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Ariane Mnouchkine is back, with small personal stories in ‘Les Ephemeres’

It took almost half a century for the Greek public to be introduced to Ariane Mnouchkine, who came to Athens last summer with “Caravanne,” an epic performance held at the Faliron Olympic Complex.

The acclaimed French stage director is now back in the Greek capital in a sharper, more focused way with the Theatre du Soleil and “Les Ephemeres” (The Ephemerals) as a guest of the Athens Festival. Last year’s unforgettable depiction of refugee odysseys makes way for a more detailed examination of the way the small threads of daily life weave together to form a whole.

Naturalistic and dream-like microcosms play out on revolving platforms, forming a fabric of love, friendship, conflicts and farewells. Many actors switch roles, something that came about because of improvisations based on their own memories. The performance is an elegy to the ephemeral quality of human existence and is one more landmark in the 43-year-old history of Theatre du Soleil.

With this particular work, Mnouchkine searches for the common link in our individual histories, the unseen sides of the lives of ancestors and parents, or their absence, all the positive and negative ways in which they affected us. It’s also worth noting that Mnouchkine’s troupe has renewed the meaning of political theater, continually experimenting with the codes of national action and celebration, comedia dell’arte and Eastern theater.

Mnouchkine invited members of the press to join her and the cast for a luncheon at the venue where they will be performing, giving us an opportunity to speak not only with her but with several actors, including Shaghayegh (Sasha) Beheshti from Teheran and Duccio Bellugi-Vannuccini from Florence. “The springboard for ‘Les Ephemeres’ was an idea by Mnouchkine to create an ‘ode to humanity’ through a vision of its extinction,” said Beheshti. “Anyway, you can’t speak of life without speaking about death.”

“What would you do if you had 48 hours before a meteor slammed into Earth?” Mnouchkine asked her actors, calling on them through this question to weave their own personal stories. As they experimented and rehearsed, the meteor idea was discarded as being too restrictive and “Les Ephemeres” became a performance based not on a written text but on a “piece comprising the visions and sudden appearances of the actors,” explains the director.

“The challenge with this production,” says Mnouchkine, “was to show to what degree people recognize themselves in the small stories of others. The performance depicts communal life, not the life of each individual separately.”

The director explained that through the rehearsal process, each individual story was enriched and complemented by the group, often “revealing things we did not expect.” Group therapy then? “Not exactly, unless we focus on this part only, on the part of something significant being unexpectedly revealed through something seemingly insignificant,” she answers. Time becomes a key factor in the performance. “Time is the partner of death, because, yes, it does give us moments of joy and life but it also leads us to our extinction. Time, they say, heals all wounds but at the same time it brings us closer to death. Memory is eternal and life is ephemeral.”

The importance of time is underscored by the music of Jean-Jacques Lemetre, which, says Mnouchkine, “is not mere accompaniment but gives body to the emotions.”

The performance of “Les Ephemeres” is in two parts, each lasting 3 hours and 15 minutes, and will be presented both separately and together, starting today to July 1. For ticket information, contact the Athens Festival tel 210 3272000.

The European Translation Center for Literature and Human Sciences awarded five prizes for translations of literature from English, French, German, Spanish and Italian to Greek.

The process was carried out in conjunction with the British Council, the French Institute, the Goethe Institute, the Cervantes Institute and the Italian Institute.

The winning translators were: Athina Dimitriadou for her English-to-Greek delivery of “Life and Times of Michael K” by J.M. Coetzee (Metaichmio); Maria Efstathiadi for the translation of “La Jalousie” by Alain Robbe-Grillet (Smili); Alexandros Isaris for his translation, from German, of “Der blonde Eckberg. Der Runenberg” (Smili); Ismini Kansi for her translation from Spanish of “La Vida de Lazarillo” (Printa), a work whose writer remains unknown; and Anna Papastavrou for her translation of the Italian book “Il naturale disordine delle cose” by Andrea Canobbio.

The five winning translators each received 3,000 euros in prize money at last Tuesday’s ceremony, held at the French Institute in Athens.

A 4th century BC sculpted fragment of the ancient goddess Athena, removed from Greece in the late 19th century, was returned yesterday by a Danish historian.

The fragment, depicting the torso of the goddess Athena, was taken to Denmark in 1897 by the Danish war correspondent Alexander Svenstrup, who gave it to the family of historian Paul Hartvigson, Culture Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis told a presentation ceremony in Athens.

“My uncle Carsten Dahl inherited this 30 years ago and… wanted to return it before he died,” Hartvigson told Agence France-Presse. “It’s been in our family for 97 years… it was time it came back,” said Hartvigson, who came to Athens instead of Dahl, whose health is poor.

Voulgarakis highlighted the “tremendous symbolic significance” of Dahl’s gesture, adding that it vindicates Greece’s efforts to reclaim missing artifacts.

The Athens International Airport yesterday signed a contract with Rota, J&P-Avax and Damco Energy for the development of an exhibition and conference center at the airport.

The center will operate in 2009, with spaces totaling 50,000 square meters, 3,000 parking places and services rivaling the best exhibition centers in Europe.

The conference center will be supportive to the exhibition center, with a capacity for 700 people.

Attica Publications signed an agreement with Netmed Hellas for the exclusive carriage of Playboy TV and Private Spice on the Greek satellite platform Nova for an additional 9.99 euros per month.

Telephony and Internet provider Lannet yesterday announced its cooperation with Orange Business Services, a subsidiary of France Telecom, in the context of the alternative provider’s upgrading of its network and services.

The French-owned company will create for Lannet a new infrastructure for telecommunications networks and solutions. The infrastructure will support the development of integrated services in Internet and telephony as well as the creation of specialized packages providing content not only for domestic users but also for small and medium-sized enterprises and corporate clients.

Orange Business Services will also design and realize a broadband network for Lannet, named “Solutions for Providers,” in order to support the promotion of specific services in the Greek market. It will also introduce the Livebox platform, with which clients will be able to surf the Internet, watch digital television, make phone calls and communicate via videophone.

The deal is expected to raise the profile of Lannet in the battle for a greater share in the recently opened double-play or triple-play market, which offers consumers fixed telephony, Internet and entertainment services packages. Competition in the market has been raging since the start of the year with many players offering competitive packages that have already gained market shares from OTE telecom.

Asked about Lannet’s economic timetable, the company’s President and Chief Executive, Thomas Lanaras, said the business plan envisages market shares which in the next three years will reach a total value of 140 million euro.

Lively festival on the Belvedere will please palate and impart knowledge

The annual Louisville Greek Festival at the local Assumption Greek Orthodox Church will be presenting such a lively and palate-pleasing event, which happens to be this weekend on the Belvedere at Fifth and Main streets.

The hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. today and tomorrow and noon to 7 p.m. Sunday.

The family festival features something for everyone, including children’s games, a Greek gift shop and grocery store, colorfully costumed dancers and live music by Lee Nourtsis and his Neo Ehos Band from Cincinnati.

The culinary aspect of the festival is an awesome undertaking by church members who prepare three days of sumptuous fare. The menu includes baked chicken, pastitsio, moussaka, dolmathes, roasted lamb shanks, baklava, gyros sandwiches, souvlaki, Greek salad and spanakopita.

The tent-covered festival is a rain or shine affair. Admission is $2 (free for ages 8 and younger). Parking is free tomorrow and Sunday in the city garage on Sixth Street, just south of Main. Look for a big sign posted at the garage.

For more information visit > www.assumptionlouisville.org