She is here

French cinema icon Fanny Ardant and other world-class performers star in this week’s Cyprus International Theatre Festival

Back for the third year is the Cyprus International Theatre Festival, and its productions and parallel actions are already filling Limassol’s cultural agenda. This week and weekend, performers from across the globe are presenting theatre and music pieces dedicated to the power of the singular voice.

“It is a celebration of the strength found in solitude and the clarity of the feminine experience. The statement ‘She is here’ [this year’s theme], signifies the arrival of an artist who stands on stage not by chance, but by an internal necessity to speak her truth,” say the organisers.

The festival has been running since Tuesday and until Sunday, its curated programme will be on view in Limassol.

On Friday, Russian poet and actress Vera Polozkova will mark her birthday with a special onstage programme, presenting her new album Red Thread together with composer Alexander Manotskov. Her special anniversary programme at Pattihio Theatre will feature some of her renowned poems, texts from her new book and songs from the new album. The music blends pop melodies, folk traditions of different cultures, Renaissance and Baroque, and even opera.

The following evening blends fairy tales and cabaret. The A Tale of the Clock and Pani Lyusya Cabaret on Saturday night honours the work of Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, a figure widely regarded as the most influential woman in contemporary Russian literature. Across two different acts, the performance reveals the vivid talent, uncompromising resilience and paradoxical humour that define a celebrated classic.

The festival’s final performance brings the renowned French actress Fanny Ardant to Limassol’s stage. The Cassandre performance on Sunday evening is a spoken opera with music by composer Michael Jarrell. The play is considered a monumental production, created here by a group of award-winning artists under the direction of Hervé Loichemol, based on the novel Cassandra by Christa Wolf.

And that is not all. In between the productions, the festival also organises parallel events such as a workshop with performer Gabriela Muñoz on the power of silence in clown performances on Friday.

Other events include a workshop with Nils Konstantinovs combining psychological insight and performative tools for self-reflection and group dynamics, an open talk with Fanny Ardant, a late-night dialogue on literature, performance, political presence and artistic courage after the Lyudmila Petrushevskaya show, a workshop with Fyodor Pavlov-Andreevich and a closing party to wrap up this third edition.

3^rd Cyprus International Theatre Festival

Theatre productions on the theme She Is Here. Until March 8. Pattihio Theatre, Limassol. www.citf.cy