For one evening, three neighbouring locations in central Limassol become part of a single happening. Conceived by visual artist Evelyn Anastasiou, TWELFTH NIGHT unfolds across Pattihio Municipal Theatre, its public courtyard, and The Edit Gallery, located directly opposite. The audience are invited to move freely between the three locations.
The title is drawn from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, or What You Will. Shaped by the tradition of misrule, disguise and mistaken identities, the play temporarily overturns established hierarchies and loosens social conventions. Anastasiou similarly unsettles conventional roles, allowing identities and functions to shift.
TWELFTH NIGHT brings together two seemingly opposing cultural forms: the post-war film musical and today’s punk scene. The post-war film musical transforms anxiety and social angst into singing, dancing and collective spectacle. Punk, by contrast, rejects this sanitised reality, using noise, immediacy and DIY culture to confront war and structures of power.
Anastasiou brings these seemingly incompatible forms of collective expression together, with music as their common protagonist. Reality is briefly interrupted, offering the audience an alternative way of coexisting.
The project marks the first Cyprus appearance of HAUTAUSTOIMISTO, a hardcore punk ‘n’ roll band from Tampere, Finland. Their participation forms an integral part of Anastasiou’s long-term research into the Finnish punk scene and, in particular, the Puntala-Rock festival in Lempäälä. Through HAUTAUSTOIMISTO’s presence, the stage becomes a pedestal, bringing the spirit of Tampere’s punk scene into direct contact with audiences in Limassol.
Theatrical illusion and DIY culture, institutional and public space, come together for one night in TWELFTH NIGHT, transforming a familiar location in Limassol into a temporary cultural landscape. Against a present that is marked by war and division, the work proposes a collective experience that opens onto a new choreography.
TWELFTH NIGHT
Exhibition by Evelyn Anastasiou. October 24-November 14. Pattihio Municipal Theatre, Pattihio Municipal Theatre Courtyard and The Edit Gallery. Opening night: 6.30pm-10pm. Tel: 25-251710. www.theeditgallery.com