A speck of beauty floating in the Mediterranean Sea, the ancient Greeks believed the island of Cyprus to be the birthplace of the ravishing love goddess Aphrodite. First-time Cincy Fringer MonTra Performance (from Boulder, Colorado) has assembled a harrowing tale of young refugees struggling to survive on Aphrodite’s much-coveted island.
Storyteller Monica Dionysiou combines talents with visual artist Aaron Young to create a collage of painting, animation and performance. Dionysiou begins by giving her audience a quick primer on Mediterranean geography. Cyprus is surrounded by six countries — Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt and Greece — and over the course of its long history, Cyprus has been through a lot, including Alexander the Great, the Romans, the Ottomans and the British. Dionysiou’s quick context is essential to following show’s story, which she crafted from interviews with Cypriot refugees. In the mid-1970s, a Greek military coup on Cyprus led to a full-scale invasion of Cyprus from Turkey. The story’s young refugees are fleeing this conflict. As the chaos and violence unfold on Earth, Aphrodite and her brother Ares, the god of war, play cards atop Mt. Olympus, a creative frame for the show’s narrative centerpiece.
Dionysiou is a warm and composed presence onstage, although the presentational style of the production hampers the emotional impact. She portrays many characters, both men and women recalling happy childhoods and later nightmarish escapes. Meanwhile, nearby on a large piece of illuminated paper Young gorgeously illustrates her story as she tells it. He paints a glittering seascape, green hilltops and one of Cyprus’s spindly orange trees, evoking the rugged beauty of the place.
Though the show makes extensive use of color and light and even animated elements, its real appeal comes from its simplicity. Aphrodite’s Refugees, presented at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, is an ambitious endeavor, tracing a powerful story about how the complex geopolitics of a region affect the lives of real people. MonTra has distilled the piece to an engaging arrangement of words and pictures.
The Cincinnati Fringe Festival runs through June 10. Find showtimes, tickets and more info here.
