Die Präsidentinnen
‘Die Präsidentinnen’ translated as ‘First Ladies’ is a grotesque black comedy of Werner Schwab, an Austrian anti-bourgeois play writer and sculptor. The play examines what can happen when three unfulfilled women become possessed by their own fantasies.
Schwab's play extensively employs scatology and sex, with the peculiarity of exhibiting pulsion and taboos in a poetic framework. Surreal violence and degradation are expressed, posing exciting emotional demands for both actors and audience in a play that happiness is impossible, even when dreaming.
The entire space of the stage is used. A tiered stage, mirroring the tiered audience seating, is positioned at the far back, hosting the performance of the accompanying punk band.
On the periphery female toilets are located at the right side and male urinals on the left. The entire stage can be seen as a vast public toilet.
A central piece around a concrete column; imitating a double storey building fragment, forms a collage of several spaces, comprising part of a kitchen worktop, a storage attic and a staircase. These elements create a surrealistic narration based on ordinary, mundane images.
During the performance the kitchen walls collapse, revealing the punk band behind the columns. At the of the act, the young lady gets killed and hanged from the attic. Eventually the audience is invited to walk through this last scene. The spatial conditions is perceived entirely differently, making the audience exit via the side door, looking at the performance of the punk band.
Project Data
Year 2017
Location Greece
Type Culture
Director Zoe Chantziantoniou
Set designer Elina Loukou
Lighting designer Sakis Birbilis
Costume designer Ioanna Tsami
Video Olga Brouma
Production Athens and Epidaurus Festival
Links