Interdisciplinary performance “LEDRA’S LAMENT” director Kris Muhammed Adem

September 10 -20:30

This year’s Festival will close on September 10 with creative director Kris Muhammed Adem’s interdisciplinary performance “LEDRA’S LAMENT”. 

“LEDRA’S LAMENT” is a cross-communal, non-narrative contemporary live performance that combines music, dance, design, and drag art. Nicosia was once known as the city of gardens, shaped by its fertile grounds with abundant access to water. The production reflects on what is beneath Nicosia’s damaged ecosystem. Drawing on the archives and historical memory of the ancient city of Ledra, the work approaches the past as a living source of inspiration, guiding us to reflect on the present and imagine a shared cultural future. As for the language of the production, Adem excavates traces of Eteocypriot from beneath the soil—a language once spoken in ancient Cyprus that has now largely disappeared from public memory.

Kris Muhammed Adem

Within the framework of a contemporary site- specific approach, the performers (our ancestors) take the audience’s seats in the amphitheater and claim it as their stage, while today’s audience is positioned in front of the amphitheater, creating a dilemma and fluidity, merging and blurring the boundaries between audience and performers, our ancestors and us.

Created and directed by Kris Muhammed Adem. 

Research assistance by Hazal Barışer.

Performed by Troodia Christodoulou, Mizgin Bozkaya İçli, Noa Daoulatian, Doğa Uluçlar, Ahmet Zildji, Chiara Capizzi, Selsu Solman, Ayda Canova, Hayal Gezer, DIANA, Cosmo Mo Rose and Aphroditios. Visuals by Barış Parlan, costumes by MEMO and botanical installation by Sonay Sevgüm.

With special thanks to Ron Mandos, Dance House Lefkosia, Hasder, Rüstem book shop, PERA School of Performing Arts, Sülop, Thomas Daskalakis, Ulaş Öğüç, Naz Atun, Stephanie Castendyk, Katerina ellis Despotis and Zeynep Mevlit.