The performance – a manifesto about love, with the participation of young artists with and without disabilities, after its great journey in the most important national festivals, and its European tour, is coming to the Open Theatre of the Old Oil Mill Factory of Elefsina for a single performance.
What is love? How do we experience it? Does everyone have access to it?
The Mystery 127 Love Horses is a play about love, this “disability” that dominates, tortures, empowers, drives mad and inflames. A performance – a hymn to the uninhibited vitality, and to all the senses that have been barricaded by a strictly rationalistic perception of life. A project that emerged from the need of the group members to openly share personal stories and explore universal aspects of human uniqueness. A creation that overcomes social barriers and sets aside obstacles in order to talk about the illogical, the instinct, the forbidden, the imagination, about the soul that ultimately insists on questing after all-consuming, requited love.
A few words about Horses in Love
Horses in Love, the third part of a trilogy titled «The Other Normal», under the artistic direction of Eleni Dimopoulou, directed by Eleni Efthymiou.
The first part, «The Fan Man or How to Dress an Elephant», was presented as a production of the ensemble «En Dynamei» -among others- at the Athens and Epidaurus Festival (2015), at the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation, at the 4th Our Stage Festival in Dresden and at the 54th Dimitria festival, while the second part, «The Other Home», was presented at the Onassis Cultural Centre in its own production, as well as at the 51st Dimitria. In this theatrical trilogy «En Dynamei» explores the question: «What is not Normal is Other? » and at the same time seeks to make the abnormal known and familiar through sharing true stories of people who have experienced the negative connotation of «Other».
The text of the performance is the result of an investigation on the issue of love and disability and is composed of edited interview fragments and original texts by the members of the group. Among others, the text «The Convention» by Giota Tempridou is played, while there are pervasive references to emblematic phrases of great thinkers and writers about what we call love.
The performance has been presented at the 4th Forest Festival in 2018, at the Athens Epidaurus Festival 2019, had a ‘Perform Europe’ tour in Poland, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Portugal in the spring of 2022, and was presented the same year at the Municipal Theatre of Piraeus and the State Theatre of Northern Greece.
A few words about the ensemble «En Dynamei»
«En Dynamei» is an ensemble of young artists with and without disabilities, based in Thessaloniki. It was founded by Eleni Dimopoulou and Maria Ioannidou in 2008, in order to support and facilitate its members to integrate equally into society. All the activities of the group are developed not on the basis of differences, but taking into account the internal and external needs, as well as the predispositions, inclinations and interests of all its members. Through the almost daily coexistence of the members of the Ensemble and the establishment of commonly accepted rules of that lifestyle, the improvement of the interpersonal relations is achieved as well as the cultivation and development of individual skills of all members that contribute to successful integration into society. Having as its main tool the research of new methods of communication, the team, under the artistic direction of Eleni Dimopoulou, organizes and produces integrated artistic proposals in the field of visual arts, theatre, music, dance and multi-media arts. They maintain a permanent collaboration with professionals from various artistic fields, and actively participate in events and festivals in Greece and abroad.
