Nafplion Blues: Prison Stories. The Prisons of Nafplion as Brutal Scenographies

Authors

  • Athena Stourna University of the Peloponnese, Nafplion, Greece
  • Pablo Berzal Cruz Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain
  • Ioanna Lioutsia University of the Peloponnese, Nafplion, Greece

Keywords:

performance space, found space, public space, private space, site-specific performance, social theatre

Abstract

The prison sites and their timeless presence in the city of Nafplion were the starting point for two workshops for students of the University of the Peloponnese. The result of these workshops titled Nafplion Blues: Prison Stories, was presented in the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space 2023 as part of the Greek student exhibition. Students of the module “Performance and space” created the site-specific performance Listen-Watch- Βe Silent in which performers and spectators participated in a pilgrimage procession to former prison sites in Nafplion. The module “Social Theatre” was held at the Agricultural Prison of Tiryns. After a series of theatre workshops, the inmates and the students presented the devised performance The Journeys of the Potato, from Andes to Tiryns: Legends and Truths to only two spectators and the prison guards. In the present paper, the authors focus on the use of the prison – in the present and in the past – as performance space. Prisons function as the absolute dystopian places that oscillate between private and public space: from the Agricultural Prison of Tiryns’ hermetically sealed, private space to the open, public space of the historic city of Nafplion, where the buildings that once housed prisons are scattered throughout the city. In this type of found spaces, the spectators and the performers are moved both emotionally and physically. Through the brutality emitted by the real substance of the sites, the “scenographic city” reveals stories and traumas, while inviting spectators and creators to assume social and political responsibility.

Author Biographies

Athena Stourna, University of the Peloponnese, Nafplion, Greece

ATHENA STOURNA is Assistant Professor of Space, Scenography and Performance in the Department of Performing and Digital Arts (University of the Peloponnese). She trained in Theatre Design at Rose Bruford College and studied Theatre at Paris III – Sorbonne-nouvelle. Athena is the author of the monograph La Cuisine à la scène: boire et manger au théâtre du XXe siècle (PU Rennes, 2011). She is the artistic director of the Okypus Theatre Company, a multicultural company active in Greece since 2007. She has been a Visiting Fellow at the Casa de Velázquez (Madrid), at the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies (Princeton University) and a grantee of the Friends of the Princeton University Library.

Pablo Berzal Cruz, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain

PABLO BERZAL CRUZ is an architect with a doctorate (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid) and an expert in landscape design and management (Universidad Complutense de Madrid). His doctoral thesis focused on ritual space. He has collaborated in immersive theatre projects with Enrique Vargas and with the Tumulto artistic group. Since 2011 he has been teaching at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in the Master’s programme in Ephemeral Architecture. In 2021 he was awarded an academic excellence contract (Margarita Salas Programme, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid). In 2022, he launched the research project Performing Space, which explores the relationship between performance and space, and has since held an international conference in Nafplion every summer. He is currently conducting post-doctoral research on the performativity of ritual space at the University of the Peloponnese.

Ioanna Lioutsia, University of the Peloponnese, Nafplion, Greece

IOANNA LIOUTSIA was born in Thessaloniki in 1992. She is a PhD candidate in the Department of Theatre Studies of the University of Peloponnese. Her doctoral dissertation is titled Performance in the Balkans (1970-2000): aesthetic approaches and sociopolitical dimensions. She graduated from the Department of Theatre of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (direction), the Department of History and Archaeology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (specialization in Art History) and the “Synchrono Theatro - V. Diamantopoulos” Drama School. She works as an actress, director, dramaturg, performance artist and theatre educator.

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Published

2024-07-27

How to Cite

Stourna, A., Berzal Cruz, P., & Lioutsia, I. (2024). Nafplion Blues: Prison Stories. The Prisons of Nafplion as Brutal Scenographies. Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai - Dramatica, 69(1), 111–130. Retrieved from http://dramatica.ro/index.php/j/article/view/306