We say “Oops!” apologetically. We say “Oops!” hypocritically. Surprised, we exclaim “Oops!” for an accident we ourselves caused—for something we supposedly did not expect to happen that way or to have such an outcome. We use “Oops!” for a minor setback, a misfortune, or a mistake. We say “Oops!” and shrug our shoulders indifferently. We are cartoons in an animated series: we have no feelings, no bodies, no thoughts. We trip each other up, we fight, we laugh mechanically. We kill one another and come back to life, again and again.

We are the absurdly violent heroes of the short stories of Russian author Daniil Kharms, who lived through the gloom of the Stalinist 1930s. We are the burlesque clowns of American cinema in the dark years of the Great Depression of the 1930s.

We are creating our own avant-garde cabaret of the interwar period. Our materials are humble, our aesthetic is DIY, and our music is pre-recorded. We stage our own farcical duets—the twin souls of sworn friends who, like Tom and Jerry, chase each other endlessly, or, like Laurel and Hardy, fall, collide, get up, and fall again without mercy.

We are reacting to a world that seems increasingly absurd and grotesque. Wars, rearmament, far-right leaders, militarism, racism, closed borders, fake news, erratic policies, blatant economic bargaining, scandals, manipulated justice, cover-ups, impunity—and the unthinkable: genocide and ethnic cleansing broadcast live from a colonialist, apartheid-style pariah state, supported with money and weapons by the “Holy Alliance” of the willing in the Western world.

Performers: Christina Karagianni, Stavros Karambatsos, Pierre Magendie, Despoina Hatzipavlidou  

Concept & coordination: Vassilis Noulas & Kostas Tzimoulis
Texts: Daniil Kharms
Director and adaptation of Kharm's texts: Vassilis Noulas
Set design & Costumes: Kostas Tzimoulis
Assistant director: Elisavet Xanthopoulou

A Nova Melancholia production © 2025