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in Greek
in Greek

Performances

DATES: 17/10/2019- 08/12/2019
DAYS & TIMES: Wednesday at 19:00 |Thursday, Friday & Saturday at 21:15 | Sunday at 20:00
ENGLISH SURTITLES: every Sunday
RUNNING TIME: 90 min (no interval)
TICKET SALES: NTNG Box Offices (Τ. 2315 200 200) | VIVA.gr | Τ. 11876 
Suitable for ages 15+
 
After an impressive run of sold-out performances and a stint at Ioannina’s Municipal Theatre, “The Elephant”, last year’s surprise hit, which proved a great success with fans and critics alike, will be returning to the Lazaristes Monastery to shed still more light on the dark side of the Greek countryside and to transport us with its hilarious dialogues and “surreal situations”.
 
Kostas Vostantzoglou manages to get us laughing and indignant at one and the same time by cleverly “abusing” the Greek language and shining a light on a whole raft of characteristics that are rooted (whether buried or hidden) in the minds of a large portion of the Greek people.
 
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Director’s Note
There are people—not us, mind!—who say: “You’re not telling me nothing! I’ll do just what I want!”. And they do it.
There are people—not us, mind!—who say: “I’ll have the last word I will. You don’t know what I'm like!”. And they do it.
There are people who say: “You’re time comes, you take a swing and smash the lot. You send everything flying. Flatten it. And you don’t care... About nothing!”. And they do it.
Those people aren’t like us. They do what they say and they don’t think when they do it. What is it separates humiliation from dignity? A plate of lentils, that’s what. The poison begins to spread through the bodies of the play’s protagonists the moment they hit adulthood. Or maybe even earlier... Those people aren’t like us, until there’s proof to the contrary. You never know.
Kostas Vostantzoglou’s “Elephant” is an exceptional piece of contemporary Greek theatrical writing, combining as it does its theme of grim brutality as an aspect of human relations in remote villages with the codes of comedy and an extremely bold handling of the Greek language. The local dialect—which could be from Thessaly, Roumeli or Epirus—alternates with brutal treatment of the Greek language. The quality of the language of the play’s protagonists is formed out of these basic ingredients: ignorance, lifestyle, a primitivist traditionalism and a fascist conception of everyday family life.
“Greek tradition”: a mosaic of the grandiose and the tawdry, subjugation and rebellion, crime and punishment, brutality and tears. “The Elephant”: a bucolic musical, a comic symposium of death.  
A blind elephant wandering the Pindos mountains in search of someone who will play it music.
 

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Press reviews of the production
 With its use of exaggeration and kitsch, the directorial approach weaves the fabric of everyday human relations onto the weft of the pathogenesis of the Greek family and Greek tradition with surgical precision and detail. […] The director makes use of intelligent gambits which keep the viewer on the edge of their seat until the very end. The four performances are at an equally high level and the on-stage chemistry between them is excellent. One of the most pleasant surprises of this year’s theatrical season.
 
Giorgos Christopoulos, OnlyΤheater
 
A text that leaps and jumps on stage as four actors “let loose” in the Lazaristes Monastery - Studio Theatre. Kostas Vostantzoglou’s play directed by Yannis Leontaris looks you straight in the eye as it vomits up hidden truths, spits out pathologies and, with incredible humour, regurgitates garlic and lentils in the yard of a village house...
 
Maria Mavridou, Columnist
 
The actors’ performances are hyper-realistic and win over the audience from the very first scene, confirming in the best possible way how excellent and talented people trained at the NTNG go on to serve it with fervour and how skilfully they bring difficult and demanding characters to life on stage, at even the most frenzied pace. They were all of them excellent. They deserve all the applause and curtain calls they received at the end. They earned enthusiastic reviews with their sweat—literally and metaphorically. And for that alone, it’s well worth experiencing this production for yourself.

Pavlos Lemontzis, cityportal.gr
 
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Black comedy in an inspired contemporary text. Great music, rapid dialogue and an everyday popular setting help the director Yannis Leontaris to make this successful rock show.

Kyriaki Beyoglou, Ephimerida ton Syntakton
 
“The Elephant” is an extremely well-prepared production which plays out in a way which moves, shocks and excites the audience. Stirring the imagination and emotions, it leaves us dazed by the emotional ups and downs of the characters and delighted when their lives are brought to an end in such a unique and intriguing way.

Vangelis Raftopoulos, Cityculture

Credits
Direction-Musical supervision-Video Editing: Yannis Leontaris, Sets-Costumes: Alexandra Bousoulegka, Rania Yfantidou, Lighting: Nikos Vlasopoulos Director’s Assistant: Marilena Katranidou, Production Photograpy: Tasos Thomoglou, Production Coordinators: Marily Ventouri, Dimosthenis Panos
 
With: Sofia Kalemkeridou (Gogo), Nikolas Maragkopoulos (Mitsos), Panagiotis Papaioannou (Tasos), Marianna Pouregka (Voula)