Rialto Theatre hosts a range of plays in May, and more

Theatre productions come alive this May at the Rialto Theatre, alongside film, music and dance works and, towards its end, the 27th Cyprus Contemporary Dance Festival begins. Here’s what to enjoy at the Limassol theatre this month.

On May 10, the third and final performance of the play To Vouni takes place. Louiza Papaloizou’s award-winning novel is brought to stage, adapted and directed by Maria Kyriakou, bringing to life the world of Xenis, the Daughter, and the Swede in a poetic setting where memory, loss and the search for identity intersect.

The next theatrical performance arrives on May 12 and 13, bringing Oedipus Tyrannus to audiences above 12 years old. The performance is presented as a work for a single actor, embodying the story of a man and a trauma passed down from generation to generation. In the role of Oedipus, Haris Charalambous-Kazepis portrays a wandering narrator, a musician-traveller lost in the vortex of the contemporary city, seeking his own truth.

Translations, by Brian Friel, is a play in the Cypriot Greek dialect and in English by a bicommunal cast of actors. It focuses on a small community facing the first British mapping of the country and the anglicisation of Irish place names, as well as the new national education system. As places are renamed and the local language is transformed, everything begins to falter, marking the gradual loss of cultural identity and the experience of displacement. May 15’s performance will be accompanied by English and Turkish surtitles.

The final staging of To Vouni will be made on May 10

Switching gear from theatrical productions to film, the curatorial project of VIMA Art Fair, which will unfold in mid-May, brings its film programme to Rialto Theatre. In The Waves Crashing, the moving image pieces function as rhythmic interventions, moving away from traditional narrative towards a cinema of resonance and return. Films by Adham Faramawy, Valentin Noujaïm, Thomias Radin and others will be presented on May 16, with English subtitles.

Then, on May 17, the Diamantidou Cultural Association presents a tribute to the great composer of Greek folk music Giorgos Zampetas, with a performance that blends music, theatre, singing and dance. The Traditional Dance Workshop Alexandra, the Choir of the Friends of Cardiac Patients Association Alexandra, the Diamantidou School Theatre Group, a 10-member orchestra, the musical ensemble Echo of the Bouzoukis and soloists will meet on stage.

Two dancers will confess on stage their stories of violence, loss and survival on May 19 as part of the LOVE performance, choreographed by Harry Koushos. The performance will be in Greek and French and will include subtitles in the same languages.

The end of the month will bring the beginning of the 27th Cyprus Contemporary Dance Festival which will run from May 30 to June 21. A diverse and multifaceted programme will bring together choreographers and companies from six countries – Cyprus, Greece, UK, France, Belgium and Finland.

May at Rialto Theatre

More details and tickets at www.rialto.com.cy