The genre-defying theater performance premiered at the Center for the Art of Performance at the University of California, Los Angeles on January 11th, then traveled to the University of Michigan’s University Musical Society for performances on January 18th and 19th. Both organizations hosting the production also held a suite of related events to contextualize the show and broaden its impact. These education and community engagement events included panel discussions, lectures, workshops, class tie-ins, pre-performance discussion, post-performance question and answer time, and more.
Papaioannou, a native of Greece, first came to prominence for his work on the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games held in Athens in 2004. The London Evening Standard writes of The Great Tamer that “surrealist nightmares are rarely this much fun.” And The Guardian’s review concludes that viewers “will thrill to the aeonic sweep of Papaioannou’s vision.”
