The Sea Between My Soul

2020 | Theater performance | Taxidermy animals, scenography, neon lights, music and text
Produced by Onassis Stegi

In this multi-sensorial performance, the Mediterranean Sea is presented as a stage for darkness and death from the beginning of human history up to our contemporary era. Placed on an elaborate scenic set, the actors (multiple taxidermy animals) narrate this ominous story, using lyrical folk songs in the form of a cacophonous rock musical. Much like they are seen in the displays of natural history museums, a drama unfolds through the animals’ silent bodies by simply hinting a voice or action is generated by them. Through specific poses, light, sound and the power of suggestion, these creatures are no longer just mute mounted skins: they are singing, acting and momentarily - alive. Their gratuitous ‘death on display’ is erased through the illustration of life.
As if resurrected from an unknown past, these animals chronicle their fatal journey by speaking from a dimension beyond the one we know. Removed from their natural habitat and displaced into an urban landscape somewhere by the sea, their appearance somehow predicts the current dark moment of our times.

Photos by Kiki Papadopoulou and Nikos Kokkas