1. Concept underlying the project

Echo Arts in collaboration with the creative team of artists working together since 2003, presented the dance research performance. A FAR OFF LAND in the Frame of the TERPSICHORE PROGRAMME OF THE CULTURAL SERVICES OF THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND CULTURE

This creative team of artists, Dorinda (theatre) and Peter Hulton (video artist and archivist), Ilker Kaptanoglu (musician), Larkos Larkou (composer) and Arianna Economou (dance), have presented together works such as: One Square Foot, The still small voice of the people, The Antigone Project, and Collateral Damage a homage to the Missing People of Cyprus.

The overall concept of the team for this project A FAR OFF LAND, has been to work together with performers of different generations, from both sides of the divide, to create a series of choreographies inspired by the image of ‘a far-off land’ which Taner Bayber’s uses in his book ‘Plucked in a Far-Off Land’ and in particular his autobiography of childhood memories.

The image of A FAR OFF LAND refers both to the ‘far off land’ of childhood memory as well as to the ‘far off land’ of hopes and dreams for the future.

  2. Process for creating the piece

Over four weeks the team has worked with older people, young adults and children in different sites on either side of the buffer zone, and in the buffer zone itself. During the performance the audience has seen these little performances – called micro performances – woven together as a part of the video and audio streams of the micro performances and presented in three parts.

  3. Structure of the piece

The performance was presented in three parts, each related to a different time perspective.  

Part 1 was based on the performers’ childhood memories of growing up in Cyprus before the division in 1974;

Part 2 was based on fragments of the performers’ childhood memories after 1974;

Part 3 referred to hopes and dreams for the future.

Each part occured in a different space and the performers have led the audience from one space to another.

  4. Sound score for the piece

Each of the three parts began a short prologue in which the audience could see the projection of an annotated extract from Baybar’s book ‘Plucked in a Far off Land’. These have been taken from the archive of Baybar’s writings at Reading University UK. They were written in English by Baybars, and recorded for this performance in English by his friend and colleague Gurgench K.

Writings on the work by Dorinda Hulton:

(2013) ‘The Silence of Eurydice: A Case Study for a Topology of Democracy’ in L.Hardwick (ed.), Classics in the Modern World Oxford: Oxford University Press.

(2009) ‘The Antigone Project: towards a 'new aesthetic' for creating theatre in a conflict zone’ in S.Kock, I.Ristic (eds.), Theatre in Times of War, Vienna: IG, FreieTheaterarbeit.

(2008) ‘Sites of Micro-Political Theatre’ in B.Marranca, J.Abrams (eds.), PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, USA: MIT Press Journals.

(2007) The ‘One Square Foot Project’ in P.Thomson (ed.) Studies in Theatre and Performance, Bristol: Intellect.

Photos from Part 2 - fragments of the performers’ childhood memories of generation born after 1974, after the invasion: