REVOLUTIONARY WAYS TO CLEAN YOUR SWIMMING POOL by Alexandra K*

The state is (also) me!
A utopia becomes realism in the theatrical reality

Son Doe:He thinks he is a folk hero, he thinks he makes a revolution.
Daugther Doe:     Perhaps he does?

From the moment Antonis Doe announces his (illegally built) property an (autonomous) state within the state, things go crazy in Alexandra K*’s  Revolutionary Ways to Clean Your Swimming Pool. It is the moment Antonis Doe finally becomes an adult, at the age of sixty, as a citizen, as a human being, as a Greek. Better late than never! The one who always felt “small”, discovers the “hero” within himself. He finally shoulders the responsibility for his future in a rather fatalistic way which could be both right and wrong at the same time.

“The state is me!” (L’ État c’ est moi!) announces our folk hero and our mind travels back  to the well-known quote of the French King Louis XIV, an  expression well connected with the circumstances of absolutism that led to the French Revolution of 1789. By changing the context of the French King’s quote and transferring it to our days, Greece in particular, a country that suffers from an economic crisis for nearly a decade, and putting it on a stage right in the heart of central Athens, the quote takes new connotations which can be summed up in this rephrasing of the original: “The state is (also) me!”

During the play, the protagonist’s adventure invites us to work together on the idea that the whole thing might be more of a utopia, which could take us a step further and open up new perspectives. By following his journey, we encounter questions that come straight from the European Enlightenment. Watching our heroes,  we feel close to their personal truth, which could be a way out. If we really want to change a situation, the responsibility is on each one of us!

The play’s core idea may sound a bit crazy, at the same time, however, by tearing down the limits of reality that make us suffer, it gives us ideas about the possibility of change, albeit imaginary. In its magical way, it is theatre that can give us this gift of overcoming. The stage can transform any utopia into a reality. In our case, an autonomous, crazy and delightful one.

Sarantos Georgios Zervoulakos
Athens, 2018

The most interesting role of this season is by far played by Manolis Mavromatakis …worth of an award for best performance.
MATINA KALTAKI monopoli.gr 18/05/2018

The play depicts the experience of young Greeks through ten years of crisis in a way that is direct, but  also funny and not preachy at all. […] director Sarantos Zervoulakos serves the play without unnecessary bedazzlements, but only with discrete interventions that give more power to it.
SPIROS KAKOURIOTIS e-dromos.gr

It is a four-character play, […] which deserves to be seen abroad because it gives the foreign audiences the chance to escape from the stereotype “Greece=Ancient Greek tragedy”.
KONSTANTINOS PLATIS theatromania.gr, 3/06/2018

A play about the holy Greek family, about the feeling of a “failed investment”, […] a play written with humor, smart dialogue, suspense, well-built characters, and a firm background of political and social criticism, […] an important contemporary Greek play, the kind Greek dramaturgy needs.
GIOTA DIMITRIADI texnes-plus.gr  

I don’t think that there is a political analysis that approaches with such clarity the reasons of the big social defeat that we are experiencing since 2010.
OLGA MOSCHOCHORITOU kommon.gr, 8/06/2018

Alexandra K* – author
Born in 1985 at Corfu, Greece.   A graduate of the Drama School of the National Theatre of Northern Greece and student of the Theatre Studies Department, School of Fine Arts, Aristotle University. She has also studied Playwriting at the National Theatre Writers’ Studio and the International Theatre Institute in Athens as well as Screenwriting at the Gotham Writers, New York. She has been attending workshops and masterclasses on Creative Writing, Theatre and Cinema in Greece, Italy, Romania and New York. She works as a columnist for several Greek magazines, newspapers and websites, and as a copywriter for advertising agencies. She also writes literature for children, YA and adults, screenplays and stage plays. Her first novel How Urchins Kiss was published in 2018. Her latest play Revolutionary Ways to Clean Your Swimming Pool (Experimental Stage of the National Theatre of Greece) was published by Sokolis Publications in Athens and will soon be published in Spain.

Sarantos Georgios Zervoulakos – director
Born in 1980 in Thessaloniki, Greece. He first got involved in theatre while studying Medicine in Germany. He started working as a trainee and assistant director, at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, and then at the Sopehiensaele in Berlin, and the University of Fine Arts in Berlin, among others.  From 2006 to 2010, he studied Theatre-Directing at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna. During his studies, he took part in many theatrical productions and international festivals in Germany, Austria and France. His work as a director has been presented at the Schauspielhaus in Dusseldorf, the Schauspielhaus in Graz, the Oberhausen Theater in Oberhausen, the Staatstheater in Mainz, the Schauspiel in Leipzig, the National Theatre of Northern Greece in Thessaloniki and the National Theatre of Greece in Athens, among other veues. In 2011 he was nominated for the “Best New Artist” Nestroy Award for his direction of David Greig and Gordon McIntyre’s play Midsummer at the Vestibül of the Burgtheater in Vienna. In 2012 he was nominated in the category “Best New Artist” in a survey of theatre critics conducted by “Theater Heute” magazine. Sarantos Georgios Zervoulakos lives in Vienna and Athens.
Website: www.sarantoszervoulakos.com

Ilenia Douladiri – set and costume designer
Born in 1985 in Volos, Greece. A graduate of the Theatre Studies Department, School of Fine Arts, Aristotle University. Since 2008 she lives in Athens working on several projects as a set and costume designer in theatre, cinema and television. She has collaborated with the directors Levan Tsuladze, Eleni Efthimiou, Konstantinos Markoulakis, Konstantinos Aspiotis, Giannis Kakleas, etc.

