photo: Marietta Pavlaki

MAMI by Mario Banushi (2025)

Lighting Design

Drawing inspiration from personal experiences, Banushi creates an unholy shrine to the mother-child relationship. To celebrate it. To exorcise it. To fill it with vows and curses. To fall in love with it. For, as he himself notes, “I have always said that birth is love in reverse.”

The stage becomes a landscape of memory. As eerie as it is familiar. The performers, immersed in silence, create moments of profound emotion and urge us to recognize and confront our own memories, our own relationships, and the emotional legacy we carry.

This breakout director’s new creation is a visual poem about the mother-child relationship. A show that is a tribute to the women who nurtured us.

the work was presented at (currently on tour):

  • Onassis Stegi (Athens, Greece)

  • Festival d’ Avignon (Avignon, France)

  • GREC Festival (Barcelona, Spain)

  • Noorderzon Festival (Groningen, Netherlands)

  • Espoo Theatre (Helsinki, Finland)

  • Under the Radar (New York, USA)

  • Odéon – Théâtre de l’Europe (Paris, France)

  • Teatros del Canal (Madrid, Spain)

Nomination for the
Hellenic Association of Theatre and Performing Arts Critics Award for Lighting Design 2025

“A lost corner barely lit by a garden lamp — […] a superb work by Stephanos Droussiotis […], with the pictoriality of a Botticelli dreamt by Chagall […] somewhere between the lighting of Gregory Crewdson and the day-for-night worlds of Magritte.”

— Libération, July 14, 2025


Conceived and Directed by
Mario Banushi

With
Vasiliki Driva / Katerina Kristo, Dimitris Lagos, Eftychia Stefanou / Ilia Koukouzeli, Angeliki Stellatou, Fotis Stratigos, and Panagiota Υiagli

Set & Costume Design
Sotiris Melanos

Original Music & Sound Design
Jeph Vanger

Lighting Design and Associate Dramaturg
Stephanos Droussiotis

Artistic Collaborators
Aimilios Arapoglou, Thanasis Deligiannis

Assistant Director
Theodora Patiti

International Relations & Tour Management
Nikos Mavrakis

Production Management
Rena Andreadaki & Christos Christopoulos – TooFarEast

Line Production
Ioanna Papakosta - TooFarEast

Auditions & Residency Coordinator
Konstantina Douka Gkosi – TooFarEast

Tour Lighting design
Marietta Pavlaki

Tour Sound Engineer
Kostas Chaidos

Set assistant
Sofia Theodorou

Costumes assistant
Nikoleta Anastasiadou

Set Construction
Michalis Lagkouvardos

Special Constructions
Alahouzos Brothers, Alexandros Loggos

Special Lighting Constructions
Giorgos Ierapetritis

Rehearsal Technical Coordination
Aristidis Kreatsoulas - TooFarEast

Rehearsal Electrician
Konstantinos Mavrantzas

Rehearsal Technical Support
Stefanos Ntaoulas, Iason Papantoniou, Grigoris Zkeris, Paris Asimakopoulos

In collaboration with
OMAZ civic non-profit company

Commissioned and Produced by
Onassis Stegi

Co-produced by
Berliner Festspiele [DE], Odéon – Théâtre de l’Europe [FR], FOG festival / Triennale Milano Teatro [IT], & Espoo Theatre [FI], Festival d’Avignon [FR], Grec Festival Barcelona [ES], Théâtre de Liège [BE], Noorderzon Festival / Grand Theatre Groningen [NL]

Special thanks
Aliki Atsalaki, Sozon Bessis / Bessis Textiles, Marissa Bili, Eleni Choumou, Panos Delinikopoulos, Giorgos Koutlis, Katerina Kristo, Eirini Kyriakou, Katerina Liatsou, Julian Mommert, Dimitris Papaioannou, Petros Papazisis, Giorgos Sofikitis, Theodoros Terzopoulos, Pinelοpi Tsoutsouva, Elena Viseri, Chryssi Vidalaki, Mark Yeoman & Raydun Bolk and the team of Grand Theatre Groningen, all the participants of the audition workshops.

Initial research & development were made possible with the support of the Onassis AiR Dramaturgy Fellowship [GR] and the Centre Culturel Hellénique—Paris [FR]

Supported by the Onassis Stegi Touring Program.

photos by Andreas Simopoulos, Pinelopi Gerasimou, Marietta Pavlaki

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