Titans from Euripides Laskaridis at the Coronet Theatre

A performance art piece that is just as absurd, and impenetrable as you could expect. Titans is an interesting, but eventually baffling piece of performance art that is not for everyone.

Set before life on earth, two indescribable bodies stumble, dance and babble around the stage, trying to work out their relationship as things begin to break down. One is in an all-black translucent morph suit, the other in all pink, a bald cap and is pregnant. I think they are meant to be in some kind of relationship, but to assume that would be an absurd leap of faith in this kind of piece. The hour and fifteen minutes of this piece are comprised of the two getting into various difficult situations that usually involved polystyrene. There are vague gestures towards a domestic context, but none of this is substantiated. It is very difficult to glean any understanding from this piece, in part because there is no speech, but rather a babbled, high-pitched squeaking. I’m not suggesting that speech is required to communicate meaning, but in this show, it felt like the cherry on the icing of incomprehensibility.

This piece has a specific audience and is not for everyone. I understand that this is performance art, but it felt so wrapped up in its experimentation that it had forgotten to indulge the audience with any kind of a way in. I usually try to give a sense of what the narrative of a piece is to anyone reading this, but I don’t have much for you.

That being said, it is quite funny, there is a distinct playfulness between Euripides Laskaridis and the audience, but that is where our understanding ends. Perhaps towards the end of the piece, there is some semblance of a narrative, but I am clutching at straws.

I feel as though I should be enjoying this extreme experimentation, but I found myself out of touch, not engaged and aside from the occasional laugh, not engaged by this performance. That is fine, it not resonating with me does not mark its inherent quality, just my opinion of it.

Review by Tom Carter

Inspired by Greek mythology, TITANS is a bold and absurd fable blending dance and performance art by daring and acclaimed choreographer Euripides Laskaridis.

Before the world’s beginning, two solitary beings live between darkness and light, playing a never-ending game with no apparent purpose. A grotesque spectacle, two performers shapeshift as they interact, blending chaos with elegant movement. Eccentric, iconoclastic and existential, TITANS dissolves the boundaries of performance, interrogating the parameters of our rational world.

Renowned Greek choreographer Euripides Laskaridis celebrates the undefinable. A visionary of the Theatre of the Absurd, his work has toured the world presenting endlessly inventive, dreamlike worlds to his audiences.

CREATIVES
Director, Choreography & Set Design
Euripides Laskaridis

Performed by
Euripides Laskaridis & Dimitris Matsoukas

Costume Design
Angelos Mentis

Original Music & Sound Design
Giorgos Poulios

Lighting Design
Eliza Alexandropoulou

Dramaturgy Consultant
Alexandros Mistriotis

TITANS
03–04 March 2023
https://www.thecoronettheatre.com/