Naomi Velissariou - Atropa

An intersectional* tragedy set to techno and trap. In 'Atropa', the taboos of a generation marked by its hunger for emancipation are aired in a language they understand best: one of pumping beats and razorsharp poetry.

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Atropa. De wraak van de vrede (Atropa, The Revenge of Peace)  was written by Tom Lanoye in 2008 and premiered at Avignon festival that year, directed by Guy Cassiers. In 2012, Lanoye won the prize for theatre texts because he “searches for the roots of the evil called war and violence” in Atropa, “analysing the play of power”, according to the Royal Academy for Dutch Language and Literature. In Velissariou’s version, Atropa  is the tragedy it was intended to be: a celebration of language set to music, in honour of contemporary gods. 

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Atropa sings the taboos of a generation characterised by its desire for emancipation, in one of the languages it understands best: pumping beats and razor-sharp poetry. Atropa is a bacchanal of language in which the struggle for power makes way for a celebration of vulnerability. Greek women meet Trojan women who choose death after the siege of their city rather than a life of repression. It is up to the only man at the end of the war to defend the survivors’ values convincingly...