Μια πολύ μεγάλη επιτυχία σημείωσαν η Ελληνίδα ηθοποιός Ελένη Αποστολοπούλου και η σεναριογράφος Κατερίνα Αποστολοπούλου, αφού η δική τους πρόταση επιλέχθηκε από το ίδρυμα Ιψεν (ιδρύθηκε το 2007 από τη νορβηγική κυβέρνηση) ως μία από τις 5 επικρατέστερες σε σύνολο 149 καταθέσεων από 60 διαφορετικές χώρες.
Κάτι που σημαίνει πως η ομάδα τους πήρε την υποτροφία για την παραγωγή της παράστασης “Ibsen.The Final bid” και με βάση το σύγχρονο κοινωνικό και πολιτικό σκηνικό, καλείται να το μεταφέρει στο θέατρο.
Το συγκεκριμένο πρότζεκτ αναφέρεται στην κίνηση των “Yellow Jackets”, την δραστηριότητα τους και πως αυτή επιδρά στα γαλλική κοινωνία.
Αναλυτικά το δελτίο τύπου:
About the project:
The last decade, the word crisis entered vividly in the figurability of the present. This word has its own history. And that history affected the life of millions. We are in it now. Is it political, social, economic or environmental? Is it in all of them and everywhere? Until now, either through the development, the progress of science or through a welfare state, we believed that there was a way out. Perhaps the only dramatic change that has occurred in the last decade relies on the fact that for the first time, we Europeans see the crisis as a horizon, whose distance we are not able to cross.
The project “Ibsen. The Final Bid” talks about the contemporary French society, which seems to be alarmed by the persistence of one of the most massive protest movements after the 60s, the Yellow Jackets. ”Ibsen. The Final Bid” aims to question the reasons behind this social despair, in a developed and prosperous European country as France. Why are these people on the streets? How is it that a citizen can be poor in a wealthy state?
And why are expressions of social claims treated with such a violence?
Henrik Ibsen’s drama “When We Dead Awaken” is a play that illustrates a society in crisis, through its main characters Rubek and Irene. In an ambiance of peaceful tranquility, Ibsen reveals the signs of collapse of a way of living where the only values that persist are those of wealth and glory. This play could be interpreted as an urgent message in the face of decline of European values, and in face of the threat that lays up on the individual liberty.
Inspired by “When We Dead Awaken”, The Collective Strates will create a play that combines elements of Ibsen’s drama and fiction-documentary. Since December 2018, The Collective Strates started collecting visual material from French cities during the protests. Projected videos will function as political documentary – a testimony of its time alongside interviews with people of various social backgrounds who witnessed this year’s social protests in France. “Ibsen.
The Final Bid” is a play that creates a dialogue between the videos, the interviews and the scene action. They are placed in a way to echo each other; they are like the living and the dead in Ibsen’s world: inseparable.
Eleni Apostolopoulou is a theater director and performer based in France. She is currently a Master student of Theatre Creative Research (directing department) in Paris 8 University. Among others, she has collaborated with the National Theatre of Greece and the Barriques Theatre of Avignon.
Her recent activities include performing in museums, such as in the Art – Capital of Grand Palais Museum in Paris 2019.
In cinema, she has appeared in three feature films, several short films and series productions. Eleni is a core member / founder of the Collective Strates, where she directed Golfo and Hesperos/C.P.Cavafy.
Katerina Apostolopoulou is a theater writer. She has a Master degree in compared literature from the University Sorbonne-Paris IV. For 10 years, she has collaborated with several theatre companies as a dramaturg and playwriter, adapting ancient tragedies such as Sophocle’s trilogy, Under Antigone’s eye, in the Abattoirs Theater of Clermont-Ferrand. She also works as a translator for literary reviews, essays, poetry collections and plays. Her first personal poems collection will be edited in 2020 by the editing house Bruno Doucey in Paris. Katerina is a core member of the Collective Strates.
The Collective Strates (formerly named Hypocrites) is a group of theatre artists working together to make plays that encounter the contemporary experience. We consist of five core members and a constantly growing community of associate artists. The main body of work has been of adapting theatre pieces and revivals of classic texts, which embrace intellectually challenging material and visual technologies. We come from different nationalities (French, Greek) and we are based in Paris.
The Jury’s conclusions:
“Ibsen. The Final Bid” is an adaptation of “When We Dead Awaken” where the main characters Rubek and Irene are situated in the political and social unrest of contemporary France. Their private state of despair coincides with the current crises emphasized by the social inequalities that provoked the Yellow Jackets Movement. Personal drama and search for a way out echoes a collective awakening symbolized by the Yellow Jackets Movement.
Documentary audiovisual materials from interviewing the participants and opponents of the protest movement will be neatly integrated into the play and affect its characters.
The jury is intrigued by the intention of the play to question the status quo of the social and political Europe. Not in an apocalyptical way – as a last judgment – but as The Final Bid – a call for revision and awakening. Most importantly – a call for actions that will determine the future of our society.
Ibsen Scholarships 2019 – and the winners are:
In competition with a record-breaking 149 applications from 60 countries, five projects are winners of Ibsen Scholarships 2019.
Artists from five different countries, starting from five different Ibsen plays, are now creating five new theatre productions commenting on the contemporary social and political landscape – locally and globally.
The importance of being an individual in majoritarian democracies is addressed thought “An Enemy of the People” in India. “
When we dead awaken” forms the backdrop for investigating the social and political impact of the protests movement Yellow Jackets in France.
The balance of powers and its consequences are topics from “The Pretenders” that questions migration as consequence of economical games of power in Lebanon.
“Peer Gynt” is seen as a manual of investigating global mobility, border crossing and drifting in an inter-Asian theatre project in Indonesia, Japan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam and “A Doll’s House” is taken to the Shanghai marriage market and the “left over women” of China.
The winners are:
Culturing Voices through Act IV of An Enemy of the People.
By Surendranath, India.
Ibsen. The Final Bid.
By Collective Strates and Eleni Apostolopoulou, France.
Multitude of Peer Gynts.
By Yudi Ahmad Tajudin and Ugoran Prasad from Teater Garasi, Indonesia.
The Greatest Event in a Doll’s life.
By Yangyang Guo, Selena Lu, Cuixi Lin, Yisha Lu and Lelia Taha Burt, China.
The Pretenders in Aleppo or how theatre saved my life.
Chrystèle Khodr, Lebanon.
The Ibsen Scholarships was initiated by the Norwegian Government in 2007 and are awarded innovative projects in the field of drama and performing arts that act as incentives for critical discourse in regards to existential and society-related subject matters concerning Henrik Ibsen.
The Ibsen Scholarships are awarded biennially and the total amount under the Scholarship program is NOK 2.000.000,-.
Ibsen Awards have now supported 39 projects in 27 different countries.
The Jury made the decision after a thorough process of reading and evaluating project proposals. The Jury wants to state that it had a challenging task as the number of project proposals were impressively innovative and of such high artistic quality. It is also of great importance to state that all of the proposals emphasized on important aspects of contemporary theatre, Ibsen’s work and the relevance of his plays today.
See www.ibsenawards.com for more information.