4th International Forest Festival
4th International Forest Festival
4th NTNG International Forest Festival
28 June - 13 July
Idea – Risk – Rupture: on stage and in public space
The International Forest Festival returns live to the stages of the NTNG and to the city, from June 28 to July 13, 2022.
Productions and artists from Spain, France, Brazil, Britain, Switzerland and Germany, discussions with artists and theatre theorists, and parallel live and digital actions will form the basis of a rich programme which sets out to broaden the reception of theatre practice.
In conditions that have been especially demanding for humanity in recent years, theatre is once again called upon to interrogate how we look at the world around us, how we converse with it, and ultimately how we inhabit it. Theatrical art itself is enriched, incorporates practices and expands the means at its disposal in an interartistic and multimedia conversation with reality.
The artistic committee of the 4th International Forest Festival, which consists of Savvas Patsalidis (professor emeritus, Theatre Studies, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), Prodromos Tsinikoris (director, dramatist, actor) and Nikos Kapelios (actor at the NTNG), chose artists who break with conventions and dominant theatrical structures, who take risks and realize their own visions in the face of every limitation, embracing risk and taking a fresh approach to propose something new. And as Mr Savvas Patsalidis aptly notes: "A contemporary festival is not just a celebration of culture, it is also a construction site, where ideas and trends are tested, tradition is ruptured, mistakes are made and risks taken. It is a building site in our present-day world".
Agrupación Señor Serrano come from Spain with their production The Mountain and build a performance around the concept of truth. The performnce comments on the difference between real events and fictional narratives. Based on the first Everest mission and its controversial success, as well as on the Orson Welles radio broadcast that caused a nationwide panic in October 1930, the show focuses on the question of how we construct truth. What is truth? A point we struggle to reach or a cold and inhospitable path to the unachievable?
Jordi Soler – “The Mountain”
"Julia" by the Brazilian director Christiane Jatahy, winner of the Golden Lion Award for Theatre in 2022, is based on August Strindberg's Miss Julia and provokes with its innovative take on naturalism in the present. The production deals with themes of gender and issues relating to class as well as race. The use of digital media creates a new theatrical condition that renegotiates the boundaries between stage, screen and reality. The unique way the director incorporates cinematic elements and projections into the fabric of the performance reveals her unique view of the theatrical act.
Marcelo Lipiani – “Julia” Christiane Jatahy
"Jukebox Thessaloniki" is a site-specific performance in which NTNG actors participate under the guidance of the well-known French experimental theatre company Encyclopédie de la parole, which has set out to explore the types of discourse artcuated in specific cultural contexts. If I live in Thessaloniki, what are the words and speeches that go through me from morning to evening? Encyclopédie de la parole travel from city to city inviting local artists to collect sounds with which to create a living jukebox. Which sounds really capture the soundscape of a given place? What are the different types of discourses that develop in specific cultural contexts?
"Jukebox Thessaloniki"
Informed by the logic of Autoteatro performance, The Quiet Volume* and Not to Scale by Ant Hampton and Tim Etchells offer a different participatory creative experience in which the audience, wearing headphones, is invited to create their own story step by step in pairs, and to share it.
*The Greek version of The Quiet Volume was commissioned by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC), where it was first performed between October 2019 and January 2020 with the support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).
Lorenza Daverlo – “The Quite Volume”
The charismatic director and actor Boris Nikitin writes and performs the monologue Attempt on Dying. How close can we get to one another? How scared are we of revealing our true selves? Describing two key moments from his life, Boris Nikitin creates a performance which explores what happens when someone dares to reveal their truth—to expose themselves, to become visible, and thus vulnerable to the criticism of others. Can this apparent weakness be turned into an advantage? Can it become a tool with which we can make a real breakthrough? A major change of course in our lives?
Donata Ettlin – “Attempt on dying”
The play Bound / Gefesselt by Natasha Sideris, which took first prize in the MYTHOS?! competition and was produced as an international collaboration between the NTNG and the Regensburg Theatre, will receive its Greek and online première just days after its opening night in Germany. At the same time, the team behind the production will be in Thessaloniki for an open presentation and discussion with Greek audiences.
Martin Kaufhold – “Gefesselt/Δεσμώτης”
Discussions with theatre theorists and foreign artists will be held for every Festival performance.
Detailed information about the event and the final programme of the 4th International Forest Festival:
The platform allows visitors to access information and material about the performances and artists participating in the Festival, to connect with the online community that has been created especially for this purpose, and to follow the Festival's online activities. An interactive calendar allows viewer to discover the various activities the Festival offers every day, and choose those ones they find interesting.
With the cooperation of the:
- Municipality of Thessaloniki, Department of Culture and Tourism, Central Municipal Library
- Goethe Institut, Thessaloniki
- Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC)
Watch the trailer:
The team organizing and implementing the International Forest Festival at the NTNG consists of:
Amalia Kondoyanni (Head of the Artistic Production & Literary Department, Co-funded programmes)
Maria Lazaridou (International Relations Office, Artistic Production)
Stella Papadimitriou (Literary Office)
Marily Ventouri (Artistic Production Office)
Anna Maria Iakovou (Artistic Production Office, Co-funded programmes)
Matina Pagoulatou (Theatrologist collaborator, Literary Office)
Konstantinos Soultanis (Theatrologist collaborator, Literary Office)
Margarita Kourtova (Theatrologist collaborator, Literary Office)
Foteini Logothetidou (Administrative staff, Co-funded programmes)
Katerina Sinapidou (Social media manager)
Zoi Siapanta (Translation, Interpretation)
Katerina Siapanta (Surtitling)
Akis Vogiatzis (web platform programming)
The 4th International Forest Festival has been implemented within the framework of the "Regional Operational Programme "Central Macedonia 2014–2020" with funding from European and national resources.
