We Stay Close, Not Closed
Visit the digital channel of the Onassis Foundation.
Distance still unites us at the Onassis Foundation YouTube Channel, for we cannot imagine a life devoid of art and culture. The pandemic might have affected many of our habits, but we insist on finding meaning even in a planet that seems lonely, like the one in Lena Kitsopoulou’s Antigone Lonely-Planet, which digitally premiered “off program” last night, reminding us that sometimes existential angst is adjacent to comedy.
On Wednesday, November 11, at 00:00 (EET), we press “play” to the most unpredictable live streaming of Stegi, 72 Hours Onassis Channel Live, with no scheduled program, for 3 days and nights.
On Sunday, November 15, at 21:00 (EET), we listen to Noises Off, moving to the backstage of a theatrical production –now that live theater is not an option– and wonder: “What happens when everything goes wrong?”
On Wednesday, November 18, we digitally meet Jo Nesbo, the most read crime writer in the world.
Stay tuned on the Onassis Foundation Digital Channel, free to watch and without any time limitation.
See the program in detail.
Wednesday 11th to Saturday 14th of November | 21:00 (EET)
72 Hours Onassis Channel Live
Play the unexpected
A live streaming event where no-one knows what to expect.
Distance keeps us close, once more. Onassis Stegi returns online with a 72-hour event streamed live on the Onassis Foundation YouTube Channel. A 72-hour event is streamed live on the Onassis Foundation YouTube Channel. With first showings, exclusive interviews, backstage insights, campaigns, spur-of-the-moment videos captured on Onassis Stegi team phones, theater and music performances you asked to see again or have never seen before, exclusive content, highlights, and – of course – live chat.
An unpredictable live experience, wherever you may be. Program and playlist free, for the first time. Join us on Wednesday, November 11 at 11:00. Pit yourself against the possibilities, and experience surprising online happenings with Onassis Channel on YouTube – we stay close not closed. Press play to experience Onassis Foundation’s utterly unpredictable live broadcast.
Photo: Andreas Simopoulos
Available from Sunday 15 November
Noises Off by Michael Frayn
Directed by Ectoras Lygizos
Live YouTube premiere: Sunday, November 15th, 2020 | 21:00 (EET)
Duration: 140’
with Greek and English subtitles
Two years ago, there was all manner of "Noises Off", on and round the Onassis Stegi stage. And, since we cannot attend theater shows on stage for now, we go backstage: to the place where every attempt at rationality backfires. Where dark instincts emerge from the shadows and roles—like zombies—devour the actors. “That's what it's all about, doors and sardines. Getting on, getting off. Getting the sardines on, getting the sardines off. That' s farce. That's—that's the theatre. That’s life”. Michael Frayn’s Noises Off (1982) the play which has won the Olivier, London Evening Standard, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards is Πέντε χρόνια μετά το Room Service, ο Έκτορας Λυγίζος επιστρέφει στη Στέγη, staged here by a superb ensemble cast(Κωνσταντίνος Αβαρικιώτης, Μιχάλης Κίμωνας, Γιάννης Κλίνης, Σοφία Κόκκαλη, Έμιλυ Κολιανδρή, Άννα Μάσχα, Άρης Μπαλής, Αρετή Σεϊνταρίδου) και, ταυτόχρονα, παίζει τον ρόλο του σκηνοθέτη στην κλασική βρετανική φάρσα που μας βάζει μέσα στα παρασκήνια ενός θεάτρου, καλώντας μας να αναρωτηθούμε: «Τι γίνεται, όταν όλα πάνε στραβά;». (Konstantinos Avarikiotis, Aris Balis, Michalis Kimonas, Giannis Klinis, Sofia Kokkali, Emily Koliandri, Ektoras Lygizos, Anna Mascha, Areti Seidaridou). Ektoras Lygizos directs and plays the director in the classic British farce which sits us backstage in a theatre and invites us to ponder on this: “What happens when everything goes wrong?”
An impressive stage set, a human hive abuzz with insults and misunderstandings, the actors forget their lines, the director rages, the costumes fall apart, and the sardines, the axes and the bouquets of flowers are always in the wrong place at the wrong time...
A play within a play, a farce within a farce, cock-up piled on cock-up. A hymn to error on our screens.
photo: Andreas Simopoulos
Available from Wednesday, November 18th 2020
Jo Nesbo
Talks & Thoughts
Duration: 90’
Soccer player, economist, rock star, Jo Nesbo quit many careers before finding his true calling; that is, writing for the only things worth writing for, as he says: crime and love. The master of crime fiction and dedicated climber, who raises the bar with every book he writes, was hosted on the Main Stage of the Onassis Stegi in October 2017, to celebrate along with the Greek Nesbomaniacs a journey that shows his restless spirit.
