ΑTHENS – The International Theatre Festival Monodrama Sofia 2024 presents The Artaud Diptych directed by the preeminent Greek director Ioli Andreadi. A theatrical tribute to the great, groundbreaking artist and thinker Antonin Artaud, written by the two prolific Greek playwrights Ioli Andreadi and Aris Asproulis, consists of two new plays, ‘Artaud / Van Gogh’, starring American actor Gene Gillette, and ‘Bone’, starring Greek actor Gerasimos Gennatas, with live music by the great Greek musician-performer George Palamiotis. Both plays of The Artaud Diptych will be presented, back-to-back, at The City Mark Art Center in Sofia on Thursday, February 29, with Bulgarian surtitles.

The video trailer is available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf64Wx_ttTY.

Artaud, writer, poet, dramatist, essayist, actor and theatre director of Greek descent, is widely recognized as one of the major figures of the 20th century theatre and the European avant-garde, known for his raw, surreal and transgressive themes and for his defining influence on theater culture. Susan Sontag explains that Artaud’s influence was so radical that the recent theater can be divided into two eras: pre-Artaud and post-Artaud. In The Artaud Diptych, Artaud returns to the stage for the last time, giving the performance of his life. His goal is to lead us from the deep, personal darkness of pain, injustice and hypocrisy to the pure and redemptive light, where the Great Law of the Heart reigns.

The Artaud Diptych was presented in New York at the Tank Theater in 2023, and in Athens at the Art Theatre Karolos Koun in 2022 and at the Semio Theatre 2023-24, and received rave reviews.