This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ The Anastenaria ritual performance in relation to witnessing and elements of stage practice Andreadi, Ioli Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). 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THE ANASTENARIA RITUAL PERFORMANCE IN RELATION TO WITNESSING AND ELEMENTS OF STAGE PRACTICE Ioli Andreadi English Department, Performance Research Group, King’s College London October 2013 1 Table of Contents Acknowledgements 5 Preface 11 Short Introduction to the Anastenaria 15 Summary of the Anastenaria Practices 16 Anastenaria Vocabulary 17 I. Chapter One: The Anastenaria Ritual Performance: An Ecstatic State, Witnessing and Returns Introduction 25 First Point of Controversy: An Ecstatic State 29 Synopsis of First Point of Controversy: An Ecstatic State 29 Rhetorics 31 On the Anastenaria and the God of Theatre 33 On Theatre and the Forgotten Dionysus; The Avant-Gardes 37 Second Point of Controversy: Witnessing 43 Synopsis of Second Point of Controversy: Witnessing 43 First-hand/Secondhand Information and the Element of Change 46 First-hand/Secondhand Information: Returning to the First Text on the Anastenaria 47 Contemporary Reports 50 A Note on Contemporary Reports 52 Dionysus the Anastenaris; From Dawkins to Kakouri: Seeing the Ritual through a Theatrical Lens 56 The Path of Witnessing as a Dynamic Co-performance of Return 59 Third Point of Controversy: Returns 67 Synopsis of Third Point of Controversy: Returns 68 Continuities or Returns 71 A Myth/Historical Narrative on Kosti, the Place of Origin, and “Eternal Return” 74 A Ritual Performance 84 Tradition 85 Symbolism 86 Normal Life and Transcendence 86 Religion 87 Fixed Text 88 Small Traditional Communities 88 Hierarchy 89 Review 93 PART A: THE ANASTENARIA RITUAL PERFORMANCE AND PERFORMING FOR THE STAGE: TECHNIQUE, INSPIRATION, CONSCIOUSNESS II. Chapter Two: On the Anastenaria in Langadas: Thinking towards a Definition of Technique in Relation to the Ritual Performance Introduction 97 Langadas 103 The Konaki and the Church 105 2 The Anastenaria and an Ecstatic State 108 Technique through the Anastenaria Practices and their Sequence 111 III. Chapter Three: The Anastenaria Practices in relation to Aspects of Performing for the Stage Introduction 118 On the Firewalker at the Anastenaria and the Stage Actor as Belonging to a Continuum of Performance 121 On One of the Firewalkers in Langadas 123 Walking On Stage: The Actor 126 The Fiery Actor Metaphor 128 The Metaphor 128 The Hamlet Incident 131 Forgetting Oneself/Uniting with the Universe and Technique 138 Aspects of Fear in the Anastenaria 140 Overcoming Fear in the Theatre 143 On Being “Empty” and a Double of the Theatre 146 Character/Person 148 Internal Rules and Being Able to Walk on Stage 150 Surpassing Pain 151 Conclusions 153 The Imagined and the Real 153 The Accessories 155 The Fiery Actor as a Gift 157 PART B: WITNESSING THE ANASTENARIA: CO- PERFORMANCE AND RETURNS IV. Chapter Four: The Anastenaria through Co-performative Witnessing in May 2009: Memory, Community and Eliminated Practices Introduction 161 The Witness 162 The Anastenaria Community 170 Communitas and Immunitas 171 A Gift 174 A Violent Loss of Borders 175 The Eliminated Anastenaria Practices 178 Narrative One, Anastenaria, Langadas, May 2009 180 Introduction 180 Part One: 20th of May, Evening 182 Commentary One 186 Part Two: 21st of May, Morning 191 21st of May, Afternoon 192 Commentary Two 195 Part Three: 21st of May, Evening 198 Commentary Three 204 V. Chapter Five: The Anastenaria through Co-performative Witnessing in May 2010: The Role of the Witness in Relation to the Community Introduction 212 3 The Witness in May 2010 214 The Role of the Witness 215 Forbidden Practices 216 Dialogical Performance 218 The Second Narrative 220 The Part of the Witness 221 Narrative Two: The Anastenaria in Langadas in May 2010 223 Introduction 223 A Year Later 225 Commentary 231 VI. Chapter Six: The Anastenaria through Co-performative Witnessing in May 2011: Participation, Survival and a Community of Witnesses Introduction 236 Witnessing and Participation 238 Inclusion 239 The Third Narrative 241 Narrative Three, Anastenaria, Langadas, May 2011 243 20th of May, Evening 246 21st of May, Morning 248 21st of May, Evening 253 22nd of May, Morning 263 22nd of May, Evening 264 Synopsis of the Commentary on Narrative Three 273 Commentary 276 VII. Chapter Seven: Towards the Examination of the Survival of the Anastenaria Ritual Performance: From the Fiery Actor to the Co-performer Witness Survival and the Anastenaria 291 Review of an Itinerary 292 Contribution 319 Endnotes 321 Bibliography 350 4 Acknowledgements The Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation’s continuous support during the academic years 2009/10, 2010/11, 2011/12 and 2012/13 enabled me to conduct and complete my research which began in October 2008. It is with deep gratitude that I acknowledge this gift that can never be repaid by any kind of labour or good intention. I will be forever grateful to the many contributions to this work. I thank, first of all, my supervisors Alan Read and Kelina Gotman whose insights and critical attention to my work have shaped this thesis in entirely positive ways. I will forever cherish meeting Professor Alan Read as my teacher in the MA in Text and Performance Studies, that was co-conducted by King’s College London and RADA in 2007/8. It was towards the end of that year and while I was in rehearsals for my Directing Dissertation Epidemic that was exploring ritual and madness in Sophocles’ Antigone and Euripides’ Bacchae that I submitted my application to do a PhD under his supervision. A few months later, I had the luck to meet Kelina Gotman. Their notes and comments have kept coming back, returning and influencing me throughout this process. Secondly, two generations in my family have visited Langadas and witnessed the Anastenaria. My mother in particular, Calliope Rigopoulou, has directed a short film on the Anastenaria in both Greece (Langadas, Saint Helen) and India entitled “Nobody cares about my soul” (Greece, 2005). 5 Part of the recorded material my mother used for the film was acquired during a visit in Saint Helen. She was accompanied by my father Yangos Andreadis and his mother Filomeni Andreadi. Another part was acquired during a visit in Langadas, where she was accompanied by my father and the actress and acting teacher Katia Gerou. When I saw Katia Gerou play the part of Cordelia in King Lear at the Art Theatre Karolos Koun in 1998 I decided that I wanted to be involved in the theatre professionally. I was her student at the Karolos Koun Art Theatre Drama School in Athens from 2000 until 2003. In 2009/2010 we collaborated on the book When the heartbeats change; Discussions on theatre with Ioli Andreadi, that was based on our recorded discussions and published in Athens in 2010, ed. Kaleidoskopio. This exchange informed this thesis and vice versa in many ways. My field research in Langadas became a reality thanks to Mina Mahairopoulou, a sociologist, folklorist and one of the participants to the Anastenaria in Langadas. I thank her for introducing me to the other participants and to their chief and organising an interview with him during my first visit in May 2009.