Elpida Stathatou’s Stegosaurus plunges audiences into a world of exposed bones, black coffee, cigarettes and self-loathing. The Greek actress is bringing the powerful one-woman play to London’s VAULT Festival from 27 February to 4 March.
Stathatou was highly praised at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe for her “unrelenting and heartfelt performance” (Fringe Guru) in a show that was described as a “powerful drama” in TheSunday Times and a “mordant monologue” in The Stage.
Stegosaurus gives a searing insight into mental illness, and the eating disorders that ruin so many lives. It focuses on the experiences of a divorced woman of 30 whose existence slides between bulimic binging, anorexic starvation, drug misuse, emotional abuse and rough sex. Yet it contains hope, even humour.
Recommended by Fringe Review for its exploration of human resilience and the complexity of negotiating modern life, Stegosaurus is drawn from the lived experience of playwright Ersi Niaoti.
Stathatou says: “When I read the script I knew it was a play that mattered, something I wanted to do, a story I wanted to share. We meet a woman who swears she will do anything to make herself better, but the eating disorders are like an addiction and she is soon dragged back into a spiral of self-destruction.
“Yet one of the play’s great strengths is that everyone can relate to it whether or not they have any experience or knowledge of mental illness.”
Far from being morbid or self-pitying the play is dynamic with twists, turns, shifts of pace and Stathatou’s cool delivery gives an affectingly matter-of-fact edge to the events and actions she recounts.
Stegosaurus is at VAULT Festival 28th February – 4th March 2018.
