«PIETÀ» by Martha Bouziouri

The Municipal Theatre of Kavala, in collaboration with the company PLAYS2PLACE and the Neos Kosmos Theatre, presents on Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th September at 21:00 at the Antigone Valakou Theatre, as part of the 66th Philippi Festival, the documentary theatre performance "Pietà", researched and directed by Martha Bouziouri.

Director Martha Bouziouri presents yet another documentary theatre performance, this time daring to touch on a painful, topical and deafeningly urgent issue, with the valuable contribution of an artistic team made up entirely of female actors and creative collaborators. The performance Pietà explores the personal and collective trauma of femicide - the ultimate act in the pyramid of escalating gender violence.

The show was inspired and guided by five women-mothers who have experienced the ultimate loss, the murder of their child: Koula Armoutidou (mother of Eleni Topaloudi), Eleni Kremastioti (mother of Erato Manolakelli), Katerina Koti (mother of Dora Zacharia), Alexandra Makou (mother of Garifallia Psarrakou) and Roza Fotiadou (mother of Sofia Savvidou).

Through a long and intensely charged period of meetings, confessions and exchanges, a space of intimacy and trust was opened up, within which the text of the performance was gradually formed, based on the actual narratives of the mothers, but also on the experiential material of the actors.

Through the sharp yet comforting language of theatre, Pietà takes a difficult journey along the paths of loss, mourning and rebirth, seeking to transform the stage into a place of mutual care, reclaiming and public memory. It is a deeply experiential piece of theatre that bravely and sensitively balances the political and the human, paying tribute to the victims of femicide and to all women out there.

The director, Martha Bouziouri, notes: "Five extraordinary women, despite and on the occasion of their ultimate loss, allowed me to get close to them and, through them, to get close and to listen to Eleni, Erato, Dora, Garifallia, Sophia. The performance is dedicated to these women who are no longer among us, but who live through us. We become their voice. Their beauty and their memory illuminate the struggle for a society without violence, without discrimination, without fear".

The performance will be premiered at the 66th Philippi Festival in Kavala on 9 and 10 September and will then be presented in Athens from 6 October on the Main Stage of the Neos Kosmos Theatre.