Amarynthos

Synopsis

Amarynthos is based on a true incident that happened a few years ago in the Greek provincial town of Amarynthos. The quiet town came abruptly under the spotlight when a 15-year-old Bulgarian immigrant appeared at the local police station to report that she had been gang-raped by four of her classmates in the toilets of their high school, while three schoolgirls were allegedly recording the incident on their mobile phones.

Built on extensive archive research and ethnographic fieldwork, Amarynthos sheds light to the mechanisms of truth fabrication and justice, while examining the ways in which public opinion, the media and the local community responded to the case, taking into account the sex, ethnic background, and social class of the victim.

Amarynthos premiered in the framework of Athens and Epidaurus Festival 2018 and run 3+1 sold out shows. The play was selected and will be included in the upcoming American publication An Anthology of Documentary Drama from Greece by Egret Inprint – Laertes Publications, 2019.

Director’s Note

What really happened in Amarynthos? Gang-rape crime? Gender violence? Racist attack? Privacy violation? Cyber-bullying? The case, still cited as an “alleged” or “so-called” rape, remains a big question mark. Yet, it brought to the surface multiple and diverse manifestations of violence, following the original events.

The incident received unprecedented dimensions as the public, journalists, politicians and other bodies of public discourse, saw many intriguing elements in it: rape, minors, mobile phones recording sexual encounters, youth in crisis, rural Greece and small, conservative communities, immigrants, racism, prejudice, complicity…

Amarynthos does not attempt to retrial, neither suggests a convenient neutrality. We come to remember what made us shout momentarily, gradually retreat and in the end, forget all about it. The truth we seek signifies the desire to not forget – in Greek the word for truth (‘alētheia’) stands for the opposite of oblivion (‘lēthi’) – the need to return and re-examine the past so as to create a less violent and more accommodating future.

Director’s Bio

Martha Bouziouri is a theatre maker with a multidisciplinary background. She graduated from the Drama Academy of the Greek Art Theatre Karolos Koun and the Department of Communication and Media Studies of the University of Athens. She received an M.A. in Communication and Cultural Studies and currently completes her PhD in Social Anthropology, titled “Identity and Artistic Expression of Migrant Theatre Makers – Towards an Anthropology of Intimacy”.

As a theatre maker, Martha is primarily involved in the research-dramaturgy direction triptych while she occasionally engages in acting and teaching. The approach of her artistic work focuses on the exploration of documentary theater formats, enriching them with cross-media elements on stage (videos, installations, audio environments) and off stage (exhibitions, open talks, workshops). All of her projects entail an extensive period of fieldwork and reflect on the vigorous transformations and challenges across EuroMENA region.

CAST
Polydoros Voyiatzis, Aggeliki Zisoudi, , Yiorgos KIssandrakis, Theano Metaxa

CREDITS
Text – Dramaturgy – Direction: Martha Bouziouri
Research consultant: Athena Athanasiou
Research group – Dpt. of Social Anthropology, Panteion University: Grigoris Gougousis, Nouri Diakaki, Athina Simoglou
Set and costume design: Eleni Stroulia, Zaira Falirea
Sound and visual design: Voltnoi Brege
Lighting design: Olympia Mytilinaiou
Assistant to the director: Paraskevi Lypimenou
Assistant to the set designers: Zois Ikonomou
Communication consultant: Michalis Sarantis
Photos: Elina Giounanli

Executive Producer: PLAYS2PLACE

Media kit – Athens and Epidaurus Festival website:
http://greekfestival.gr/festival_events/martha-mpouziouri-2018/