The Great Tamer (directed by Dimitris Papaioannou) and the Absurdity of Contemporary Life
On July 19, 2017, The Great Tamer directed by Dimitris Papaioannou took to the La Fabrica stage during the Festival D’Avignon. As Lynette Hunter describes in the introduction of Performance, Politics, and Activism, “performance has always been a way of articulating the conditions of contemporary society, and of pointing through the body of performance to ways of defining, understanding and changing these conditions” (Hunter, 1). To this end, The Great Tamer was a “sensorial and primitive epic” that set out to dig, bury and reveal notions of identity, past, legacy, and interiority in contemporary society (Program, 1). This performance took the words: dig, bury, and reveal literally, as the unique stage design allowed for the set to be deconstructed and reconstructed by the performers. Furthermore, it was also home to the hiding places of dirt and water. Moreover, this piece revealed the small tragedies and great absurdities of modern lives on the adversity filled quest for grace and beauty through the medium of circus, including clowns and acrobatics (Program, 1).
Papaioannou is known for creating “hybrids of physical theatre, experimental dance, and performance art” (Dimitris Papaioannu Profile). It is possible to locate his work within Hans-Thies Lehmann’s definition of the postdramatic and how “breath, rhythm, and the present actuality of the body’s visceral presence take precedence” (Lehmann, 145). In Papaioannou’s work, the elements of the postdramatic are present through his experimental choreography and movement. Moreover, this piece in particular was inspired by a news item he came across that outlined the story of a boy who had been bullied and how his body was later found half-buried in muddy ground (Program, 2). Within The Great Tamer, themes of absurdity were explored through set, choreography, lighting, and soundscape. The sound design included a very notable use of foley sound that brought a level of immediacy to the performance and managed to give the sound an alienating quality created by microphones placed on stage. Certain sounds echoed and were amplified, which created a strange absurdist soundscape that created a palpable tension during certain moments of the performance.
In the program, the director mentions how the quest for rediscovery and new beginnings incorporated into the show is infinite and mirrors the endless cycle of Sisyphus and his rock. As Albert Camus said in his work The Myth of Sisyphus, “at any street corner the feeling of absurdity can strike any man in the face” (Camus, 9), and The Great Tamer did just that by striking the audience in the face with a graceful grey-scale absurdity.
Works Cited
Camus, Albert, Justin O'Brien. The Myth of Sisyphus. London: Penguin, 2013. Print.
Dimitris Papaioannou - PROFILE. The Platform, n.d. Web. 23 July 2017. <http://www.dimitrispapaioannou.com/en/profile>.
Lehmann, Hans-Thies. Aspects: Texts - Space – Time – Body – Media. Jürs-Munby, Karen. Postdramatic Theatre. N.p. Pdf.
Hunter, Lynette. Introduction. Lichtenfels, Peter, and John Rouse. “Performance, Politics and Activism”. Palgrave Macmillan. UK, n.d. 23 July 2017. Pdf.
The Great Tamer. By Dimitris Papaioannou. La Fabrica, Avignon. 19 July 2017. Performance.
