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Berlin International Performing Arts Center

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The Philanthropist

Dirty Granny Tales return to ETB | IPAC with their latest production, The Philanthropist.

Influenced by the decay of our modern era, the ensemble creates an ironic, circus of horror setting where haunting melodies meet visual storytelling. In an ideal society, a monster disrupts the harmony until the eponymous philanthropist appears as a savior. But is he truly a hero? Moving beyond their role as narrators, the musicians are now the lead characters, utilizing live looping techniques to transform into one-person orchestras.

This multi-sensory experience merges 2D animation projections, puppet theater and physical dance into a dark, gothic fable. It is a world born from a romantic yet decaying music box, where every note raises a question and every shadow hides a truth.

THE CAST & CREW

•     Stavros Mitropoulos: Vocals, Mandolin, Mandola, Cello, Percussion, Flute, Synthesizer. (Role: The Journalist)

•     Christina Syriopoulou: Piano, Vocals, Synthesizer. (Role: The Journalist 2)

•     Michalis Kasvikis: Percussion. (Role: The Citizen)

•     George Smak: Acoustic Guitar, Vocals, Flute, Melodica, Synthesizer. (Role: The Citizen 2)

•     Stavros Psyllakis: Dance, Puppetry. (Multi-roles)

•     Dimitra Daskalou: Cantine Woman

Cynthia

A drag-puppet-theater spectacle about the world’s first non-human influencer from 1937

Cynthia was a model, an influencer, a socialite, a celebrity and a household name in the USA in 1937. But unlike other celebrities of her day, she was dismantled into pieces at the end of her day and stowed away in a body bag. Cynthia was a mannequin. Her creator, Lester Gaba, a window display designer in New York City, became her manager, puppeteer and chaperone. He escorted her to dinner clubs, theater premieres and fashion shows,  as well as performing for her and responding to  her adoring fans on her behalf.

Let this delightful fever dream of a show take you down the slippery slope from entertaining spectacle into the uncanny valley.

Featuring Berlin Drag King Alexander Cameltoe as Lester Gaba, with his world animated by an ensemble of puppeteers.

Noose

… is that day in your life when you see it…

the time slips away…

and all you live is not what you have wished

is the moment when your whole world is shattered

that very moment when your dreams come back asking for all you promised

when you feel it…

the noose is moving up…further and further…it is tightening around your throat…stealing your air…stealing your breath

…because until then you thought you were alive.

A surrealistic performance somewhere in between black comedy and the theater of the absurd. With the use of tabletop puppets and cinematic narration, the puppeteers animate the puppets without being visible to the audience.

Clowns’ Houses

Puppet theater for adults by Merlin Puppet Theatre

One building, five apartments, six characters. The audience watches them live their conventional lives in a dark, claustrophobic setting, with their fears, obsessions and loneliness.

Merlin Puppet Theatre dramatizes and demonizes their obsessions until they finally punish and liberate them in the most violent manner. They do not attempt to do existential analysis through their work. Instead, they examine modern way of living in its current form. The loneliness of modern humanity is displayed through the dark rooms of Clowns’ Houses; prison-like houses, people trapped in their routines and habits, far from their dreams.

THE LAB: Shame

Shitting, farting, STDs, growing old, class shaming, language shaming…we all shame ourselves.

Shame connects and disconnects. Shame is collective, but isolates. Shame is private and political/public. Shame flows between me and others, past and future, childhood and adulthood. Shame is hiding, shame is control, social and individual control.

The play stages the stories of the actor and contemporary social and politic events.

With masks and puppets, drag and glitter, let’s all shame ourselves!

Followed by a post-performance discussion.

We are very pleased to present this initial public performance of a new work-in-progress by the team who brought Baba to the 2016 Expat Expo | Immigrant Invasion Festival!

Telion’s Garden (Dirty Granny Tales)

Dirty Granny Tales is an acoustic ensemble that narrates atmospheric stories. Their shows include puppet theater, dance performance and video animation projection, all of which, accompanied by the music, bring the story to life.

Influenced by the atmospheric fairytales of Tim Burton and Guilermo Del Toro, the melodies of Danny Elfman, the irony of Tiger Lillies, The Residents’ sterile landscape, Japanese Gothic theater and Butoh choreography, Dirty Granny Tales transports us to a magical dark world in their own extraordinary way.

Telion’s Garden, a tale influenced by migration, invades human instincts. Indignation and fear lead to desperate decisions. The pursuit of a perfect, flawless, godly world becomes the goal: a world that no flames can destroy, a world that has no room for hellish fire. Alas, the lack of fire can only create an emotionless world. Perfection is an illusion. Life is an inseparable bond of light and darkness. Respecting this bond is the only key to our survival.

