Charmolypi is made of the performer’s personal stories told through the body. Where words fail, the story of the body is born. It contains the missing pieces of yourself that can be used to pull yourself out of an existential crisis, out of the zero point of existence – to return to yourself, to life or death.

The performance is a sort of map charting the thoughts of a woman who struggles with the uncertainty of what is a dream and what is her failure to understand herself in the real world. The Greek word charmolypi encompasses the duality at the root of human experience. Loosely translated, it means “bittersweet” or “joyful sorrow”. On a more earthly level, elderly people are often said to have charmolypi because of their accumulation of experience.

Actor Alexandra Kazazou is a member of Studio Matejka (physical theatre laboratory exploring techniques that cross the borders between genres and movement practices) in collaboration with the Grotowski Institute since 2010.

Director, Matej Matejka has performed at Edinburgh winning multiple awards: 2006 (Farm in the Cave); 2012 (Teatr Zar).

Produced and premièred at the Grotowski Institute, Poland; performed in Greece, Belgium, Russia, Turkey and USA.