Welcome back to our Offbeat Spotlight series. Over the next few days we're highlighting all the strange and wonderful things that the Offbeat Festival has to offer. The Offbeat Festival runs from the 9th-15th of September, and is a collaboration between The Old Fire Station, Oxford Playhouse, New Theatre and Gloucester Green Market. In addition to a multitude of shows, there are also workshops, and exhibition, late night events including a poetry slam, comedy scratch night, and listening party, and more.
Here, we catch up with Mayra Stergiou from Vertebra Theatre. Stergiou is one of the creative forces behind Electra Untitled,a Physical Theatre adaption of Sophocles' Greek Tragedy. Blending puppetry, dance, and visual storytelling, the show aims to illuminate the themes of it's source material and how they are still relevant to us today. Read on to find out more.
Daily Information: Hi Mayra, thanks so much for taking the time to talk with us. How would introduce Electra Untitled to someone who knew nothing about it?
Mayra Stergiou: Electra Untitled, is a Physical Theatre adaptation of the myth of Electra as seen in the Greek tragedy Electra by Sophocles. Dance, Puppetry and Visual storytelling reconstruct her story, which she owns and rewrites through the lens of female empowerment.
Personal autobiographical material of the performers meet ancient text and Electra becomes a modern antihero; tangled in violence that runs for generations of patriarchal suppression. The performers transform the stage to retell the Myth and address Electra’s tragedy to its core through the female gaze, freed from means of attachment and biases of the past.
The project is currently supported by the Arts Council of England, Guildhall School of Music and Drama (was a part of Mphil Research) and other organisations and aims to raise awareness of Domestic Violence. The project was a success with a couple of full house runs at The Place London (2022), The Cockpit Theatre and Arcola Theatre (2023) and engaged more than 800 audience over 2 days during the Maas Foundation Festival in Lahore (Alhamra Cultural Complex and University of Punjab) Pakistan (2024) where received with very enthusiastic audience feedback, engaging especially young people.
DI: Your show takes a Greek tragedy and uses it to explore timeless issues, such as misogyny and domestic violence. What made Physical Theatre the best medium through with to portray those themes?
MS: We found Physical Theatre to be the most appropriate medium to hold the gravity of these themes are usually difficult to put into words. We played with a variety of Visual and Theatre techniques such as Puppetry, the Physical Theatre Method of Theodoros Terzopoulos, contemporary dance and live filming to create a moving tableau to portrey the dynamics of societal oppression and how these dynamics create a fertile ground for Gender Based Violence towards women but also towards the LGBTQI+ individuals that we often tend to be less visible within the feminist communities.
We wanted to create a space where the universality of the Greet Tragedy can meet the autobiographical and have a dialogue with the here and now. We all became Electras and Clytemnestras in 60 mins and then we stayed naked of these roles to wonder and what now? Where do we go from here?
DI: What have previous Vertebra productions looked like?
MS: Vertebra is an is an award-winning, Queer and Disabled led ensemble of theatre makers and artists from diverse backgrounds, with a passion to create contemporary work on the principles of devised, physical and visual theatre. The team dives into the absurd and visual storytelling and seek to explore the dynamics in themes of life and imagination, myth and science. Vertebra creates original and socially engaging writing for stage. Body and collaboration are at the core of practice and research to create artistic work that is radical, relevant, and fluid. The boundaries between physical theatre, dance, puppetry and visual arts are stretched and tested.
DI: Who is this ‘perfect for fans of’? If you had to compare the vibes of your show to another piece of media, what would it be?
MS: Anyone that has been affected by domestic violence survivors but also perpetrators with a wiligness to look deeply into the problem and patters, to understand their impact to the survivor's lives and take responsibility to change. We wanted to approach very sensitively and carefully the theme of domestic violence but instead of opening a combative space to speak about the violence in an inclusive way and to sed light to the mostly invisible communities that are affected by it. Policy makers, feminist groups, LGBTQI+ groups and everyone who wants to listen. Therefore, the show is also including community-focused workshops. We have hosted workshops with communities in the UK, in Jordan, Pakistan so far.
DI: After Offbeat, what's next for you?
MS: Vertebra Theatre is currently developing a dance theatre piece for 2025. We will be also continue the International touring of Electra Untitled in Argentina and other theatre festivals abroad. Follow our Instagram to stay in the loop!
DI: Finally, please describe Electra Untitled in three words.
MS:Peculiar, Intense, Redemptive.
Electra Untitled is on at the Old Fire Staion, on Tue 10th Sep, 8pm. For more info and to book tickets, click here.