 

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Dirty Granny Tales are:

Stavros Mitropoulos (Mouldbreath): Vocals, Guitar, Mandolin

Thanos Mitropoulos (Wormeaten Vagus): Bass, Blockflute, Backing Vocals

Dalai Theofilopoulou (Slimeskin): Cello, Backing Vocals

Uli Muehe (Heartbeat Zero): Percussion, Backing Vocals

Ruby Wilson: Dance

Giulia del Balzi: Dance

 

Didi’s Son (Dirty Granny Tales)

In a world where everything is reversed and objects come to life while the human beings are subservient to them, a writer becomes part of the story that he is writing.

thanos didiHe falls in love with the leading lady of his fairy tale, threatened by his own story creatures, and in the end redeems them and is himself redeemed.

Dirty Granny Tales is an acoustic ensemble that narrates atmospheric stories. Their shows include puppet theater, dance performance and video animation projection, all of which, accompanied by the music, bring the story to life.

Influenced by the atmospheric fairy tales of Tim Burton and Guillermo Del Toro, the melodies of Danny Elfman, the irony of Tiger Lillies, The Residents’ sterile landscape, Japanese Gothic theater and Butoh choreography, Dirty Granny Tales transports us to a magical dark world in their own extraordinary way.

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Dirty Granny Tales are:

Stavros Mitropoulos (Mouldbreath): Vocals, Guitar, Mandolin

Thanos Mitropoulos (Wormeaten Vagus): Bass, Blockflute, Backing Vocals

Dalai Theofilopoulou (Slimeskin): Cello, Backing Vocals

Uli Muehe (Heartbeat Zero): Percussion, Backing Vocals

Anna Athanasiou and Katerina Liana: Dance, Puppets

 

Telion’s Garden (Dirty Granny Tales)

Dirty Granny Tales is an acoustic ensemble that narrates atmospheric stories. Their shows include puppet theater, dance performance and video animation projection, all of which, accompanied by the music, bring the story to life.

Influenced by the atmospheric fairytales of Tim Burton and Guilermo Del Toro, the melodies of Danny Elfman, the irony of Tiger Lillies, The Residents’ sterile landscape, Japanese Gothic theater and Butoh choreography, Dirty Granny Tales transports us to a magical dark world in their own extraordinary way.

Telion’s Garden, a tale influenced by migration, invades human instincts. Indignation and fear lead to desperate decisions. The pursuit of a perfect, flawless, godly world becomes the goal: a world that no flames can destroy, a world that has no room for hellish fire. Alas, the lack of fire can only create an emotionless world. Perfection is an illusion. Life is an inseparable bond of light and darkness. Respecting this bond is the only key to our survival.

 

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Dirty Granny Tales are:

Stavros Mitropoulos (Mouldbreath): Vocals, Guitar, Mandolin

Thanos Mitropoulos (Wormeaten Vagus): Bass, Blockflute, Backing Vocals

Dalai Theofilopoulou (Slimeskin): Cello, Backing Vocals

Uli Muehe (Heartbeat Zero):  Percussion, Backing Vocals

Ruby Wilson: Dance

Giulia del Balzi: Dance

 

Torrents of Rapture

Something’s off with Reggie’s boyfriend. In a fit of protectiveness(?) he’s just locked him in the bathroom like Rapunzel. Miserable and betrayed, Reggie finds solace in his friends – the hairdryer, drill, radio and toilet paper – as well the life affirming classic Torrent of Rapture.

Wildly romantic, idealized and inaccurate it seems to mirror his life exactly until it becomes clear that having a movie for a therapist is not always a good idea. As his world crumbles around him, Reggie finds his inner superhero emerging
victorious from the ruins of his shattered dreams.

Told through bad ballet and puppetry, this is Brief Encounter meets Saving Private Ryan via Monty Python style cinema, film music, animation and live song. Torrents of Rapture fuses these sumptuous elements together as it explores the social, civil and
human rights themes celebrating the bravery and sacrifice
of the men and
women who have
fought for LGBT equality over the
past 150
years. The show leaves you overwhelmed, singing and shaking with …Torrents of Rapture.

Torrents of Rapture 
was
created by Dugald
Ferguson
 in co-production with Norwich Pride and Norwich Arts Centre. Supported by Arts Council England

Didi’s Son

In a world where everything is reversed, and objects come to life while the human beings are subservient to them, a writer becomes part of the story that he is writing.

He falls in love with the leading lady of his fairy tale, threatened by his own story creatures, and in the end redeems them and is himself redeemed. Dirty Granny Tales compose this bizarre dark tale, with all parts coming alive on stage. The musicians take on the role of narrator. Puppets and animation projections infuse the characters of the fairy tale with life. Intense lighting embraces and completes the dark aesthetic of the show.

Dirty Granny Tales’ performances consist of the combination of music, puppet theater, animation and dance. They bring to life atmospheric, otherworldly fairy tales using the symbolic languages of all these arts. Musicians with acoustic instruments such as guitar, mandolin, bass, cello, piano, percussion and character voices, tell the stories while dance, puppets and animation mold the dark fairy tales of the Dirty Granny on stage.