Parabases: Elfriede Jelinek - The Piano Teacher

In January, Parabases, SNFCC Reader's Theater, presents Elfriede Jelinek's subversive novel The Piano Teacher, featuring Maria Skoula and Orfeas Avgoustidis, who are transformed under the direction of Dimitris Karantzas.

Parabases continues its survey of pioneering voices in literature, theater and poetry, focusing on women - women writers and poets who left their mark on the literary arts through their trailblazing work, as well as iconic female fictional and dramatic characters, who find their voice in the Parabases literary salon under Dimitris Karantzas's directorial gaze.

«Then again, with the narrow end of the instrument (sometimes the violin, sometimes the heavier viola), she beats into a cluster of work-smeared people. If the trolley is mobbed, say around six in the evening, she can injure a lot of people just by swinging around. She wants to teach people how to be afraid, how to shudder.»

Die Klavierspielerin/The Piano Teacher

In her novel The Piano Teacher, adapted for the screen by Michael Haneke, the Austrian novelist Elfriede Jelinek, Nobel laureate, reflects on the violence latent in everyday life.

Starting off from the pathological relationship of a domineering mother and her repressed daughter, Jelinek penetrates, without any sentimentality, into the female psyche and the hypocritical relationships of a petit-bourgeois society, highlighting the interconnection between the two.

The already gloomy atmosphere becomes even more oppressive when the catalytic male figure in the guise of a piano student enters into the story. As teacher and student are drawn into a vortex of passion, Jelinek portrays a woman driven by the uncontrollable force of self-destruction.

Analytical yet fragmentary, Jelinek's style reveals alternating, often conflicting emotions and thoughts - phobias, fetishes, fantasies - conveying the psychological undercurrents of contemporary life.

Staging:
Dimitris Karantzas

Performed by:
Maria Skoula, Orfeas Avgoustidis

Audio environment:
Yorgos Poulios

The Piano Teacher, translated by Marianna Stavropoulou and Lefteris Anagnostou, is kindly provided by Ekkremes Editions.

Sunday 26/01 | 17.00

For ages 18+

Admission: €5

*Pre-sale starts on Tuesday 07/01 at 09:00 for SNFCC Members (up to 50 seats for Members and Guest).

*Pre-sale starts on Wednesday 08/01 at 09:00 for the public.

For more information, please contact SNFCC call center at +30 216 8091000.

This is an event funded by the grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF). Alongside the core program of free-admission events, provided free of charge thanks to SNF grants, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center organizes a series of events for which a low admission fee applies, helping SNFCC to diversify its income sources while ensuring its long-term financial robustness.