Roots & Routes – A Mosaic of Rising Artists
Organized by: Cyprus Theatre Organisation (THOC)
Dates: 11–13 April 2025
Location: Nicosia, Cyprus
Part of: Theatre in Palm Programme
Funded by: European Union
Festival Overview:
The Roots & Routes – International Theatre Festival celebrated emerging theatre voices across Europe, featuring performances from 12 countries. It offered a platform for experimental, diverse, and powerful works, centered on the theme of identity, and explored through related lenses such as gender, sexuality, societal expectations, isolation, and mental health. Each performance was allocated one hour, that included their performance followed by a Q&A session, fostering dialogue and connection with the audience.
11 April 2025
Time: 19:00–20:00
CENTRO TEATRALE MAMIMÒ APS – “Alfredino. Italy at the bottom of a well” (Italy)
Duration: 40 min | Language: Italian (English surtitles) | Age: 14+
The performance: On the evening of June 10, 1981, six-year-old Alfredo (Alfredino) Rampi fell 36 meters down a well in Vermicino, a town near Rome. For the next 35 hours, Italy remained glued to the TV watching the first non-stop live broadcast to chronicle the attempt to save him. It was a turning point in the history of Italian TV and a wound for all Italians. Fabio Banfo brings the story to life by introducing in his solo show the many characters who filled that night. At the centre of the narrative is Alfredino, in that deep well along with the whole country.
Creative Team:
Dramaturgy Fabio Banfo
Directed by Serena Piazza
A show by Effetto Morgana
Cast and Crew:
Actor: Fabio Banfo
Technician: Marco Merzi
Artistic Director: Marco Maccieri
TIP Partner: Fondazione E35 (Italy)
Time: 21:00–22:00
JÁ INTERNATIONAL THEATRE – “Breathless Alive” (Portugal)
Duration: 30 min | Language: English | Age: 12+
The performance: 2 women meet in a processing centre where they will be evaluated for their optimal skill sets which will determine what role they will play in an algorithmised society maintained by the Breathless- robot caretakers- Function in this case begets Form. However, all is not as it seems, and as the conversation flows from easy banter to menacing undertones- deceit and betrayal running deep and electric through this society unravel to reveal what it means to be in the time of the breathless alive.
Creative Team:
Director and Playwright: Suresh Nampuri
Cast and Crew:
Pat Butler- Ariel
Carmo Bebiano– Morgan
TIP Partner: JÁ International Theatre (Portugal)
12 April 2025
Time: 11:00–12:00
ONNANA – “Atelier” (Spain)
Duration: 30 min | Language: English | Age: 16+
The performance: Atelier is a refuge where artists build their identity, free of judgment. A space of sorority where muses come to life and become creators. The Story of Claudel and Georgia O’Keeffe intertwine in mutual care, inspiring us to challenge the roles assigned to the feminine. Showing how together we can rise up and rewrite the history of art.
Creative Team/Cast and Crew:
Idea and direction: Paula Segarra
Interpreters: Paula Esteve, Paula Segarra
Choreography: Collective creation of the performers
Texts: Natalia Navarro, Elsa Moreno
Assistant director: Natalia Navarro, Paula Esteve, Jrisa Lialia
Musical Composition: Mr. Merrywheather
Set design and Lighting design: Jrisa Lialia
Set construction: Woodyloop, Paula Segarra
Locker room: Sara Recatala
Voice-over: Naroa Sanchez
Production and Graphic design: Paula Segarra
Co-produced by Circle Theater
The Valencian Institute of Culture
TIP Partner: Espronceda Institute of Arts & Culture (Spain)
13:00–14:00
ZID THEATER – “Not Only One” (Netherlands)
Duration: 40 min | Language: English | Age: 16+
The performance: In her solo performance ‘Not Only One’, Nivin Baranbo shares her poignant story about growing up as a girl; constantly confronted with the expectations of family and society. Her struggle with norms, values and expectations always put her in a position to make her own choices. How do you make your own choices within an environment that has clear expectations of you? And what are the consequences of this?
