The Tank bring Greek Theatre to New York with two of the most prolific Greek playwrights: Ioli Andreadi & Aris Asproulis

The Tank Theatre announces the next mainstage production, “FILIKI ETERIA: The Brotherhood behind the Revolution” that will take place in their Proscenium Theater (312 W 36th St, New York, NY, 10018).

“FILIKI ETERIA” is an original play by Ioli Andreadi and Aris Asproulis, directed by Ioli Andreadi, that was based on research by the two prolific writers and researchers. In their 12th play Ioli Andreadi and Aris Asproulis combine historical events and fiction, that traces the secret history of the artists and intellectuals that inspired the European revolutions of the 19th century, from their crazy and passionate visions of national independence to their personal betrayals.

“FILIKI ETERIA” was created for the Cultural Foundation of Piraeus Group (PIOP) in honor of the 200-year anniversary of the Greek revolution and was previously presented in the summer of 2021 with great success at the nine Museums of the PIOP Network, at the Historical Archive of PIOP, at the Aeschylia Festival, and at the historic Skopeftirio in Kaissariani, obtaining the warm reaction of the 2.000 and more audience members who attended.

The cast will include Miltiadis Fiorentzis, Nikolaos Karagkiaouris, Despoina Sarafeidou, and Vasiliki Troufakou. FILIKI ETERIA will feature set and costume design by Dimitra Liakoura and assistant direction by Penelope Aslanoglou. Lighting Designer is Stevi Koutsothanassi and Orestis Tatsis is the production manager. The presentation of the show in New York is supported by the Attica Region.

The performance schedule for “FILIKI ETERIA” is Thursday April 21, Friday April 22 and Saturday April 23 at 7pm.

The text of the play was published by the Cultural Foundation of Piraeus Group and by Kapa Publishing House in 2021, with an introduction by the professor at the Theatre Studies Department of the University of Athens Mr. Gregory Ioannides. In his introduction, Mr. Ioannides writes:

“The in-depth research and the manic immersion of the two writers, Ioli Andreadi and Aris Asproulis, to the texts, the correspondence and the long bibliography of the Revolution, did not bring to light just the life of the four heroes but also something deeper, purer and more essential, something that does not concern just them but could be spread to all the other warriors, until it can decipher the mysterious center of the Revolution. What is that? It is the “Sacred Love”, a notion of romantic “enorasis”, taken at first from Alexander Ypsilantis, that runs through all the initiates of the Cause. Especially to the two writers we owe the emergence of this inconceivable idea from the spiritual basements of our history to the surface of our theatrical life”.

* FILIKI ETERIA is a historical secret brotherhood founded by Greeks in Odessa, now Ukraine, with the aim of spreading the ideas of freedom and preparing for the Greek Revolution, which is one of the most important and influential European Revolutions of the 19th century.

Cast

Emmanouil Xanthos: Miltiadis Fiorentzis

Νarrator / Nikolaos Skoufas / Hellas: Vassiliki Troufakou

Athanasios Tsakalof: Nikolaos Karagkiaouris

Alexandros Ypsilantis: Despoina Sarafeidou

Crew

Direction: Ioli Andreadi

Original Play: Ioli Andreadi & Aris Asproulis

Set & Costume Design: Dimitra Liakoura

Translation in English: Emmanuela Lia

Lighting Design: Stevi Koutsothanassi

Photographer: Kiki Papadopoulou

Show Filming / Video Teasers: Diamantis Karanastasis

Assistant director: Penelope Aslanoglou

Production Manager: Orestis Tatsis

WHO ARE IOLI ANDREADI AND ARIS ASRPOULIS?

Ioli Andreadi, theatre and performance director, playwright and Dr., King’s College London, and Aris Asproulis, Dr. of Sociology, Panteion University, playwright and Director of Communication & Publicity of the historic Art Theater Karolos Koun, have co-authored 13 theatrical texts (original and adaptations) from 2015 until today, which have been staged in Greece, New York and London, directed by Ioli Andreadi and having received excellent reviews. Ioli Andreadi and Aris Asproulis specialize in creating original theatrical works, based on the study of real events, through research of primary archival material; documents and publications; interviews; books; field work. They also share a deep interest in the Classics (literature, theatre, art), having adopted for the stage a three-hour version of Tolstoy’s War and Peace and a two-hour version of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Their work also include three new plays on the life and work of Antonin Artaud: Artaud/Van Gogh, The Cenci Family and Bone. All their plays have been published by Kapa Publishing House.

From 2003 Ioli has worked as a theatre director and playwright in Greece and abroad (UK, New York, Berlin, Rome). She studied Directing at RADA in 2007-08. Her PhD in Theatre, Performance and Ritual at King’s College London was conducted with the support of the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation and was subsequently published in English in 2020 by Kapa Publishing House under the title: Anastenaria: Ritual, Theatre, Performance; An Experiential Study. She is a 2010/11 Fulbright Artist/Arts Scholar, having conducted her research on musical theatre and ancient tragedy in NY (NYMF). She is a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Director’s Lab as a Stavros Niarchos Foundation grantee. Her ongoing postdoctoral research on Antonin Artaud and Neuroscience (2015-today) is soon to be published. From 2006 Aris has worked as a publicist of both major and experimental theatre and cultural events, national and international, in Greece.

They also both teach. Ioli Andreadi is teaching Performance: Theory and Practice (her book Performance: Theory and Practice; Directing, Philosophy and Culture was published in 2020) as a Guest Lecturer at Universities in Greece and abroad (University of Athens, University of Cyprus, King’s College London, Brooklyn College CUNY, University of Greenwich UK). Aris Asproulis is teaching Sociology as a Guest Lecturer in Greece and abroad (Panteion University, University of Durham) and Communication and Publicity at ARTENS SEMINARS.

Original works

• 2015 – «Cenci Family» (Michael Cacoyiannis Foundation)

• 2016 – «Two hundred and ten thousand yarns of cotton – performing the archive» (Cultural Foundation of Piraeus Bank Group – PIOP)

• 2016 – «Young Lear» (Athens and Epidaurus Festival, Piraeus 260)

• 2019 – «In memory of a young child» (Athens Asylon Aniaton/Hospice for Neuro-disability & Jubilee Theater – University of Roehampton – London UK)

• 2021/2022 – «FILIKI ETERIA: the Brotherhood behind the Revolution» (Museums of the Piraeus Group Cultural Foundation & The Tank Theater – New York)

• 2022 – «ΒΟΝΕ – a performance about the life and work of Antonin Artaud» (Art Theatre Karolos Koun, Basement)

Adaptations

• 2017 – «A man returns to his home believing he will get killed and gets killed» – new version for two people of the play «Murder in the Cathedral» by T.S. Eliot on the translation by George Seferis (Art Theatre Karolos Koun, Basement)

• 2017-2019 – «Every Brilliant Thing» by Duncan McMillan and Johnny Donaho (New World Theater & The Hellenic Center – London)

• 2017-2019 – «Ion» by Euripides (Philippi Festival – Northern Greece & The Tank Theater – New York)

• 2018 – «The Misanthrope» by Moliere (Contemporary Theater, Athens)

• 2019 – «War and Peace» by Leo Tolstoy (Municipal Theatre of Piraeus)

• 2020 – «Pride and Prejudice» by Jane Austen (Alkyonis Theatre)

• 2020 & 2022 – «Helen» by Euripides (Philippi Festival & Michael Cacoyiannis Foundation)