Constantinopoliad (2023)

National Sawdust, April 2023
Onassis Stegi Library, November 2023
Internationaal Theater of Amsterdam, February 2024

Constantinopoliad is a handmade book, read collectively by the audience inside of a sound installation. A response to the archive of the poet Constantine Cavafy, the work is inspired by the blank and torn out pages in “Constantinopoliad, an epic”, the journal the teenage Cavafy began when he and his family fled Alexandria; by lost and missing archives through time;  and by the ghosts, both erotic and historical, that visit the older Cavafy in his poems.

Commissioned by Onassis Foundation, supported by residencies at Onassis Air, and with the support of the Cavafy Archive, Athens.

Conceived, directed and performed by sister sylvester
Live score composed and performed by Nadah El Shazly
Book design by efrîn nowar
Lighting design by Bruce Steinberg
Projection design by Tei Blow
Dramaturgy by Andrew Kircher

Photos by Jill Steinberg and Zach Shulman

Commissioned for the festival ‘Archive of Desire’, a festival in NYC curated by Paola Prestini and featuring Laurie Anderson, Nick Cave + Bob Faust, Robin Coste Lewis, Vijay Iyer, Julie Mehretu + Jeffrey Zeigler, Helga Davis + Petros Klampanis; Juliana Huxtable; Evi Kalogiropoulou; Taylor Mac; Julianne Moore; Dimitris Papadimitriou; Lena Platanos; Rufus Wainwright and more

Selected Press, Athens 2023

“An hour of otherworldly, intimate, off-kilter, queer artistic orgasm.”
Lifo (Life Magazine)

“This was a unique experience altogether. […] it was like Cavafy’s life itself materialized within our minds, and we then engaged in a dream-like conversation with him.”
News247

“The storytelling carried the audience away, effortlessly summoning a mystifying atmosphere.”
Marie Claire

Selected Press, Netherlands

“During an hour you do not move from your place, but in your head you (time-)travel, fed by the beautiful book, the gentle voice that reads, the beautiful music of Nadah el Shazly, […] , Constantinopoliad is a beautiful ode to poetry and to the power of the imagination.”
TheaterKrant

Selected Press, NYC 2023