Mahamaya Electronic Devices

Four performers at breakneck speed unravel an encyclopedia of modern life, determining that the answer to the question "who am I?" lies beyond the reach of available words.

Eleutheromania (Greek, ελευθερομανία) — An intense and irresistible desire for freedom.

Dépayser (French) — Disorientation; not necessarily unpleasant (e.g., a pleasant sense of strangeness from being in a foreign country).

Resfeber (Swedish) — The travel fever/bug; the mix of anxiety and excitement experienced by a traveler before embarking on a journey.

what you will feel:

what you need to know:

This is a new play by director and playwright Ivan Vyrypaev, who combines his interest in theater with spiritual practices. With this almost universal text, the team has already released versions of the play in Ukrainian, Russian, English, and Romanian, vividly demonstrating the ability of a cultural object to transcend national borders. Vyrypaev's work is unique in that it first compels intense thought and then—intense feeling.

Against the backdrop of a large screen, four performers sit, stand, and change places. At high speed, they exchange questions and answers from the deepest spheres of human life—science, politics, family, drugs, sex, religion—quickly leading to cognitive overload. Briefly outlining the complexity of the world, they attempt to answer the question "who am I?". But this deafening hour-long meditation makes it clear that the answer to this question lies beyond language.

what happens:

We’re using words from
“The Positive Lexicography Project” by Tim Lomas

Founder of the Teal House foundation in Poland, a platform producing projects that combine art and spiritual practices, Ivan Vyrypaev’s plays are translated and performed in theaters around the world. Vyrypaev himself works as a theater and film director, he led the "Praktika" theater in Moscow, and also served as a producer for the theatrical streaming project "Okko". He has received awards at the Rome and Venice festivals for his films. We are pleased to present his play Mahamaya Electronic Devices in Russian and Ukranian, with English and Greek Subtitles, followed by discussions of the play. There will also be an open talk with the director as part of the side program, and for holders of the festival ticket an exclusive opportunity to see him reading his play “The World of Beautiful Butterflies”.

Ivan Vyrypaev