Min(d)ing Ibsen

The jury's
conclusion

"Min(d)ing Ibsen: “An Enemy of the People” meets the People" is an interesting project that involves both a production of selected scenes from Ibsen's play performed by professional actors combined with a form of documentary theatre where representatives of a community present their readings of a local and contemporary conflict with parallels to Ibsen's drama. The issue at hand is the controversial gold mining project in Chalkidiki in Northern Greece close to Thessaloniki. The performance is planned to take place in the Hall of the City Council. The project is a fine example of how to involve theatre in actual political debate and linking one historical situation – that of Ibsen's – with another and contemporary one – that of today's Greece.

About the project

In the project “Min(d)ing Ibsen, the play “An Enemy of the People” is used as medium to shed light on the controversial issue of gold mining in Skouries, Greece. In the middle of an acute financial, social and humanitarian crisis, he project searches for what a citizen would sacrifice in order to survive or, in other words, what they consider fundamental in order to thrive. Classic form of realistic theatre blends with documentary theatre. The participants will be both actors, caring out selected scenes from Ibsen’s text, as well as non-actors who will contribute with their knowledge and experience on stage regarding the ambiguous mining in Chalkidiki. The performance is to be staged in the Town Hall of Thessaloniki.

Korina Vasileiadou is a theatre maker, her main domains being directing and dramaturgy. She has launched numerous theatre productions in Thessaloniki and Athens, working among others with the National Theatre of Greece, Peiramatiki Skini tis Technis, KANIGUNDA theatre group. She has been granted with IKY’s academic scholarship and a Fellowship of Performance of Harvard University. At the moment she holds great interest for Community and Documentary theatre, as means of intertwining art with social matters.
Charis Pechlivanidis is a performer, an actor and a dancer. He graduated from the Department of Theatre of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and also holds a Master of Arts Degree in Devised Theatre from the Dartington College of Arts, Falmouth University. He has been awarded with the Stare Scholarship of Greece for Master studies abroad. He is collaborating as an actor and a dancer with the National Theatre of Northern Greece since 2007. Apart from creating his own dance theatre performances, he also works as a freelance choreographer and leads workshops for actors and dancers.