The discussion was moderated by journalists Marilena Astrapellou and Giorgos Nastos.
He might have been playing at the Norwegian Premier League for Molde at the age of 17 and dreaming of becoming a soccer star with Tottenham; he might have been writing songs and singing in a Norwegian band with sold-out gigs all over the country and best-selling discs, while working with the largest brokerage in his country, yet writing was what made him world-famous after all. During a flight from Oslo to Sydney, Nesbo came up with the plot of his first novel, “The Bat,” for which he won the 1997 Riverton Prize for Best Norwegian Crime Novel of the Year. Thus the legendary detective Harry Hole was born, this cult, self-destructive, hopelessly in love with one woman, opposing any form of power, alcoholic Norwegian police officer, who listens to Sex Pistols and Neil Young, while his best friend is Jim Beam. Harry Hole is undeniably one of the most addictive and popular literary characters of our times.
During these two decades, Nesbo’s dark and exciting novels as well as his scripts for films and television have turned him into one of the leading representatives of crime fiction.
Photo: Stavros Habakis
Available from Sunday, November 8th
Lena Kitsopoulou, Antigone (Lonely Planet)
Duration: 100’
with Greek and English subtitles
Sophocles' Antigone staged as a comedy. Can it be done? If we were to close our eyes and imagine someone turning ancient tragedy on its head, that person would be Lena Kitsopoulou, the larger-than-life anti-persona of the Greek stage.
If you are expecting an ancient tragedy chorus, this is not what you are going to see at Antigone / Lonely Planet. Calling on stage a group of people who, without being experts, deliver a lecture on Antigone, Lena Kitsopoulou pierces the Sophoclean myth with moments of a satirical, desperate “here and now”.
Convinced of the relevance of ancient drama, given that "Whatever aspect of our contemporary reality someone chooses to analyze, they will inevitably come face to face with ancient tragedies", Lena Kitsopoulou identifies in her heroes Antigones, Creons and Haemons who share fears and anxieties with us, ensconced here in our unbearably lonely world. Her heroes may wonder if Antigone howls inaudibly in despair, if Ismene dithers, if Creon is right, they may talk about Love invincible in battle, but always in the light of their own hard choices, the kind of choices that make you fill your ice tray with tears…
In a production which is of a piece with her work to date, Lena Kitsopoulou, takes the myth to the “untrodden”, remains drawn to the motifs of human madness and loneliness; as she sees it, "We have nothing else: everything else is just lies".
On planet Kitsopoulou, though, comedy nestles beneath the existential angst, and vice versa. Driven by a need to poke fun at herself and to view reality through a distorting prism, she seeks "a trace of truth" in comedy. "I don't force the comedy", she says. "It's a form of despair and a way of not feeling guilty about my baser side."
In Kitsopoulou’s universe, ancient drama exists everywhere. “I don’t view ancient drama as something otherworldly, difficult or intimidating. I think it contains me. Artistically, it gives me scope to attempt anything that happens to exist anywhere. It can be found in a minor snapshot of everyday life and in the most extreme weather phenomena. It is condensed poetry and the only thing I can do is to adapt my short-range self to it. I know that I have a place in there, I know it speaks for me.”
The first version of the show was presented at the festival of Onassis USA, Antigone Now, in New York in 2016. A year later, Kitsopoulou’s skiers, who boldly recite “Love, Invincible in Battle,” while speaking about the blizzard of loneliness on rugged mountains, landed on the Onassis Stegi Upper Stage with new material. In 2019, they talked about Antigone’s as well as their own dilemma to the audience of Public Theater in New York, in the Onassis Festival 2019: Democracy Is Coming. It is the first time they ski with their suits and equipment in the digital world.
The show is not appropriate for children.
https://www.onassis.org/whats-on/antigone-lonely-planet
PROGRAM, NOVEMBER 8 - 18
Wednesday 11th to Saturday 14th of November| 21:00
72 hours Onassis Channel Live
Available from Sunday, November 15th
Noises Off by Michael Frayn | Directed by Ektoras Lygizos
Duration: 140’
Live YouTube premiere: Sunday, November 15th, 2020 | 21:00
with Greek and English subtitles
Available from Wednesday, November 18th
Jo Nesbo, Talks & Thoughts
Duration: 90’
Available from Sunday, November 8th
Lena Kitsopoulou, Antigone (Lonely Planet)
Duration: 100’
with Greek and English subtitles
https://www.onassis.org/news/we-stay-close-not-closed-new-digital-screenings-onassis-channel