"Tom in Greece (Tom à la ferme)"

How does it feel to lose your work and life partner? How does one’s life change when they spend time with the family of the lost loved one? How can one handle mourning, loss and keep the secrets hidden in a closed community? And finally, how many secrets can one keep inside in the name of love? The talented, much-discussed director, Sarantos Georgios Zervoulakos, on his first collaboration with Onassis Stegi, brings Michel Marc’s Bouchard’s acclaimed “Tom à la ferme” on the Upper Stage of Onassis Stegi on December 2019, in an adaptation inspired by the realities of contemporary Greece.

Zervoulakos, who was declared “Best New Artist” in a survey among theater critics conducted by the “Theater Heute” magazine in 2012, worked with a group of both young and established actors (Renia Louizidou, Antonis Primikyris, Lefteris Polychronis, Eva Maria Sommersberg) who, with the music of Amateurboyz, present us a psychological thriller, a meditation on mourning as well as a detailed dissection of a stifling society. The rising young director, Sarantos Georgios Zervoulakos, draws us into a tragicomedy of unveiled lies, repression, and violence amidst the backdrop of today’s Greece. An acclaimed theatrical play, which has also been adapted for the screen by the successful young director Xavier Dolan, is presented for the first time in Greece.

A successful, cosmopolitan gay man, Tom travels to the Greek countryside to attend his lover’s funeral. Shattered by his loss, he meets the deceased’s family for the first time: the mother, who has no idea who Tom is and what he meant to her son, and the brother, whose main concern is to hide the truth at any cost. Despite the “toxic” environment, Tom appears loath to leave, even as relations among the different characters, beset as they are by power games and repressed desires, devolve into pathology. Gradually, the blurring boundaries between violence and lust lead to a tragicomic unveiling of truth, repression, and violence.

Credits

Translation: Amalia Kondoyanni

Director: Sarantos Georgios Zervoulakos

Set & Costume Design: Tina Tzoka

Music: Amateurboyz

Lighting Design: Nikos Vlassopoulos

Assistant to The Director: Stella Rapti

Assistant to The Set Designer: Mary Antonopoulou, Athina Koubarouli

Dramaturg: Lisiane Durand

Head of Production: Rena Andreadaki

Cast:

Tom - Antonis Primikyris

Agathe - Renia Louizidou

Francis - Lefteris Polychronis

Sara - Eva Maria Sommersberg

Surtitles Translation: Memi Katsoni

Simultaneous Surtitling: Yannis Papadakis

Concept: Eteria Filon

Produced by: Onassis Stegi Athens

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Bouchard’s play has also been adapted for the screen by the successful young director Xavier Dolan, who has described it as a story about social roles and a world turned upside down. Interestingly, in German, the title has been translated as “Sag nicht wer du bist”; in other words “Don’t say who you are.”

Born in 1958 in Quebec (Canada), Michel Marc Bouchard began writing plays and organizing performances at a very young age. With the 1987 premiere of “Les Feluettes ou la Répétition d’un drame romantique” (“Lilies, or the Revival of a Romantic Drama”) he conquered Canada’s theatre-going audience. He has written more than twenty plays, which have been translated into many languages some of which have also been adapted for both cinema and opera. He is considered one of the most important playwrights of his generation in Canada. He has received numerous awards and he is Officer of the Order of Canada, Knight of the national Order of Quebec and member of the Académie des lettres du Quebec.

Bio

Sarantos Georgios Zervoulakos born in 1980 in Thessaloniki, Greece. His father is Greek and his mother German.

He has studied medicine in Germany, having completed the first cycle of studies. It was then that he first got involved in theater, working as a trainee and assistant director, among others, at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, the Sopehiensaele in Berlin, the University of Fine Arts in Berlin, the bat-Studiotheater at the “Ernst Busch” Academy of Dramatic Art in Berlin and the Kampnagel in Hamburg.

From 2006 to 2010, he studied Theater 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. After graduating from the Max Reinhardt Seminar in 2010, his work as a director has been presented, among others, at the Schauspielhaus in Dusseldorf, the Schauspielhaus in Graz, the Oberhausen Theater in Oberhausen, the Staatstheater in Mainz, the Schauspiel in Leipzig, the Residenztheater in Munich, the Volkstheater and the Burgtheater in Vienna, the National Theater of Northern Greece in Thessaloniki and the National Theater of Greece in Athens.

"Alexandra K*'s play, Revolutionary Ways To Clean Your Swimming Pool", was his first staging in Athens, in 2018, with shows at the Greek National Theatre's Experimental Stage (Katerina Paxinou Stage). In 2011, Sarantos Georgios Zervoulakos 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. Moreover, in 2012, he was declared “Best New Artist” in a survey among theater critics conducted by the “Theater Heute” magazine. In 2016, he founden ETERIA FILON in Vienna. Sarantos Georgios Zervoulakos lives in Vienna and Athens.

https://www.onassis.org/whats-on/tom-in-greece-tom-%C3%A0-la-ferme