Natalia Katsou
Wireless Connection
Summary
Six characters walking different paths. Six strangers, confined to their homes, in search of revolution will meet in the most improbable setting: we’re in the present, yet this present revisit 1821’s Greece. In a new video game, player’s avatars are given glorious and familiar names: Miaoulis, Bouboulina, Androutsos. These avatars wear jeans and sneakers. Our heroes face their fears, they get to know each other, and they engage in an adventure, on screen, that pushes them to their limits. What we think we know may not be true. Time flows on all of its own accord. And since all revolutions have already taken place, and every move and movenment measures itself against the ones that have come before, the hardest battles we’ll ever fight are with ourselves. After all, how can one speak today about heroes? Perhaps through a wireless connection –and rewriting history.
Extract
CORALIA: I’ll be back, dammit! I will return, if that’s what I want. And then I’ll leave once again – and sail that big ship to Chios. […] He puts Antony, that loser, Antony, that big brother, in charge. […]Big brother is watching. Big brother is watching. […] I couldn’t care less. [..] Now, here: face to face. Yes – you, bring it on. Challenge accepted. […] I’m going to finish him! Will kick his ass. I’m way stronger. […] And I’ll buy my own boat, too. Immediately, and from the Turks. [..] Why? Who says it’s not allowed. Click and buy. Here. New boat, now mine. Miaul. Lord of the sea. That’s what everyone will call me. My name, today and always: Miaul!
Director’s Note
Sofia Dermitzaki
The heroes, in Natalia Katsou’s play “Wireless Connection”, get tangled up in a perpetual game over the internet, depositing exclusively there their revolutionary instincts and their hopes. The purpose of our show is to highlight the loneliness that governs their lives, their choices and their daily lives. How they get trapped in a video-game with protagonists the heroes of 1821 but also how this virtual reality finally results to their deconstruction. Technology will help with projections of images that flood our daily lives, combined with the Revolution that never comes but also intertwined with the natural landscape of space. Important element, the Tradition, constantly present, reminds our heroes of their identity but also of a certain touch they have forgotten.
Natalia Katsou was born in Athens. She studied Law, Acting, and Drama, later completing an MFA in Theatre Directing at the East 15 Acting School, as a MIET Alexis Minotis scholar. She is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Theatre Studies, under the supervision of Professor George P. Pefanis. Her first job as writer and director was The Wedding Dress (2006) at the ‘Empty Space’ of the Greek National Theatre’s Experimental Stage. She teaches drama in London and is the artistic director of Overview, a Contemporary Opera Company. Natalia Katsou has published a number of plays – the most recent being Commodity – as well as books of poetry: Idolaters is her most recently published collection.
