About schizophrenia and reality – PRIN Newspaper

2023-04-30 17:56:58

Yannis Fragoulis

The performance Black Sky by Georgia Blagou keeps the interest from the first to the last minute. In 2019, it was staged at the Aratos Theater. It was staged at the Athinaion theater with a different distribution and with additional scenes

Homer was a wealthy businessman. He lost everything, also a victim of the financial crisis. The result was that he goes mad and lives in a labyrinth from which he does not know how to get out. There is only one solution in his despair — and that is to live free. The characters are Homer, his wife and son, an old girlfriend and all those who get caught between his imagination and reality. The two ravens that come and go again, the guardians of the gate he opens for his fears to come in, are a beautiful directorial find.

Homer’s financial failure drives him to madness. He has lost everything and this works as if he has lost his life, as if he has died. The financial problem translates into a psychological one. This personal tragedy of his is rendered in an extraordinary manner. The confusion in his mind becomes a narrative, in which the twists and turns are many and frequent. The viewer lives in a rhythm that is intense. The narrative circles the viewer, renders schizophrenia in an almost real way. It does not offend or beautify.

There is a clear reference to the political system that governs this society. Man is simply a cog in a mechanism. If he becomes defective, then he is to blame and is left alone to experience this torment. There is no room for weak pawns, this system needs people to serve this mechanism. Man is a unit. The social whole exists only as a consideration, not as an entity, in the design of this social policy. Man outside this mechanism is essentially dead. We can distinguish the class dimension of schizophrenia, within the social content of our time.

A play with a class dimension that worries the viewer

The main character, Homer, is rendered in a believable way, he is the one who leads us to the fantasy landscapes of madness. The other characters support him and create a believable world with him. Music and lighting signal the nightmare, the return to peace, the irrational and the sane. The direction pays attention to the smallest detail, rendering with absolute precision the structures of the mental landscape. It asks questions and answers as much as is necessary to let the viewer come up with their own answer. A show that troubles the viewer, motivates him to construct his own world.