Time to hit the theater
Metaxourgeio, one of Athens’s liveliest theatrical neighborhoods, will be enjoying a rich panoply of new plays and new venues this winter. Anna Vagena’s Metaxourgeio Theater, one of the theaters that has greatly contributed to the area’s remodeling, has embarked on its sixth year by expanding its activities to the adjacent building. The new premises aim at becoming a creative haven of culture that will also feature a small restaurant, called Anna’s. The theater saw in the season with a new production, Stefan Tsanev’s «The Other Death of Joan of Arc,» directed by Mania Papadimitriou. The play will be followed by last year’s production of DePhilippo’s «Filumena Marturano,» which will open on December 10, the «Years of Innocence» and more. Just a few blocks down, at the Anoixis Theater, John Steinbeck’s masterpiece «Of Mice and Men» premiered recently. The production is directed by Yiannis Margaritis, with music by Takis Tsafos and choreography by Cecile Mikroutsikou. The lead roles are played by Dimitris Piatas, Dimitris Siakaras and Chryssanthi Douzi. The social play touches on man’s right to dream, told through the story of a wandering worker and his mentally disabled friend set in a farm in the United States during the recession. Other interesting productions that opened recently in Athens include Ibsen’s «Hedda Gabbler,» a National Theater production staged at the National Theater’s Kappa Stage. «It is a part that has haunted me from the past. It is so complex, even psychoanalysts cannot classify it,» said Filareti Komninou, who plays the leading character, at a recent press conference. The direction is by Niketi Kontouri. Stamatis Fassoulis, Karyofyllia Karabeti and Olia Lazaridou meet on stage for the first time in Harold Pinter’s 20th century classic «Old Times,» at the Dimitris Horn Theater. The three leading characters are caught in an endless journey between past and present; the story begins when a couple residing in the countryside is visited by one of the wife’s old female friends. Fassoulis has also directed the play; the sets and costumes are by Giorgos Gavalas.
