ION / PLATO – A SMALL SYMPOSIUM (2016) | Nana Papadaki

Old Oil Mill of Eleusis / Αisxylia Festival

15.09.2016

A philosophical dramaturgy based on Plato’s Ion, reconfigured as embodied speech, transforming the dialogue into a living field of interpretation rather than a fixed text. The Platonic text is performed in its entirety, with Socrates and Ion shared between a male and a female performer who exchange roles throughout. A female chorus, original music, lyrics, and fragments in ancient Greek expand the dialogue into a layered performative structure. The work questions authorship, artistic inspiration, and the relationship between performer and knowledge, reactivating the Platonic dialogue as a contemporary stage for thought and exchange, and engaging Maldoror’s axes of cultural memory and Greek writing and dialogue between the arts and outward orientation.

“You, rhapsode and actor, are the medium; while the first is the poet himself / the god who, through all this, draws the human soul wherever he wishes, hanging the power of one from the power of another.” (Ion, Plato 536a)

Directorial Note

As a non-theatrical text, this work does not contain a conventional narrative structure. It is a philosophical dialogue between Socrates, Plato’s own teacher, and Ion, a celebrated rhapsode-performer, concerning rhapsodic practice and poetry.

The stage adaptation of the dialogue took its final form through the rehearsal process, according to the following concept: Ion, a distinguished rhapsode-performer, arrives in Athens to compete at the Panathenaic Games, returning from the festivals in honour of Asclepius, the god of healing. In his reflection, the philosophical thought of Socrates gradually comes to life, along with the enigmatic nature of the rhapsode and the roles he has embodied over time. Socrates’ “daimonion” functions as a healing force for the performer, transforming the space into a landscape of struggle, reconciliation, and communion, ultimately leading him toward self-knowledge.

Ion, originating from Ephesus, is a “stranger” — yet are we not all strangers within ourselves?

The performance focuses on the dual nature of the human being through the spiritual dimension of theatrical practice. This work is dedicated to my collaborators and to my teacher, the late Mirka Yemendzakis.

— Nana Papadaki

Production Credits

Text: Plato (Ion)
Concept / Adaptation / Direction: Nana Papadaki
Music / Lyrics: Vangelis Giannakis
Costumes: Assì Dimitrolopoulou
Movement: Yianna Kontouni
Stage design / Lighting: George Zorbas
On-stage musicians: Giannis Viliotis, Vangelis Giannakis, Marios Papoulias
Performers: Fotini Kapellaki, Maria Kastani, Katerina Papageorgiou, Nana Papadaki, Theodossis Papadimitropoulos