Curator: GEORGIOS KOUKOUMAS
Set-costume Designer: Thelma Cassoulidou
Da, by Hugh Leonard
Theatrical Organization of Cyprus (THOC)
Premiere: 12 May 2021, New Stage Theatre THOC
Direction: Maria Mannaridou – Karsera
Translation: Errikos Belies
Dramaturgical editing: Maria Mannaridou-Karsera – Fotis Fotiou
Set-Costume design: Thelma Cassoulidou
Music: Antonis Antoniou
Lighting Design: Georgios Koukoumas
Assistand to the director: Fotis Fotiou
Cast
Fotis Apostolides, Kostas Vihas, Nektarios Theodorou, Vasilis Pafitis, Konstantinos Tsitsios, Valanto Charalambous, Elena Christofi, Christina Christofia
Set-costume designers’ statement
Da ( sub for Daddy) is staged as an autobiographical journey down the memory lane by the Irish author Hugh Leonard. The design perspective in both set and costume can be seen as the mind of Charlie who is also the author and the protagonist of the performance. The play begins with the death of the fa-ther and the return of Charlie to his family’s poor and old cottage house. The interior and exterior of the house are blended together to emphasize the decay and death of both the memory and the fa-ther. The set is dressed in colours of decay and rottenness which reflect the depressed and alcoholic life of Charlie who is also dressed in dull colours (grey suit ) and his need to forget the past. However, Da is not dead in his memory and as soon as the memories and stories through time (1940s-1970s) are revived, the characters are revived in colour. Reality and imagination; past and present; interior and exterior space; feelings of loneliness and love are merged on stage and represent the interior and ex-terior world of the protagonist. We see Charlie meeting his past self and how the Irish countryside (wild green fields) and red roses that his father was growing in the gardens marked his present self and how eventually will make peace with his memories and maybe will change his future.
Thelma Cassoulidou
Set/Costume Designer
Thelma Cassoulidou was born and is currenly living in Nicosia, Cyprus.
She studied:
BA (Hons) Fine Art, Birmingham City University (2008-2011)
MA Visual Language of Performance, Wimbledon College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London (2011-2012).
She has been working in the theatre and cinema industry for the past ten years as a costume and set designer in various theatres and productions such as Theatrical Organization of Cyprus with the last ones being in 2021 with the play “Da” by Hugh Leonard as well as in November 2019 with the play “The holiday trilogy” by Carlo Goldoni alongside with her associate set/costume designer Edouardos Georgiou, Theater Dionysos (October 2022), Pocket Theater (September 2022),Skala Theater (February 2022), Theater Antilogos (June 2022) Solo for Three ( July 2022), Theater Anemona (March 2020) etc. She has worked with many exceptional artists and directors of the Cyprus theatre scene such as Andy Bargilly, Elena Katsouri, Mariza Bargilly, Edouardo Georgiou and many more.
In 2010 she was awarded with the highest rate score in the second year of her studies in fine art by the Birmingham City University.
In 2015 and in 2016 she was nominated for the best set design award for the plays Mona (2015) and Nerium Park (2016, Theater Dionysos). In 2018 and 2020 she was nominated for the award of the New Creator of the Year 2018 and 2020 alongside by the Theatrical Organization of Cyprus.
For the past ten years Thelma, alongside her theatre design work, is also working for cinema, television and commercial productions as an art director and costume designer with the most recent in March 2022.
