Fenia Gianni
Where Theatre Meets the Human Experience
Fenia Gianni is a Greek-British playwright, theatre artist, performer and Artistic Director of tríada theatre company.
Her work explores the psychological and physical experience of women living through trauma, violence, identity disruption and transformation. Her writing is particularly interested in the relationship between contemporary female experience and the archetypal structures of Greek tragedy. As a theatre-maker, she works across writing, performance, movement, sound and visual dramaturgy, often creating innovative work in which the boundaries between text, body and audience experience become deliberately fluid.
She has a PhD in Health, Clinical Physiology and Mental Health Sciences from Syracuse University, US. Her scientific background informs her interest in the relationship between the mind, body and narrative. Rather than treating research and theatre as separate disciplines, she uses interdisciplinary knowledge as a foundation for developing psychologically informed and evidence-based theatrical worlds.
Her work has been presented in the UK and internationally, including at Edinburgh Fringe and Avignon Off, and she is currently developing new writing and experimental performance methodologies through tríada theatre company and the ELEKTRIK PROJECT.
HER PROFILE
Ifigeneia Giannopoulou, professionally known as Fenia Gianni, was born in Athens, Greece. Her journey as an artist has developed across Greece, the United States and the United Kingdom, shaped by an unusual intersection of science, human behaviour and the performing arts.
Before establishing herself as a theatre-maker, Fenia pursued an academic career in health and human sciences, completing her PhD in Health, Clinical Physiology and Mental Health Sciences at Syracuse University in the United States. Her years working in academia and research gave her a deep interest in the relationship between the mind, body, behaviour and lived experience — questions that would later become central to her artistic practice.
Alongside her academic career, she continued to develop as a performer, eventually undertaking professional actor training in the UK. Acting became a gateway into writing and theatre-making, leading her to create work of her own and to explore theatre not only as a form of storytelling, but as a space for psychological and embodied experience.
Her Greek heritage remains an important thread within her creative identity. Greek tragedy, its archetypes, conflicts and exploration of human psychology, provides a recurring point of departure for her contemporary work. Rather than recreating classical stories, she uses their emotional and structural DNA to explore the realities of contemporary women and the complexities of identity, relationships, power, trauma and transformation.
As Artistic Director of tríada theatre company, Fenia develops original writing and experimental performance, working across acting, writing, directing and interdisciplinary collaboration. Her work has taken her from intimate theatrical spaces to international festivals, while her practice continues to evolve through new forms, collaborations and research.
Today, Fenia works between artistic creation and interdisciplinary practice, bringing together the different worlds that have shaped her — Greek storytelling traditions, contemporary theatre, science, the body and lived human experience.