By Kostis Megalis

Is Sisyphus schizophrenic? Here's an interesting idea. Why, if you were carrying a rock up and down for eternity, wouldn't your mind soon lose its way? Wouldn't it start confusing fantasy with reality, dream with waking life?

But, the correct formulation is not Sisyphus schizophrenic. Because the character from Sisyphus: flesh and earth does not present himself as Sisyphus. But, as the shadow of Sisyphus. One could say an incarnation of the Sisyphus archetype. A morphing of the universal. The manifestation of a myth in a person's life. Someone who could be me or you, and certainly at some point is me or you...

I say all this because this very special performance helped me redefine my own relationship with the myth, to feel again, as if for the first time, the story of Sisyphus in a new way. The rock ceases to be only the Absurdity of human existence, the absurdity of a life that has no meaning in itself, although that is all we want - a life that, precisely because it has no meaning in itself, only we can invent it from the invalid materials at our disposal (but this is very difficult and takes a lot of time). The rock also becomes time. Man drags his stone, tries to command time, but the rock always falls, the sickle of Saturn always beheads us, since Today runs, runs away and we lose it all for a past that will never come again and a future that has not even come yet. The protagonist, the shadow of Sisyphus, fears that all this is just a dream, but ultimately, he is even more lost in a dream, which is in another dream. One of his personalities is chasing freedom from destiny. He is personified in a bird, which tries to fly free, but returns without even leaving, since it is a chicken.

Stone men figure carrying stone, baroque statue from Greek mythology of Sisyphus or Sisyphos, garden, green trees background, czech republic

It has wings, but it cannot fly. In an amazing performance, Fanis Katehos constantly plays with his whole body, so that his words give one emotion, his face another, his hands another, his feet another – but all are harmonious members of an indivisible whole. The shadow of Sisyphus maniacally moves the rocks, constantly trying to fly, but remains trapped in the same prison, perhaps because he is dealing with the symptom instead of the cause, perhaps because he is trying to figure out what to do with the rocks instead of just letting them go, or simply accepting that they are inevitable and he should just enjoy the process. Either the prison door was always open and he just didn't look for it properly, or it never existed and so why would he look for it. In any case, the whole search for the key is just futile and a waste of his time.

The direction [Donald Kitt] and music [Tasos Fotiou] are excellent in reinforcing all this futility, which accompanies the personal struggle of each of us on the path of freedom, self-realization and happiness. A futility, which far from discourages Sisyphus from continuing his sacred struggle. Quite the opposite. Rather, it excites him, makes him fight even more maniacally…

Just like the truth, every text does not end, it cannot have a real conclusion, but it can have something like a conclusion, something that is rather something like a key. For the end, which is not an end, then, I leave these lyrics, which this particular performance inspired me:

We are the clowns, who laugh at the gods and fight them even though they know they will be defeated. And above all, this is what drives them. And they fight like dogs to flee like Suns. But, they are already falling, rather they are falling like Suns. They fight the gods like dogs, Like dogs they love, like dogs they try to see life, not to be forgotten and to be forgotten and to live it: Very easy, for a moment to look away And life has already become stardust, lost for good…

Source: www.catisart.gr

Translated by Google.

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