karagiozis exposed | the performance

karagiozis "exposed"

Shadow Theatre or Theatre?

"This is one of the best pieces of theatre I`ve seen in years. “A Cypriot Puppet Show?! Don`t make me laugh!” Oh it does that all right; and heaps more. This takes theatre to places I`ve only dreamed of - and only pretty vaguely at that too. A MUST!" - Gordon Truefitt, Prague Playhouse

Shadow Puppetry

Shadow Puppetry is an art form that has evolved over the ages in several countries all over the world. The Greek tradition has come to its own in the late 19th century, drawing from its Ottoman counterpart but acquiring its own strong identity from the quirks and strengths of the people. At the beginning, it was played by laymen with little or no education as a satyrical social commentary and in many ways one of the few entertainement outlets for the masses.

The puppet masters are extremely witty and talented with the ability to perform several distinct voices for all the gamut of characters. Shows are based on a solid dramaturgical skeleton, called "mitra" ("womb"), which defines the journey of the main character (Karagiozis) but is void of detail. The puppet player is called to improvise all the episodes and interludes for every show, often incorporating current affairs and real-time events and comments from the audience. They also usually act as puppet makers, technical managers, directors, producers etc etc, like most village touring show masters.

The context of each mitra varies from historical or ethnic events (e.g. the Greek Revolution in 1821) to fantastical stories (e.g. the magic tree with the ability to transform people who sleep under it to animals) to modernity (e.g. Karagiozis in Space). The body of the work that has been passed down from the older players forms a strong oral tradition and only lately have these stories started being recorded.

Karagiozis

Karagiozis is a low-down, lazy, poor bastard, although witty and funny (a bit like Commedia dell'Arte's Arlequino). His part in the stories is either the unwilling participant in the events or the smart-ass trying to swindle the others. He eats dried beans on the spit, if he has some. He likes beating people up but usually he's on the receiving end.

He never has any clothes, or food, or work (especially since he tries really hard to avoid it) but he has a wife (who constantly fails to put some sense into him) and three kids (who take after him very much). His closest friend is Hatziavatis, who is servile and naive, ideal for swindling and beating up. Other characters exist for Karagiozis on the border-line of friendship and victims, all with their very particular failings and quirks, which Karagiozis uses to full advantage.

Our Karagiozis - the "philosophy"

Puppets on a screen ("berde") are magical. Setting out to do a show based on Karagiozis is a mess. It was easy to have fun fooling around on a beach in the evening with the two-dimensionality of the puppet, but making a working story and performance out of it was a completely different matter. Do NOT try this at home. ;)

Using as a starting point "Alexander the Great and the Cursed Snake", one of the most famous mitres of the tradition, we examine the moment when through an accident the Puppet Master insults his Karagiozis to the point where the latter decides he wants out and escapes for the berde.

Through a contemporary physical theatre approach, the performance connects the 2-dimensional world of the puppets with the three dimensions of the human world, heavy with the burdens of real pain and constrictions that go hand-in-hand with the freedom of that extra dimension.

In the same way the "Alexander" story revolves around the shackles of society or slavery and the effort to break them, our Karagiozis partakes unintentionally in the collapsing of boundaries in his universe, both physically and in ways of thought.

Our Karagiozis - the show

The Shadow Puppet tradition is comical, satyrical and light, making its more serious points through indirect association. We keep this roughness and bluntness of the stereotyped characters, rotating shadow for flesh and beat-ups with dancing, taking the musicians on a joy-ride and the light technician through hell. We dumped the philosophy behind the scenes. This is theatre, not a library.