Kornilios Selamsis – Music
Born in Athens, Greece, in 1981. He has studied piano in Athens and composition in the Koninklijk Conservatorium in Hague. Works of his have been commissioned and performed, amongst others, by the Athens State Orchestra, the Łódz Philharmonic orchestra, the Orchestra of Colours etc. in several venues in the Netherlands, Greece, Canada, France and Switzerland. Since 2007, he has been closely collaborating with the acclaimed Greek theatre director Thomas Moschopoulos, performing a research on the musical aspects of ancient Greek tragedies, collaborating with Greek National theatre, the Athens Festival, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada and the National Theatre of Northern Greece.

Stella Rapti – Dramaturge
Stella Rapti studied acting at Athens Drama School and dramaturgy at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Theatre Studies. She collaborated as an actress and dramaturge with the National Theatre of Greece, the National Theatre of Northern Greece, Athens Epidaurus Festival, Documenta 14, Staatstheater Kassel, in plays such as, Trojan Women by Euripides, Mr Puntila and his Man Matti  by B, Brecht, and other plays.  From 2010 to 2015 she was the director, dramaturge and one of the actors of “Theatre at Home”, a social theatre ensemble of the National Theatre of Greece and the National Theatre of Northern Greece, which performed over 800 performances in psychiatric institutions, prisons, rehabilitation centres for all kinds of addiction, hospitals, immigrants’ camps and other places of social interest.

Nikos Pastras – Video
Nikos Pastras was born in Athens in 1982. He works as a director and editor of short and feature films, documentaries and adverts as well as a graphic designer and video artist. Since 2011, he has been in charge of video content creation for the film website flix.gr.

CAST

Manolis Mavromatakis, actor
He works in theatre, cinema, TV and radio.  As an actor he has participated in more than fifty theatrical and musical performances, and in more than fifty fiction movies, short films, TV and radio productions. He has also directed two performances for the National Theatre of Greece. For his participation in C. Grauzinis’ Daphnis and Chloe, Pleasure Trip, he was awarded the 2007 “Karolos Koun” Award for Acting.
He has also received the Best Actor Award in 2014 Nashville (USA) International Film Festival, and in 2015 Tehran (Iran) International Urban Film Festival for his participation in G. Tsemperopoulos’ film The Enemy Within; in 2007 Thessaloniki (Greece) Film Festival for his participation in K. Kapakas’ film Urania; in Athens (Greece) Short Film Festival for his participation in J. Charitidis’ short film Cowboy; and in 2007 Drama (Greece) Short Film Festival for his participation in K. Athousakis’ short film Spinalonga. In 2014 Olympia (Greece) International Film Festival, he was honoured “For his high ethical standards and diligence.”.

Michalis Titopoulos, actor
A graduate of the Drama School of the National Theatre (Athens) and the Department of Theatre Studies of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He has collaborated with directors such as A. Azas, I. Voulgaraki, P. Dentakis, N. Milivojevic, G. Paloumpis, G. Perlegkaw, etc.

Rosa Prodromou – Actress
An actress/performer of Greek and British origin, living in Athens, Greece. Studied Physical Theatre in Huddersfiled, UK (2000), and completed her MA in Intercultural Studies in Exeter, UK (Zarrilli, 2002). Studied butoh dance with Minako Seki in Berlin (2006).
Recent theatre performances include: To Findanaki by P. Horn, dir. A.Azas, Experimental Stage of Greek National theatre; Anemos dir. K.Rigos, Greek National Theatre; Re-volt Athens, dir. Elli Papakonstantinou and the ODC Ensemble (Vienna, Acco/Israel, Birmigham/UK etc); Pulsar, solo, dir. John Britton, Bios/ 104 Theatre etc. She is particularly interested in improvisation and interdisciplinary performance projects.

Eva Maria Solmmerberg, actress
Βorn and raised in Bonn, Germany. She studied acting at the Drama School of  Max Reinhardt-Seminar in Vienna. Since then, she worked at the Volksbühne Berlin, Burgtheater Vienna, Schauspiel Frankfurt and several other theatres in Germany and Austria. In 2013 she got rewarded with the junior award from the conveyor society Kassel and played Helena in the Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Salzburger Festspiele. Revolutionary Ways to Clean your Swimming Pool is her first work in Greece.