Liver
A co-production with the Ictus Ensemble / Belgium
Greek National Opera Alternative Stage
Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center
Creative Team, Cast:
Tom Pauwels, Mike Schmid, Angeliká Castelló, Jean-Benoît Ugeux, Angeliki Papoulia, Christos Passalis
Costume Designer: Vassilia Rozana
Lightning Designer: Eliza Alexandropoulou
On the warm and rainy evening of the 7th of July 1994, a 44-year old woman had a tragic accident. The motorcyle she was on skidded off the road and the woman was seriously injured by a sharp object that penetrated her liver as she fell on the street. She was immediately transferred to the hospital in a state of coma. All the time she remained there, the man whom she loved more than anything in her life was constantly by her side. A 62-year old healthy and well-built man. Every night this man would lie next to her on the hospital bed and sleep with her. These few hours, until the break of dawn, it looked like both of them were in a coma or just asleep. Night shift nurses would not wake him up, they would only tuck him in if it so happened that his leg would stick out of the white covers.
This is the last conversation between the organs of this man and woman’s bodies, as it was recorded by the medical machinery a while before she died of internal bleeding on 18 July 1994. The transcript of the conversation was made by Efthimis Filippou. The internal organs of the two tragic lovers are interpreted by the musicians, performers and members of the Ictus Ensemble, Tom Pauwels and Mike Schmid, musician and sound artist Angeliká Castelló, actor Jean-Benoît Ugeux and actors and directors Angeliki Papoulia and Christos Passalis.