Inspired by a story by Nikolai Gogol.

The program of Piraeus 260 opens with the new performance of the pioneering Russian theater and cinema director Kirill Serebrennikov, coming to Greece for the first time, an event emblematic of both his artistic and anti-war symbolism.

Artistic director (2012-2021) of the famous Moscow Gogol Center, Serebrennikov who was the only invited Russian director at a European festival (Cannes) despite the Russian artists' boycott in 2022, is known for his activism in favor of the lotki+ community but also because of his break with the Russian regime which led to the closure of the Gogol Center in 2021. Accused of embezzlement of public funds he was arrested, placed under house arrest, and finally in 2020 he received a suspended sentence but in 2022 his sentence was overturned. Today, now self-exiled in Germany, he does not stop proclaiming his opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Βii, a performance featuring Russian, Ukrainian and German actors who each speak their own language, encapsulates his opposition and revulsion.

In a fictional horror novel he wrote in 1835, the father of Russian realism, Ukrainian-born Nikolai Gogol, inspired by a popular Slavic legend, invented a terrifying creature called the Βii. His eyelids were so long that they touched the ground, he was almost blind, but when he managed to open them, a single glance from him was capable of killing those he saw. Taking the legend of Βii as a starting point, Serebrennikov creates a performance of unbearable cruelty as well as poetically powerful. Having started writing the project together with a young Ukrainian writer, Bodan Pankrukhin in 2022, they processed, as he writes in his director's note, "thousands of reports, documentaries and videos about the war from Butsa, Mariupol, Irpin. Innocent victims . Unthinkable crimes, incontrovertible evidence of brutality. In the play, Βii is War – a soulless monster with closed eyes. It robs people of their identity and their future. People kill and are killed."

The viewer realizes the cynicism of war regardless of side; he witnesses a hell that in raw language recounts the complete stripping of human life. The play premiered in Hamburg in December 2022.

Direction – Sets – Costumes: Kirill Serebrennikov
Associate set designer: Elena Bulochnikova
Costumes: Shalva Nikvashvili
Music: Daniel Freitag
Choreography: Ivan Estegneev, Evgeny Kulagin
Lighting: Sergei Kuchar
Artistic collaboration: Anna Shalashova
Dramaturgy: Matthias Günther
Translated by Kyra Heye
Supported by Körber Stiftung, ZEIT-Stiftung, Rudolf Augstein Stiftung, Mara & Holger Cassens Stiftung, ART Connects

Starring: Filipp Avdeev, Bernd Grawert, Johannes Hegemann, Pascal Houdus, Viktoria Miroshnichenko, Falk Rockstroh, Rosa Thormeyer, Oleksandr Yatsenko

June 7: A discussion follows the performance.

As part of the Athens and Epidaurus Festival 2023.

When:

JUNE 7, 2023 WEDNESDAY 20:30
JUNE 8, 2023 THURSDAY 20:30

Tickets:

Zone A: €5 - €30