Elenita grotesque and crazy UFO, by the Greek artist Euripides Laskaridis, is a creation for an informed public, ready to dive into a more radical and destabilizing proposal.
Posted at 2:21 p.m.
Describing in detail the shambles on stage, the tons of props, costumes and characters that are invited there is undoubtedly mission impossible. Is that’Elenit immerses us in a chaotic universe bordering on the ridiculous, so absurd that it provokes laughter, sublime in its madness. A whimsical, eccentric and grotesque dystopia… Or when David Lynch meets commedia dell’arte, or something like that.
Playwright, choreographer and performer, Euripides Laskaridis had already shown at the FTA, in 2018, with his creation Titans, what kind of wood he warms up with this cosmic fable where he played a character with a broad forehead and a plump belly, evolving in a phantasmagorical universe. We had been able to discover the propensity of the Greek designer for the disguise, even the transfiguration of his person, and also for the DIY (“ do it yourself”) and do-it-yourself, with the often ingenious manipulation of very eclectic objects diverted from their functions.
Burlesque prank
PHOTO JULIAN MOMMERT PROVIDED BY THE FTA
Elenit takes the form of a grand burlesque farce.
Elenit presents itself as a great burlesque farce, this theatrical genre which aims to make people laugh, often rudely. Pantomime, exuberant prostheses, hyper-realistic silicone masks, crazy action, outrageous facial expressions… Anything goes!
Laskaridis interprets the central character, a kind of diva with the air of Marie-Antoinette with the long nose of a witch, wrapped in a powder pink dress with voluminous skirts and equipped with an extravagant blond wig, choking on the smoke of her pipe.
Book in hand, the character recites an invented gibberish, reverberated by a microphone. A babbling of which we roughly understand the content, or at least the intention thanks to the strong, often exaggerated intonations, which the multitude of other characters will take up, each in their own register.
The only decodable sentence, launched in several languages, including French: “What is your problem! Precisely, what is their problem with these completely crazy characters? This is a mystery that will be more or less solved.
On stage, protagonists with evolving, sometimes interchangeable identities interact under the shadow of a large wind turbine: a bald man in a suit and his doubles, a DJ-god on his pedestal who moves around on a skateboard (and who will eventually lose his ), a dinosaur queer with voluptuous shapes who sings opera, a hysterical maid with a mustache, a butcher with a bloodstained apron who carries limbs around in a basket and a little stunted old woman armed with a gun who will be born from the skirts of Laskaridis… Not to mention a young girl suffering from narcolepsy, whose attire reminds Dorothée du Wizard of Ozand a props man dressed all in black, who handles lighting, a microphone and other various scenic elements, including a drinking trough-four-telephone!
The character created by Laskaridis is both at the center of this not-quite-terrestrial world, which seems to know neither past nor future, and an observer of its disintegration, of its implosion. The spectator, for his part, attends, no doubt a bit flabbergasted and bewildered, this great satire where invectives fuse and where dramas follow one another at a maddening pace.
These creatures, both comical and monstrous, will end up orchestrating their revolt against the aristocrat, who will pass away again and again with emphasis, seeking the right tone and the approval of the public in his way of recording the agony.
PHOTO JULIAN MOMMERT PROVIDED BY THE FTA
The title refers to corrugated sheets.
The title of the creation is inspired by corrugated sheets, called Eternit or “elenit”, a material once widespread in Greece, but dangerous, because it consists of an alloy of cement and asbestos. A recurring motif in the creation, these sheets are notably invited into a successful picture, tinged with dreamlikeness, while the panels form a structure around which the characters perform a strange dance, their backlit silhouettes disappearing and reappearing in a circle. unending.
Elenit is a cabaret where circus, dance, theater and magic are invited. Laskaridis enjoys creating and undoing the theatrical illusion all at once. He uses optical effects, plays of light and disguises to better reveal the strings and show behind the scenes. In doing so, he seems to be telling us, in the end, that life is just one big comedy; it’s up to everyone to play the role they want, before everything gets out of hand.
Elenit
At the Jena-Duceppe TheaterUntil June 4