New Year, new performances at Rialto

As soon as the New Year arrives, Rialto Theatre is quick in continuing its cultural agenda after a brief Christmas break. From the first week of the year, it resumes its performances and opens its doors once again to welcome artists and culture aficionados.

Launching the 2023 agenda is the play Mouthpiece written by award-winning author Kieran Hurley and presented by Ferefono Theatre Group, in Greek for the first time. On January 4 and 5, actors Melanie Steliou and Andreas Daniel will present the thought-provoking play about storytelling and ownership. Under the direction of Maria Kyriakou, the play follows a random encounter between two completely different people. Declan inspires Libby to start writing again. Libby gives Declan hope. Declan tells Libby his story. Libby gives a voice to Declan.

Then on Saturday 7, the National Theatre Live series will resume with a broadcast of The Seagull. Emilia Clarke makes her West End debut in this 21st-century retelling of Anton Chekhov’s tale of love and loneliness. Following his critically acclaimed five-star production of Cyrano de Bergerac, Jamie Lloyd brings Anya Reiss’ adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s classic play to the stage.

Filmed live in London’s West End and broadcast at Rialto Theatre, The Seagull tells the story of a young woman desperate for fame and a way out. A young man is pining after the woman of his dreams. A successful writer longs for a sense of achievement. An actress wants to fight the changing of the times. In an isolated home in the countryside, dreams lie in tatters, hopes are dashed, and hearts are broken. With nowhere left to turn, the only option is to turn on each other.

The next event temporarily leaves the walls of the theatre and invites the public to an interactive sound walk around its neighbourhood. Starting from the Heroes’ Square on Sunday 8, the guided free walk titled Peripato is an experience of sound and visual images in the framework of Rialto’s Associate Artist programme. It begins at 11am and requires pre-booking as a set of instructions will be sent to each participant.

Theatrical performances will then continue as Greek actor Thanasis Alevras presents his debut personal music and theatre performance, directed by Fokas Evangelinos. Saturday 14’s performance is an autobiographical, intimate satirical music show inspired by his own personal stories, as well as a tribute to Generation X. Singers Idra Kayne and Jerome Kaluta will be joining the actor on stage, introducing the audience to a music show that spans four decades.

On January 20, Philippa Stylianoude will present Memoirs of a Miner, a dance-theatre performance inspired by Pantelis Varnava’s book, which retrieves from the bowels of the earth the struggle of the Cypriot miners as they emerge with their pitch-black, unrecognisable faces, through sweat and blood, back into the light. Their cry mingles with that of the Andalusian workers of Spain who sing along ‘the struggle for survival’.

The following evening will be dedicated to piano teacher Tania Economou. The Marios Tokas Limassol Music School will present a tribute in her memory one year after her passing. January 21’s repertoire includes pieces written for piano, as well as compositions for ensembles that Tania Economou loved and appreciated.

Sunday 22 will be all about the Cypriot folk tale Spanos and the Forty Dragons. In this stage adaptation by Alexia Papalazarou, two young children, a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot, grow up in the same neighbourhood, with only a strip of no man’s land dividing them. They each play football separately until they become tired and fall asleep. In their sleep, the tale comes to life: will they manage to cooperate, beat the dragons and bring water back to the village?

Three more plays make up Rialto’s cultural calendar for January. The Blacksmiths which will be presented on Sunday 22 about Serbian Atsa who after he returns from being held as a war prisoner finds out his wife is pregnant with the baby of a Russian blacksmith. En Attendant by Omada Pende follows on Saturday 28 with Roula Kleovoulou and Chloe Melidou exploring the morality of the human body through dance and theatre.

And finally, the popular play by Project Season Women Women Walk Home will take place on Sunday 29 and Monday 30. The play was created using the methodology of verbatim theatre, about the women’s marches organised by the Women Walk Home movement, whose goal was to fight for the human right of free movement in their own country.

January performances at Rialto

Music, dance, theatre and broadcast. Throughout January. Rialto Theatre, Limassol. www.rialto.com.cy