On Petra von Kant
by Dimitri Athanitis
on the play
on the meetings by objective chance
on the play
on the meetings by objective chance
Athanitis made a stage adaptation of Fassbinder's play, in the Athens art theater Technohoros at 2001-2002.
The bitter tears of Petra Phung Kant still roll
Dimitri Athanitis
From the time I was a child I had a strange relationship with Germany. At home I listened to talk about her. I had a whole collection of colored cards from strange distant cities with strange but charming names. Berlin, Nuremberg, Cologne ...
Petra von Kant is Fassbidner's most erotic work and a completely female work. This extreme styling option indrigued me, I wanted to do something with this. The moment came almost by chance. Technohoros Theater gave me the opportunity.
Petra von Kant it is a work that far from anything I have in mind in contemporary theater pieces because its obsessions do not push it to the dark side where the most of the contemporary plays live. On the contrary, a strange light comes out of this merciless play with of power and love.
In Petra von Kant, under a glossy surface, which looks at first so cold, there is a feeling. A feeling explosive, redeeming. There is emotion that tries to escape, to slip away, to hide. Every time I read the work at the end I felt that. I translated the play, I adopted it, I started rehearsing. My relationship with Petra, despite almost everyday friction, stayed fresh. I felt constant, and I still feel the emotion that I felt the first time I read it.
Petra is a special, charming woman, almost a star, who, in the glamorous world of fashion, tries to arrogantly build her personal universe. When it collapses, she will find herself naked. But she shall have gone through the test of love. "We humans are made to live with each other, but we have not yet learned how" she confesses to her closest girlfriend.
Mostly by accident, I found myself a few days before the premiere, invited with my film 2000+1 Shots at a festival in Cologne. What was a provocative coincidence was that Petra's plot is being placed in Cologne.
D. A. 10/10/2001
Dimitri Athanitis
From the time I was a child I had a strange relationship with Germany. At home I listened to talk about her. I had a whole collection of colored cards from strange distant cities with strange but charming names. Berlin, Nuremberg, Cologne ...
Petra von Kant is Fassbidner's most erotic work and a completely female work. This extreme styling option indrigued me, I wanted to do something with this. The moment came almost by chance. Technohoros Theater gave me the opportunity.
Petra von Kant it is a work that far from anything I have in mind in contemporary theater pieces because its obsessions do not push it to the dark side where the most of the contemporary plays live. On the contrary, a strange light comes out of this merciless play with of power and love.
In Petra von Kant, under a glossy surface, which looks at first so cold, there is a feeling. A feeling explosive, redeeming. There is emotion that tries to escape, to slip away, to hide. Every time I read the work at the end I felt that. I translated the play, I adopted it, I started rehearsing. My relationship with Petra, despite almost everyday friction, stayed fresh. I felt constant, and I still feel the emotion that I felt the first time I read it.
Petra is a special, charming woman, almost a star, who, in the glamorous world of fashion, tries to arrogantly build her personal universe. When it collapses, she will find herself naked. But she shall have gone through the test of love. "We humans are made to live with each other, but we have not yet learned how" she confesses to her closest girlfriend.
Mostly by accident, I found myself a few days before the premiere, invited with my film 2000+1 Shots at a festival in Cologne. What was a provocative coincidence was that Petra's plot is being placed in Cologne.
D. A. 10/10/2001
