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Petros Sevastikoglou directed Dimitris Dimitriadis' work Insenso, the opening performance at Wrocław European Capital of Culture, on 15.1.2016, and the Theatre Olympiad in the same city on 18 October later that same year. The work was also presented from 22 to 25 September 2016 on the Frynichou Stage of the Karolos Koun Art Theatre and from 1 to 9 October 2016 in Thessaloniki at Lazariston Monastery / National Theatre of Northern Greece.
Insenso talks about the utter defeat of reason, the triumph of the sense; a balancing act on the boundaries of reason. It stars Greek-Polish actress Alexandra Kazazou. All alone on stage, she plays a woman driven "mad" by love. An Italian woman falls madly in love with an Austrian officer, thereby betraying her country which is under Austrian occupation. He abandons her. Deeply hurt, she turns him over to her fellow countrymen who execute him.
"When we are consumed by absolute love, it can make us do daring things, make us lose all sense of moderation, make us ignore the 'should' and 'must' that we have been taught," said Petros Sevastikoglou. "Love puts us in an ecstatic state. We exit our comfort zone, have our feathers ruffled. Especially in times of crisis, we need to be daring both as individuals and as society, opening up to that "something different". When you fall in on yourself, you become all the poorer, but when you decide to accept things foreign to you, things different to you, you can find drive; another way of seeing things that you hadn't thought about. You can come to realise that there are other ways of being". Interestingly, Petros Sevastikoglou not only directed the work but also designed the sets. The production is by the Grotowski Institute and Avant Art.
