Alexander the Great: Between Dreams and Imagination in the British Library with award-winning actor Peter Marinker as Aristotle, ‘Moon Dog’s Jack Parry-Jones as Alexander the Great, music by Stamatis Spanoudakis and visual art Paul Benney.
February 2, 3 & 4 2023 at 19:45 in the British Library in London
Infinite Blue Productions presents three staged readings of a modern epic poem by Greek playwright Stamatis Filippoulis. Alexander is hungry for knowledge as he travels ever onwards to new places, even to ‘the end of the earth’. In his world, wisdom and greatness are acquired from other cultures and through initiative and bravery.
The performance is framed around the dreams of the philosopher Aristotle, who pushes his pupil Alexander in and out of fantasy worlds that challenge his thinking as a leader.
Multiple characters come forward, showing that it is not just bravery and martial prowess that matter in character, but moral integrity, intelligence and compassion. The work challenges ‘Alexander’ into an identity remake.
‘I’m excited to be involved with this production because of how we perceive greatness in a modern world, it feels like we focus too much on external and trivial success. This is true of young Alexander too but he comes to appreciate a greatness found in people and connection, and hopes that he will be viewed for his kindness’, said Jack Parry-Jones.
῾I wrote my Alexander in 1995 and I’m so happy as a composer and a Greek that my music still suggests that ‘He lives and reigns’. In the safest and noblest museum of the world. Our hearts.’- Stamatis Spanoudakis
The event is under the auspices of the Embassy of Greece in the UK
“The personalities of Alexander the Great and Aristotle remain timeless and their teachings are relevant to our day. They have been the subject to thousands of books, paintings and essays. Scholars and intellectuals are studying to this day Alexander the Great and Aristotle, possibly the greatest Greek figures in the world of culture and thought. The teacher guides the student to his quest. This pioneering performance owes much to its success to the great team behind it”.
Ioannis Raptakis, Ambassador of Greece to the UK
‘This adaptation invites us all to rethink the idea of greatness and look for the hero next door, and the hero within’-Elizabeth Filippouli.
‘Accepting that we are bound by the limits of our senses, by history as it is revealed to us and by the semiotics of our age, my hope is that the two motivations that I identify with; of a search for untrue truths and for true untruths harmonise in my work to cultivate the seeds of a visual poetry’- Paul Benney.
‘When I was asked to revisit the notion of greatness through the poetry of myth and archetype, a tale told both as a dream and as a provocation to our time, our humanity – I thought, now that is theatre’-Di Sherlock
Stamatis Filippoulis was a Greek journalist and writer, known for his television shows, his characteristic wit and dry sense of humour and his films in the Greek cinema and theatre plays of the 1960s and 1970s.
Join us in the grandeur of the British Library as we journey through words, live music and images into the world of Alexander the Great. For more info contact: Katerina.chatzi@globalthinkersforum.org
Tickets for the stage adaptation and tickets including access to the British Library exhibition Alexander the Great; the Making of a Myth may be purchased: boxoffice@bl.uk;
Poem: Stamatis Filippoulis Music: Stamatis Spanoudakis Visual Art Director: Paul Benney Adaptation/Dramaturgy: Elizabeth Filippouli Director/Dramaturg: Di Sherlock Video Editor: Gavin Bush Translation: Anthony Stevens
Readings: Peter Marinker, Jack Parry-Jones, Andreane Rellou, Clara Onyemere, Suzan Aderin, Jamie Zubairi, Victor Oshin.
