The groundbreaking, heretical Swiss director Christoph Marthaler, an old friend of the Festival and the Greek audience, comes again to Piraeus 260 with a show based on texts by his compatriot Dieter Roth.

An exuberant visual artist known for his unorthodox approach to materials, Roth (1930-1998) also left behind an extensive writing/poetry, which remains largely unknown. Lygmos (Woe) which is the text of the performance is a collection of verbal acrobatics with stage directions, from the publication Das Weinen (Das Wähnen) Volume 2A (Sea of ​​Tears 4). On the tightrope set up by Roth, Marthaler contemplates the transience of things, set in the sterile space of a pharmacy. We rediscover all the components of Marthaler's theater: music, irony, expansion of stage time. With his love of the outrageous, the passing of time and the imperfect, Roth seems to be Marthaler's soulmate.

Five female employees of a pharmacy reflect on the transience of things. The only customer (the only male character in the show) monologues about the indigestion that afflicts him, but they don't pay much attention to him. The cure Marthaler suggests is found not in drugs but in Roth's neo-Dantaist texts – which the actors deliver with the same impressive precision with which they sing Mozart's "Lacrimosa." When one of the employees reads the long list of side effects of a drug, we understand that the whole human life is a deluge of side effects from which it seems impossible to get rid of.

Directed by: Christoph Marthaler
Stages: Duri Bischoff
Costumes: Sara Kittelmann
Sound Design: Thomas Schneider
Music direction – Recordings: Bendix Dethleffsen
Lighting design: Christoph Kunz
Dramaturgy: Malte Ubenauf
Production Schauspielhaus Zürich, Weiterspielen Productions
Supported by Pro Helvetia, Schweizer Kulturstiftung (tbc)

Starring: Liliana Benini, Magne Håvard Brekke, Olivia Grigolli, Elisa Plüss, Nikola Weisse, Susanne-Marie Wrage

June 19 After the show there will be a discussion.

As part of the Athens and Epidaurus Festival 2023.

When:

JUNE 19, 2023 MONDAY 21:00
JUNE 20, 2023 TUESDAY 21:00

Tickets:

Distinguished Zone: €35
Zone A: €5 - €30
Zone B: €5 - €25