The Greek artist Manolis Saridakis has a residency at Zamek, in Poznan.
This is the third stage in the creation of Cops & Robbers by Manolis Saridakis, Medie Megas and company. The performance will premiere in February 2027 in Athens, as part of the Onassis New Choreographers Festival, a major platform for experimental works, hybrid art forms, personal and political choreographies by a new generation of artists in Greece.
The work takes the traditional children’s game of cops and robbers as its starting point. For Saridakis, the game is connected both to personal, joyful childhood memories and to the fear and anxiety he experiences when confronted with the reality of violence in the world around him.
Manolis Saridakis is a choreographer with learning disability and autism – the first one in Greece, and one of the few in Europe, who creates original works presented on mainstream stages and festivals both in the country and abroad. Medie Megas, Saridakis’s creative partner in Cops & Robbers , is a choreographer, dramarturge, and dancer and this is their second production together. In 2022, they created Do Robots Have Emotions?, produced by the Onassis Stegi Center in Athens.
The creative process for Cops & Robbers began two years ago with an idea and conceptual outline created by Manolis Saridakis, which was then developed by the entire team, under the substantive supervision of Medie Megas, who is also responsible for the work’s dramaturgy.
“My sister and I played cops and robbers when we were children. But now, as an adult, when I watch TV and see robbers and policemen on the news, I feel afraid,” Saridakis says. Megas adds: “The creative process was shaped by a dramaturgic exploration of the diverse issues that emerge from Manolis’s relationship with the game, including play, childhood, access and security in contemporary society. Maintaining the performative nature and emotion of the game while creating a performance structure that reflects this creative process was an exciting challenge for us.”
The performance started to take shape, in the first phase of work through research, presentations and workshops with various groups (funded by the Greek Ministry of Culture under the Creative Greece 2025 program in the category “Funding activities and programs promoting full accessibility for people with disabilities in 2025,” and produced by Shared Productions).
The project involves a five-person creative team from Greece and two local artists – Ewa Jenek and Bartosz Pawłowski. Polish artists will also be included in the cast of the work-in-progress presentation of “Cops & Robbers,” which will take place on September 25th at the ZAMEK Culture Centre.
The residency is also an opportunity to explore audience participation and accessibility, thanks to a workshop led by Klucz Theatre team. The focus is exploring tools and formats that increase the accessibility of performances for visually impaired audiences.
Credits
Concept: Manolis Saridakis
Dramaturgy and rehearsal directions: Medie Megas
Performance creation: Manolis Saridakis, Medie Megas in collaboration with the dancers.
Dancers: Irini Kourouvani, Isimini Slijper, Olympia Antonena, Christos Christakopoulos, Manolis Saridakis, Medie Megas
Scenography: Natasa Lekkou
Observer / writer: Maria Papadopoulou
Sound / music: Chrysanthos Christodoulou
Video / photo documentation: Gkikas Melachrinos Production: Onassis Stegi / Europe Beyond Access
Executive production: liminal and Shared Productions