to me
in the process of working on the show. Because what the
I usually do not have knowledge of what I’m going to
Masters depicted is often a common human memory – we
do when I am starting to create something – I just have
all share this memory – and because I’m not narrating with
some initial interests. So in the case of The Great Tamer,
words, encouraging references is a way to communicate
I had been incredibly affected by the story of a boy being
with the audience. It’s also a pleasant and entertaining
bullied by his friends at University who then disappeared.
game of associations and triggering the imagination. And
The story captured the nation and the whole of Greece
also remembering – remembering these references,
was looking for him. He was eventually found dead by a
and remembering that, at least for those of us from the
river but no-one ever knew if it was suicide or murder.
western tradition, we have things in common.
The whole saga left me with emotions that I didn’t know
what to do with.
I use some religious images familiar from the Masters – but
Then, when I was commissioned to create a new work of course I reverse them and I try to be ironic and playful
I was thinking about excavation and the archaeology with them, by doing things like reversing the sexes. It’s a
of memory and the sense of human identity and I way for me to have fun in the work.
remembered this story and it kind of connected with
the idea of grace – what we do with grace, how we are Some of those who have seen the show have remarked
looking for it and how we destroy it. This was just a muddy that it can only have been created by someone who is
environment of concepts and thoughts but it was the Greek …
beginning of The Great Tamer.
There are various ways to deal with this observation.
What does the title refer to? Of course there is the external one and the obvious
one – because there are references to classicism and
For the Ancient Greeks the ‘all tamer’ is time. So the title archaeology, with images of fragmented bodies and a
is a game with this concept – the concept of time. The focus on human nudity (male nudity in particular). Also I’m
consciousness of time is inevitably linked by humans with trying to tell stories by going back to the archetypes, and
the consciousness of death –the ‘end time’. This makes when you go back to the archetypes you end up at the
time valuable because we know it is limited for us. And Greek myths. So this is an obvious way of thinking about it.
it also opens up a series of important questions about But there’s another less obvious way of thinking about
existence that have tormented us since humanity began. it – which I think would be more interesting to explore
What is the meaning of life? What happens after? Science, – and that is the work’s desire for rediscovering the laws
philosophy, religion and art are all about these questions! of harmony, the desire to not destroy the laws of beauty
So basically The Great Tamer is a game with the but to reconfigure them. The show combines tragedy and
concept of time. comedy at the same time, and also explores a certain kind
of ‘sensual melancholia’, a place in the mind where we
can consider spirituality as not detached from sensuality.
You trained as painter and we can see many visual
I think that all these are characteristics of the Greek
references to the Great Masters in The Great Tamer.
civilisation.
Can you tell us more about this and why you chose to
explore them using the active human form?
I don’t know which of these answers connects my work to
the idea of it being quintessentially Greek – but I do know
I didn’t set out to do this but I don’t work with texts, I
it’s not the nationality we’re referring to, but a Greek idea.
tell a silent story. I work with human movement and the
interaction of the human body with other elements
but I do not like a lot of dancey movement – so I try to
keep things simple.Image: Julian Mommert
Do you think it’s possible for the future of theatre to What do you want people to take away from the work?
be based purely on concepts; can concepts survive
without a clear narrative?
I don’t think I’m the one to say. I would be flattered if they
were entertained and taken into another dimension of
I think our perception of clear narrative is a little bit reality; if they were transported, as they say, a little bit.
limited. A clear narrative could be that a linear thing is And if while they were experiencing the show, audiences
followed by a circular thing and then there is a sudden got in touch with their inner life a little bit more. I would
break and then there is a quiet empty thing – this is be pleased if this journey triggered a kind of self awareness
a narrative. So if the question is linked to whether – as well as enjoyment!
there is visual value to abstract art or if it has to be a
representative painting then yes I do think there is value
and I think that human history has answered that question
very clearly. There is value in the abstract.
Do I think that concept alone is enough for theatre? I do
not think that even narrative alone is enough for theatre.
I don’t think anything alone is enough for art if the act of
transformation is not achieved. If what I call alchemy is
achieved, then no matter what the medium it is enough.Image: Julian Mommert
DIMITRIS PAPAIOANNOU
Born in Athens in 1964, Dimitris Papaioannou was a Restarting on his own work in 2006, with his production
student of the iconic Greek painter Yannis Tsarouchis 2, Papaioannou found himself in the odd position of
before studying at the Athens School of Fine Arts. His creating avant-garde works in major theatres in Athens
early work was rooted firmly in the fine arts and he gained that enjoyed record-breaking long runs, with over
early recognition as a comics artist and painter, before 100,000 tickets sold. His 25 productions range from mass
turning his attention to the performing arts as a director, spectacles with thousands of performers, to intimate
choreographer, performer and designer of sets, costumes pieces, and have appeared in a wide variety of venues,
and lighting. from his famous underground squat theatre in Athens,
to the ancient theatre in Epidaurus, and from Olympic
stadiums to Théâtre de la Ville – Paris and Teatro Olimpico
He formed Edafos Dance Theatre in 1986 as an initial
in Vicenza.
vehicle for his original stage productions. Originating in the
underground scene, the company challenged perceptions,
gaining an increasing number of dedicated followers over In 2017 he created The Great Tamer, his first international
its 17 years and leaving an indelible mark on the Greek arts co-commissioned work, and in 2018 he became the first
scene. artist to create a new, full-length work for Tanztheater
Wuppertal Pina Bausch. Since She premiered in Germany
in May 2018.
Since 1986 Papaioannou has dedicated himself to creating
intensely visual original works – a hybrid of experimental
dance, physical theatre and performance art. He became
more widely known as the creator of the Athens 2004
Olympic Ceremonies and in 2015 he created the Opening
Ceremony for the Baku 2015 First European Games.PERTH FESTIVAL
08 6488 2000 | perthfestival.com.au
Artistic Director
Wendy Martin
Executive Director
Nathan Bennett
Perth Festival Board Chair
John Barrington
STATE THEATRE CENTRE OF WA
Perth Theatre Trustees Chair
Morgan Solomon
General Manager Perth Theatre Trust
Duncan Ord OAM
Manager
Alice Jorgensen
THE BRITISH PARAORCHESTRA
THE NATURE
OF WHY
21– 23 FEB 2019
STATE THEATRE CENTRE OF WA
‘A physics-crunching, joyous
musical adventure.’
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