Creative Team:
Concept, text and acting: Nivin Baranbo
Director: Julija Filipovic
Soundscape: Ahmad Ashram
Stage design: Dina Nedelkov
Artistic direction: Karolina Spaic
Artistic coach: Sebo Bakker
Lighting design: Saskia Maurik Zach
Production: ZID Theater
Cast and Crew:
Performer: Nivin Baranbo
Sound technician: Ahmad Ashram
TIP Partner: ZID Theater (Netherlands)
Time: 15:00–16:00
SMASHING TIMES – “The Woman is Present: Women’s Stories of WWII” (Ireland)
Duration: 40 min | Language: English | Age: 12+
The performance: The Woman is Present: Women’s Stories of World War II features women’s stories from Ireland and Europe, remembering the role played by ordinary, yet extraordinary women in war and peace, recalling stories of bravery, sacrifice and love as powerful women stand up and refuse to accept oppression. The performance is based on reimagined moments from the lives of women during World War II who stood up against oppression and fought for the dignity and rights of others. The Woman is Present: Women’s Stories of World War II is written by Mary Moynihan, Féilim James, Fiona Thompson and Paul Kennedy, and presented on tour by Smashing Times International Centre for the Arts and Equality, Ireland.
Creative Team:
Playwrights: Mary Moynihan, Paul Kennedy, Fiona Bawn Thompson
Producer: Freda Manweiler
Director: Mary Moynihan
Cast and Crew:
Performer: Fiona Bawn-Thompson
Stage Manager: Freda Manweiler
TIP Partner: Smashing Times (Ireland)
Time: 17:00–18:00
TRANSFORMERS SCENKONST – “Oh shit, we’re the same!” (Sweden)
Duration: 30 min | Language: English | Age: 13+
The performance: Oh shit, we’re the same! is a performance inspired by interviews with twelve young trans people. In an exploration of their dreams, both for the future and what they long to see on stage, it cycles through a range of emotions from loneliness and anger to euphoria and hope. Created through a collaborative workshop process it’s a loose playful exploration of what it means to be young and trans, told through a collage of different viewpoints and experiences.
Creative Team:
Created and staged by Transformers Scenkonst (Isak Nordström, Mille Bostedt, Sofi Orem Skoglund)
Cast and Crew:
Actors: Isak Nordström, Mille Bostedt
Director and tech: Sofi Orem Skoglund
TIP Partner: Intercult (Sweden)
Supported by the Swedish Arts Grants Committee
Time: 18:00–19:00
Talk: “Breaking through networking and resilience in the arts” by Professor George Rodosthenous SFHEA, Professor of Theatre Directing in School of Performance and Cultural Industries at University of Leeds
Time: 19:00–20:00
SALLA ANTTONEN – “Just Friends” (Finland)
Duration: 20–30 min | Language: English + Finnish (with surtitles) | Age: 10+
The performance: In a world that operates on an assumption that everyone experiences romantic attraction and sexual desire, what is it like to not want those things? Yearning for connection and committed partnership without romance? Fearing the day your friends fall in love, and you will end up alone? The performance explores themes of queer identity and love through an asexual and aromantic lens. Life sure is confusing, but with a little bit of relationship anarchy it can at least be exciting. And full of hope.
Creative Team:
Playwright and Director: Salla Anttonen
Help with dramaturgy: Jaina Saviainen, Meri Salo, Iiris Suvitie, Mervi Rankila-Källström
Sound designer: Evie
Cast and Crew
Performer: Salla Anttonen
TIP Leader: Turku UAS / Arts Academy (Finland)
Time: 20:00–21:00
Talk: Presentation of Turku Arts Academy
Time: 21:00–22:00
IORGEAN THEATRE – “No Filter” (Romania)
Duration: 40 min | Language: English | Age: 18+
The performance: 5 artists. One dice. No lights. No music. No script. No set. No persona. No rehearsals. The show of the dancing selves for the most important audience: the others.
Creative Team:
Diana Dragu, Alina Pietrăreanu, Daiana Sargan, Oana Maria Ghiorghilas, Georgia Maciuceanu Jean-Lorin Sterian
Concept: Jean-Lorin Sterian
Cast and Crew:
Diana Dragu, Alina Pietrăreanu, Daiana Sargan, Oana Maria Ghiorghilas, Georgia Maciuceanu
TIP Partner: Homemade Culture (Romania)
13 April 2025
Time: 13:00–14:00
DELIRIUM – “404: Address Not Found” (Belgium)
Duration: 20 min | Language: English | Age: 12+
The Performance: 404: Address Not Found– is a haunting, poetic performance about lost communication in a digital age. A weary letter carrier wanders through nameless cities, searching for recipients who no longer exist. When she arrives in a towering yet empty metropolis, she discovers her letters bear no addresses—only echoes of human emotion. Screams of despair, forgotten love songs, and fading confessions spill from the envelopes, yet no one remains to receive them. As reality blurs into a ghostly transmission of the past, she faces an unsettling truth: in a world overtaken by technology, some words will never be heard again.
