Performances

OPENING: 25/01/2020

DAYS & TIMES: Tuesday to Friday at 10:30 (Schools)

Every Sunday at 17:00 (General public)
RUNNING TIME: 80 minutes (without interval)
SCHOOL RESERVATIONS: T. 2315 200 012
TICKET SALES: NTNG Box Offices (Τ. 2315 200 200) | VIVA.gr | Τ. 11876 
 
The performance is followed by educational activities (duration: 20 minutes)
   

 
Director’s Note

“...one day they’ ll be out for real.
The audience...”
Philip Ridley
 
This phrase of Philip Ridley’s from his original text has me wondering: can art and creativity be seen as a purely personal condition? Because, for me, the dream of art only becomes a reality when an audience is there to receive it. The phrase in question, along with everything else Ridley wrote, also declares theatre’s social nature—for the theatre is a community in which actors (and, indirectly, all the other creatives involved) and audience come together. And I am convinced it is precisely this social dimension that makes theatre so central to every era. It’s something I try to bear in mind as I embark on a new play.
 
Teenage and adult theatre differ only in so far as the former may choose to focus on subjects of direct and intense relevance to young people: love, sex, addictions, career orientation, relations with parents and peers, bullying and cyber-bullying, etc. We are at our most sensitive during our teenage years. It’s when our socio-political views assume their initial shape along with our philosophical and existential credo. When we mature by discovering the world around us.
 

 
Fairytaleheart is a teenage play. It deals with love, with single-parent families, with emotions, social impasses and existential dilemmas. It’s the story of two teenagers who are changing, who feel pain and believe and question, who throw themselves into everything they do. When you’re 15, you turn the dial up to 11 and everything you feel and experience, as well as the problems you face, can seem larger than life and often too much to handle. Kevin and Sandra, the protagonists, both have their problems, both have their creative urges. And it’s the latter that provide the emotional backdrop that helps bring them close, and which later fuels their love—however different they may seem at first sight.
 
Of course, Ridley’s story also sheds light on aspects of our contemporary social reality. And while the play is set in England, the situations it portrays are just as familiar to us here in Greece—what it has to say is still current, still up-to-date.
 
The songs by LEX, who granted permission for their use in this production, convey the socio-political context in Greece today, which is anything but ideal for our young people. But this is the context in which they’re growing up into the adults of tomorrow. This is the world in which they will have to try to get by and stand on their own two feet, the reality in which they will dream and love.
 
It’s extremely healthy for teenagers to channel their inexhaustible mental and physical energy into arts and into love. And true to the spirit of the text, the production is jam packed with art and with love; it is full of art in all its forms and imbued with romance. Full of creativity. An amazing team. Superb young actors. Marvellous collaborators new and old. And freedom, lots and lots of freedom. The rest on stage...
 

 

Philip Ridley
Philip was born and grew up in the East End of London. He studied painting at St Martin’s School of Art, and his work has been exhibited widely throughout Europe and Japan. As well as three books for adults (Crocodilia, InThe Eyes of Mr Fury and Flamingos in Orbit) – and the highly acclaimed screenplay for The Krays feature film (winner of The Evening Standard Best Film of the Year Award) – he has written many highly regarded and hugely influential stage plays: the seminal The Pitchfork Disney (now published as a Methuen Modern Classic), The Fastest Clock in the Universe (winner of a Time Out Award, the Critics’ Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright, and the Meyer-Whitworth Prize), Ghost from a Perfect Place (nominated for The Evening Standard Best New Play Award), Vincent River (nominated for the London Festival Fringe Best Play Award),the highly controversial Mercury Fur, Leaves of Glass, Piranha Heights (nominated for the WhatsOn-Stage Mobius Award for Best Off West End Production), Tender Napalm (nominated for the London Fringe Best Play Award), Shivered (nominated for the Off-West End Best New Play Award), Dark Vanilla Jungle (winner of an Edinburgh Festival Fringe First Award), Radiant Vermin, Tonight With Donny Stixx and Karagula (nominated for the Off-West End Best New Play Award), plus several plays for young people (collectively known as The Storyteller Sequence): Karamazoo, Fairytaleheart, Moonfleece (named as one of the 50 Best Works About Cultural Diversity by the National Centre for Children’s Books), Sparkleshark, and Brokenville, plus a play for the whole family, Feathers in the Snow (shortlisted for the Brian Way Best Play Award) and a play for young children, Daffodil Scissors. In 2001 he was one of the writers chosen to contribute to the National Theatre’s Chain Play (celebrating the venue’s 25th anniversary).

He has also written novels for children, including Scribbleboy (shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal), Kasper in the Glitter (nominated for the Whitbread Prize), Mighty Fizz Chilla (nominated for the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award and the Carnegie medal), ZinderZunder, Vinegar Street, Zip’s Apollo and the bestseller Krindlekrax (winner of both the Smarties Prize and WH Smith’s Mind-Boggling Books Award), the stage play of which  –adapted by Philip himself–  was premiered at the Birmingham Rep Theatre in 2002.

He has also directed three feature films from his own screenplays: The Reflecting Skin –winner of eleven international awards (including the prestigious George Sadoul Prize)– The Passion of Darkly Noon (winner of the Best Director Prize at the Porto Film Festival) and Heartless (winner of The Silver Meliers Award for Best Fantasy Film). For the latter two films, Philip co-wrote a number of original songs, one of which, Who Will Love Me Now? (performed by P.J. Harvey) was voted BBC Radio 1’s Top Film Song of 1998 and has since been covered by the techno- house band Sunscreem (as Please Save Me), becoming both a club and viral hit.

In 2010 Philip, along with song-writing collaborator Nick Bicȃt, formed the music group Dreamskin Cradle and their first album, Songs from Grimm, is available on iTunes, Amazon and all major download sites. Philip is also a performance artist in his own right, and his highly-charged readings of his ongoing poetry sequence Lovesongs for Extinct Creatures (first embarked on when he was a student) have proved increasingly popular in recent years.

In 2012 What’s On Stage named him a Jubilee Playwright (one of the most influential British writers to have emerged in the past six decades). Philip has won both the Evening Standard’s Most Promising Newcomer to British Film and Most Promising Playwright Awards. The only person ever to receive both prizes.
 

CREDITS
Translation: Xenia Kalogeropoulou
Direction: Alexandros Raptis
Dramaturgy: Dimitris Kalakidis
Sets: Dido Gogou
Costumes: Katerina Chatzopoulou
Music: Georgos Dousos
Movement: Haris Pechlivanidis
Lighting: Nikos Vlasopoulos
Video Mapping/Animation: Babis Venetopoulos
Director’s Assistant: Katerina Synapidou
Sets and Costumes Designer’s Assistant: Dora Gouniaroudi
Production Photography: Tasos Thomoglou
Production Coordinator: Marily Ventouri
 
CAST
Sandra: Panagiota Bibli
Kevin: Perikles Siountas
 
Participating students from the NTNG Drama School: Elissavet Nikolaidou, Aggelina Tersenidou, Maria-Rafailia Tsobanoudi, Alexandros-Georgios, Tomadakis