Clean City from Anestis Azas and Prodromos Tsinikoris in Amsterdam

This post is also available in Dutch

January 19th and 20th

Following its successful run at the Onassis Cultural Centre last year and a tour of European festivals, ‘Clean City’ comes to Amsterdam to subvert stereotypes through the eyes and personal testimonies of five immigrant cleaners. As a theatre of the real, the production explores the historical, philosophical and political dimension of the concept of cleanliness, a term that was at the core of racist propaganda (Chrysi Avgi) and led to the ideology of a pure race. The production features five real cleaners from different countries (Albania, Bulgaria, South Africa, Moldova and the Philippines). Their stories create new images of immigrant cleaners. In their countries of origin these women might be academics, architects and activists, but they are also mothers, and to help their families, they sacrifice themselves in the Athens of today, showing extraordinary strength like everyday super heroines. A shocking but hilarious play that, rich in realism, speaks to us of Greece today through stories of the women who keep it clean.

The far-right political party Golden Dawn wants to clean up Greece, that is to say: to cleanse migrants. In this documentary theater play, theater makers Anestis Azas and Prodromos Tsinikoris turn this rhetoric around and wonder: who actually cleans in this country? Migrants! Five Athenian cleaners put aside their broom and do their story on stage.