The "Broken Pitcher" (Der zerbrochene Krug)
 
-The Play:
The "Broken Pitcher" (Der zerbrochene Krug), is a comedy by the German playwright Heinrich von Kleist.The work denounces the weaknesses of human nature and the judiciary, with a lighthearted way.
There are clear references to the tragedy of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, as on both projects the main protagonist is guilty, except that Adam, the judge of the Dutch village Choizoum knows from the beginning what is the culprit, as the villagers and he is trying by all means-immoral and non-to conceal the truth to his advantage.
 

-The concept:
Kleist, inspired his work while he was in the house of Heinrich Zschokke, looking at an engraving by Jean-Jacques Le Veau, entitled "Judge or The Broken Pitcher" 
(Le Juge ou La Cruche Cassee) which in turn is based on a painting by Philibert Louis Debucourt (1782). 
At the play, Martha, the applicant that her broken jug becomes the cause  to unwind the thread of the story and eventually break the abscess of corruption in the 
small village,  presents a detailed but nerve racking reference to the ornate decoration of the pitcher before the unfortunate ceramic gain a huge hole through the 
center of it!
 
The poster and finally the main design of the play, illustrates the very recognizable in the western world symbol of the judiciary: the false wig that Judge Adam  which is now depicted as the  painting on the broken jug. The enigmatic silhouette of the face beneath the wig plays simultaneously the role of the hole of the pitcher, as well as the hole with radial cracks starting from there. Deep cracks caused by the force of power in each office.

The title lettering and all the data of the play are written on  the pitcher, and aim to highlight that the play is referring  to something old hand, but also timeless. The font is "Sunday", by Anastasia Dimitriadis-a font with several alternative glyphs, that helped tremendously in the overall design:handwritten, but on the other hand quite strict, "vintage" and fresh at the same time. The title is associated with a pitcher and a "break" on the neck.
The program of the performance, was born after brainstorming with Kostas Skintzis, the stage designer of the project:
"What if instead of the classic book we made a miniature court documents folder?"
I used old paper textures to depict the "dirty" documents; the judge was behaving like a pig according to the author. To strengthen the image of the omnipresent bureaucracy, a polymer stamp with the main illustration, the date and the title was the sole decoration of its cover.

 Similarly, the stamp with the logo of the Theatrical 
Group of Tripoli was the only item on the back cover. The documents are "scattered" in the folder, as indeed was the entire file of the judge in the show. Our objective was a viewer to feel that actually participates in a bygone era trial.
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