By Flavia Sgoifo

NEW YORK – Acclaimed Greek actor Panos Vlahos will perform once again in a new adaptation of Dario Fo’s Mistero Buffo in New York City. The performance will be held at the United Solo Theatre Festival, 410 West 42nd Street, on October 12 at 7:30 PM.

Mistero Buffo, written in 1969 by Nobel Prize winning playwright Dario Fo is a political exploration of popular Medieval Mysteries, consisting of several scenes re-imagining Biblical Stories and establishing new protagonists against religious rule. Dario Fo distorts popular religious stories, in order to further denounce the elite and historical establishment revealing the point where the human meets the divine. This is the second realization of Mistero Buffo by Panos Vlahos and Lyto Triantafyllidou. After a successful run at the Balcony Theater in May 2016, the Guilare returns on stage and invites the audience to challenge the puritanical stereotypes of religion traditions with laughter and gives a human dimension to the concept of miracles.

Fo stages witnesses of religious and medival history, providing a human, sentimental and humours context. Director Lyto Triantafyllidou explores the tension between the complete expression of laughter and the prudence of restrictions that religion implies. By challenging historical canon, faced with an unseen witness, Triantafyllidou questions if Truth is two-sided. Is it possible to believe and reason at the same time?

This production, crafted as a journey through the life of a Giullare spanning monologues, soliloquies, storytelling, dialogues and crowd scenes, and redefining the notion of order and power. The protagonist of this comical mystery finds his roots in the medieval jugglers and commedia dell’ arte, and as a genuine fool, voices subversive preaching with a chuckle!

Actor Panos Vlahos uses his technical ease to perform a number of different characters as a fool, a player, a peasant, soldiers, villagers, the Pope and Jesus Christ in a one-hour statement. Performed in a church Triantafyllidou and Vlahos subvert the politics of philosophy in a contested public space that both sensors and provides context to theological and political discourse.

Vlahos is an established Greek actor, songwriter and musician. Panos studied acting at the New Hellenic Theater, under George Armenis and performed extensively in theaters, feature films, TV and web series in his home country. His last two performances where productions of the National Theater of Greece, presented at the prestigious Ancient Theater of Epidaurus. Panos is the youngest actor ever to perform the role of Xanthias, in Aristophane’s Frogs, in Epidaurus. His first album “Children’s Games” was released by the label Ogdoo Music Group in 2014.

Lyto Triantafyllidou is a New York-based theatre director, interested in developing theater that creates a new and original dialogue with our reality, through researching and revitalizing under-represented works from the global stage, adapting classical material and collaborating with authors on new plays. She has presented work in different festivals and platforms in New York and Greece. In 2015, she co-founded Second Circle Theater Company, a collective of theatre artists who focuses on politically charged work that intends to incite dialogue among theater and audience and tackles the issue of passivity in American culture.

More information and tickets are available at www.misterobuffo.com