Creative Team:
Sound designer: Solynn Marchand
Actor/Dramaturg: Weronika Mikuła
Production assistant: Laura Filipović
Mentor/Artistic advisor: Helen Ibra
Vocal coaching: Matin Moh’d Thaier
Cast and Crew List:
Weronika Mikuła – as a postwoman
TIP Partner: ETFI (Belgium)
Time: 15:00–16:00
ASSOCIATION ‘ARTIKUS’ – “TARGETS” (Bulgaria)
Duration: 25–30 min | Language: English | Age: 16+
he performance: Targets is a show about power, friendship and the different perspectives in Ben and Tom’s very normal lives. The commiserators in the play come to verbal blows over “lighting the kettle” (not “lighting the gas”), but by and large these men bicker rather than fight and have a casual intimacy that amounts to a kind of friendship. “Targets” is a comedy fusing several dramatic texts and generating the menace that comes from their power dynamics, and the tyrannical and opaque power that the blunt waiter represents and that threatens both men. The first of them is an inscrutable character – a kind of perfect assassin who holds his nerve and hides information from the second. Ben with a growing vulnerability, but also a kind of angry curiosity around the nature of power and truth – an intellectual challenge to authority that ultimately symbolizes his undoing. “We passed our tests, didn’t we?” he says as he sends in his orders. “What are you playing these games for?” is a question that echoes in the mind and leaves behind the question, “Now where?”
Creative Team:
Director: Hristo Hr. Simeonov
Cast and Crew:
Ivo – Gus
Georgi – Ben
TIP Partner: Artikus (Bulgaria)
Time: 16:00–17:00
Presentation by Cypriot Participants – Cyprus Roadshow
Time: 17:00–18:00
LOST LOVE – “Lost Love” (Greece)
Duration: 30 min | Language: English | Age: All ages
The performance: Creating friendship on an island. An isolated woman finds her inner identity when a tourist loses her literal identity. How do you take care of an island, how do you take care of a friendship, how do you take care of yourself? A dance to the hymn of friendship. An adventure in island nature when the Mediterranean sun hides on the threshold of winter
Creative Team:
Evaggelia Keramari
Agaph Iosifidou
Playwright: Marina Zerdali
Cast and Crew:
Director and Role playing the nameless woman in the island: Evaggelia Keramari
Role playing Love, the tourist: Agaph Iosifidou
TIP Partner: CUBE NGO (Greece)
Time: 20:30–21:45 – Festival Closing Performance
CYPRUS THEATRE ORGANISATION – “I and You” (Cyprus)
Duration: 75 min | Language: Greek (with English & Turkish surtitles) | Age: All ages
The performance: I and You is part of the “Luggage” teen theatre programme curated by Stavros Stavrou and is accompanied by educational and artistic activities for young people, arts professionals, parents and teachers. With a sense of immediacy and inventiveness, and a fresh perspective, the production is designed specifically to be presented in schools, transforming the classroom into an exciting theatrical venue.
Caroline is a housebound seventeen-year-old on the waiting list for a liver transplant. The only way she has of staying connected to the outside world is through social media, until Anthony, a classmate she barely knows, enters her life and turns it upside down. He tells her that they have been assigned an English project on Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself”. The two of them share their secrets, their fears and anxieties – and in doing so, pieces of themselves-embarking on a journey of discovery that brings them closer, transforming “I” and “you” into “we”.
It is a story about the unexpected power of human connections, filled with truth, humour, and surprises, that celebrates love and the will to live.
Creative Team:
Translation, Programme curator: Stavros Stavrou
Director: Christodoulos Andreou
Sets, Costumes: Yiorgos Yiannou
Movement: Elena Antoniou
Music: Christos Yerolatsitis
Lighting design: Georgios Koukoumas
Cast: Niki Dragoumi, Andreas Koutsoumbas
TIP Partner: Cyprus Theatre Organisation (Cyprus)
