photo credit: Manolis Antoniou
A multidisciplinary piece on the need for connection and mutual refuge
September 28 to October 9, 2021
MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels)
| If individualism saturates the present, securing it (but just for some), what will the future be made of? The Future is Another Country grapples with this question via a single staple: the potato. A storehouse of nutrients and narratives, Manolis Antoniou (Boulouki Theatre) uses this historically rich root vegetable as a bridge to territory, hospitality, adaptation, settler existence, and the limits of meaning. “When your roommate asks you for one of your onions, how much does that cost you? When a friend is sick, how much does the soup you offer them cost? If we put price tags on our food, unwilling to share it and excluding people who can’t afford it; then what other things will we refuse to share? Time? Space? Stories? With ‘The Future is Another Country‘ we explore the conditions under which the possibility of sharing can be imagined. For if it can be imagined, then it exists. But where? We don’t know yet. Perhaps it’s a ‘topos atopos’—off the map. Or maybe it’s not a place but rather a process that’s been going on all along.” – Manolis Antoniou (Boulouki Theatre) Collectively conceived, the resulting work is a kaleidoscopic dinner party of sorts, where scripted and improvised conversations about the origins and preparation of food lead to dialogues about citizenship, identity, immigration, borders, xenophobia, utopia. Inspired by the concept and practice of ‘philoxenia’ – the love of strangers – The Future is Another Country channels communal warmth, togetherness, and uninhibitedness, all whilst holding up a mirror to the polis of Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal. Boulouki Theatre’s creative universe is defined by themes of cultural difference, accessibility, audience involvement, bringing the outside inside, and the city as a site of stranger-contact. |
CREDITS:
Director: Manolis Antoniou
Performers: Louis-Elyan Martin, Marika Karlsson, Sophie-Thérèse Stone-Richards
Technical and Lighting Direction: Öykü Önder
Costumes: Sophie El-Assaad
Sound Design and Performance: Nathan Giroux
Stage Manager: Heather Ellen Strain
IN BRIEF:
WHAT?
The Future is Another Country
Directed by Manolis Antoniou (Boulouki Theatre)
WHEN?
SEP 28 – OCT 2 & OCT 5 – 9, 2021
7:30 PM
WHERE?
MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels)
3680 Jeanne-Mance, Montreal
BOX OFFICE?
Regular → $28 • Reduced → $22 • Junior & Groups → $16 • Accompanying person → $0 • Passport 4/4 → $64
www.m-a-i.qc.ca/en/boxoffice
514-982-3386
MAI acknowledges that the land on which we live and work is part of the unceded territories of the Kanien’keha:ka nation.
