THE PERFORMANCE
A Man walks down the HOTEL stairs. Exhausted from his chronic insomnia, he is ready to check-in at the sleep service that will help him feel better and finally manage to sleep tonight. The entire personnel are ready to welcome him to the HOTEL facilities and assist him in reaching the serenity he has been longing for. The two Women of the night shift, having acquired the necessary information from his personal diary, are ready to bring to life the selected memories that their guest has chosen to relive with them. Within this controlled environment, the guests have the opportunity to change, if they so desire, the story of their lives, amending past mistakes but also gaining a better consciousness of it, since they have the chance to relive it. Simultaneously, a live audience (the spectators) watches the “life”, the spectacle offered by the personal life of each customer.
In HOTEL, the Man has a second chance: to relive moments that he has missed, to see beloved people, to change things for the best. But how easy is it really to relive moments of your life, even when it comes to the happy ones? Are good memories as good as we remember them to be or have we missed something? What is real and what is constructed? What is really happening in HOTEL? What is true and what is false? What secret is the Man hiding?
A particular feature of the performance is the original composition of the theatrical and cinematic codes: cameras placed in specific points of the performance space and connected to a video mixer will allow filming and editing the live performance on the spot. This way, the spectators will be able to watch the performance live every night, but also as a film.
THE SERVICE
HOTEL is an artistic fictional project. It concerns a night resort dedicated to those suffering from insomnia and sleep disorders. The guests have the opportunity to follow a specific treatment program. The HOTEL method is simple: the guests are asked to relive moments from their past, bringing to life their memories and the people in them, but also recreating various fantasies and hidden desires. This way, the guests of the HOTEL take a deep dive both into their conscious and unconscious, while the hotel staff, extracting information from the guests’ personal diaries, accurately impersonates important people in the lives of their guests by following their life “scenario” as closely as possible.
Through the life of the guest of the HOTEL, in an indirect and surreal way, we, as spectators, experience all the emotional landscape of today’s reality: the lack of sleep, the chaos of public services, the conflict between personal ethics and survival, the emotional difficulty in connecting with other people and the introversion caused by difficult social conditions to those assuming them.
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INTERNET – VISUAL ARTS PROJECT
Many remarkable young and renowned artists coming from varied artistic disciplines have collaborated for the creation of blindspot theatre group’s new project. An integral part of the project as a whole is the website of the HOTEL, which advertises the services of this peculiar hotel, provides various programs and information concerning sleep, and hosts the works of important Greek artists, created especially for HOTEL and contributing to its therapeutic services. The interactive action of ΗΟΤΕL has already begun long ago and is on-going on the Internet where it has been met with warm response. The works of the artists will be also available for the spectators to see at the HOTEL physical performance space.
THE TEAM
Press – Critics
Reviews published for the show «ΗΟΤΕL»
«The dramaturgy of Yota Argyropoulou, the play which also works independently of the show with its words alone, its silences and all its ruptures, stands out next to the most remarkable of our recent productions. It builds and cultivates this “bizarre environment” in which our drama (in theater and film) has recently shifted its weight: a situation that seems so logical in its absurdity, so natural in its monstrous dimension of reality. A remarkable performance in form, shape and content».
Grigoris Ioannidis, theatre critic, www.efsyn.gr/arthro/egklovismenoi-s-ena-hotel
«A masterful combination of theater and cinema, which charms us with its dark atmosphere».
Yiorgos Mitropoulos, art editor, Euronews http://gr.euronews.com/2016/01/18/last-chance-for-5-theatrical-plays/
Last year in “Hedda Gabler”, blindspot had an excellent concept of representing a classic text. This year, in «Hotel» they have a great dramaturgy. The show evolves as a dark, dystopic, brainy drama that exposes with clarity the vibrations of the soul and mind of the modern man. Michael Konstantatos places the action in a hotel room while cameras display shots from the reception and the other sites. Following the rules of a Berlin-type theatrical detachment, the protagonists play extremely well -Dimitris Xanthopoulos, Yota Argyropoulou and Chara Kotsali.
Stella Charami, theatre critic, http://tospirto.net/theater/ive_seen/25129
«In this show, director Michalis Konstantatos succeeds the combination of all arts. He also succeeds to draw the viewer out of the trivial and the ordinary. By converting issues of everyday life into something new and unfamiliar, he urges the viewer to start watching and observing them, such as sleep or insomnia.The three actors with their slightly detached interpretation, they carry you in a world that could be real. Their naturalness is what makes it possible -but also frightening. The switching emotions of the show keeps the audience alert. Although at the beginning of the performance, I was feeling a little bit puzzled, at the end the audience was applauding endlessly.
If you want to see something special, beautiful and dark, eerie and familiar at the same time, as an extract from George Orwell’s world, then it is highly recommended».
Eliana Perifanou, art editor www.themachine.gr/ena-diaforetiko-hotel-stin-athina-tis-elianas-perifanou/
«After the very successful “Hedda Gabler” presented last year at the OCC, blindspot theatre group returns with their new project “HOTEL”. Distinctive feature of the performance, the cameras that allow filming and editing of the performances live from various venues –that comes as no surprise as director Michael Konstandatos is well-known also for his work in film. The website evolves with a great response playing integral part in the dramaturgy of this fictional service hotelproject.org, by advertising its services, giving advices to insomniacs, showing photographs and art objects of important artists created especially for this night-resort».
Newspaper efsyn www.efsyn.gr/arthro/i-politistiki-atzenta-tis-imeras-9122015
«Strong performances, a very beautiful choreographed scene, atmospheric lighting (Jiannis Fotou), comic elements, realistic pace, film-like meticulous acting, thriller elements, mystery and the necessary female figure who although does not know the protagonist-victim of the story, for some unknown reason, she helps him out –just like in the detective comics. This is a very special show… and the play (Yota Argyropoulou) also could have been a very interesting movie».
Hro Mitroutsikou, art editor www.lifebeat.gr/hotel/
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