Broad range of plays marks season’s end
As the winter drama season approaches its traditional closing date on Palm Sunday, audiences still have a wide variety of plays to choose from. On the program The Neos Cosmos Theater introduces another modern British playwright to audiences in Athens with Mark Ravenhill’s «Some Explicit Polaroids.» Nick, a political radical released after serving a long prison sentence for the abduction and attempted murder of Jonathan, a capitalist, is shattered to find that everything has changed. His wife has «sold out,» becoming a Labor candidate in local elections, and the young people he meets deride his ideological concerns, but the fact that he himself has changed very little after 15 years in prison is never really examined. Nick’s world view primarily emerges from talk about the past, whereas we see the young people engaged in their lives, and that’s where all the drama and excitement are. Nadia, a dancer, Tim, who has AIDS, and Victor, a young Russian Tim has picked up through the Internet, are coming to terms with a marginal existence in their own way, without any of Nick’s ideological certainty, though with courage and zest. But the play loses steam after a climactic farewell scene in a mortuary, running down to an implausible outcome. Angeliki Dimitrakopoulou successfully captures Nadia’s engaging mix of bravado and vulnerability; Giorgos Ninios competently portrays Nick’s mounting bewilderment, and Laertes Vassileiou conveys the kindness and common sense underlying Victor’s frivolous manner. A sharp set full of reflective surfaces and frenetic music for Victor’s dancing complete the atmosphere. Modern classics Christos Tsangas offers a feast of Ritsos in two of the poet’s monologues, «Moonlight Sonata» and «Ajax,» at the Eleftheri Ekfrasi Theater. This accomplished actor brings out every nuance of longing and memory in the sonata, and his Ajax is a moving portrait of the old warrior who admits to defeat only by the gods in the last moments before he takes his own life. Apart from the obvious choice of Beethoven’s «Moonlight Sonata» to accompany the first monologue, Menelaos Anagnostou has arranged an inspired combination of eerie pieces by Iannis Xenakis and haunting Epirot threnodies by Tassos Halkias on the clarinet as the music for «Ajax.» Though the Eleftheri Ekfrasi boasts an attractive foyer adapted for cultural events, its stage is an awkward L-shape, and the set, with a clumsy rotating chair, is intrusive, but Tsangas’s sensitive renditions rise above these distractions. Theatro Technis has long accustomed Athenian audiences to fine performances of new and worthwhile plays. Georg Büchner’s «Wozzek» directed by Giorgos Lazanis, which recently ended its run, was a typical example of their work. Nikos Arvanitis ably played Wozzek, the first proletarian hero in tragedy. Katia Gerou was exceptional as Maria, the mother of his child, who succumbs to the virile charms of another soldier when her lover is physically enfeebled by a stringent diet contrived by an army doctor. A simple, effective set, clever use of lighting and sound to heighten emotion, fine ensemble playing and a smooth, natural translation by Petros Markaris made this a memorable interpretation of a modern classic. Catalysts for conflict Not so seamlessly effective, but still of interest, is Theatro Technis’s most recent production in Plaka. «The Professional,» by Serb dramatist Dusan Covacevic, employs two innovative and partially successful plot devices. The story is narrated as it happens by Teya, a writer turned publisher, in an entertaining twist that does, however, occasionally put a brake on the action. Laban, an apparent stranger who forces his way past Teya’s secretary, has spent most of his working life in the secret police, spying on the writer. Since the fall of the Yugoslav regime he has had to earn his living driving a cab. Laban has made a close study of Teya’s life, which he probably takes more seriously than the writer himself. This leads to comic revelations, and exchanges of political views. Yiannis Mortzos is excellent as Laban, with his controlled aggression and one-track mind. Mimis Kouyioumtzis gives a capable performance, but is physically miscast, looking far too old for the 55th birthday he is supposedly celebrating; and his description of Laban, who looks much younger, as an elderly man, rings false. Australian-born Peta Lily’s «Blame,» which premiered Monday at the Apo Michanis Theater, is billed as a black comedy thriller. It too employs the time-honored plot device of the stranger whose arrival acts as a catalyst, here revving up existing tension to explosion point. Tim (Vassilis Samolis) and Eddie (Klairi Christopoulou), a married couple holidaying in the Australian desert, have some unresolved issues which flare out of control when a young woman suddenly appears at the door of their hotel. Disheveled and bloodied, she is the victim of a real or imagined assault. Though an unreliable narrator, Flake (Katerina Daskalaki) proves to be a fiendish manipulator, who soon lays the couple’s unacknowledged differences bare. Lies, drugs and drink are her weapons as she precipitates conflict, playing Tim and Eddie off against each other. The young cast performs at white heat, with a tendency to go over the top. «Some Explicit Polaroids,» Neos Cosmos Theater, 7 Antisthenous, tel 010.921.2900. «Moonlight Sonata» and «Ajax,» Eleftheri Ekfrasi Theater, 212 Patission & 8 Lesvou, tel 010.864.5400. «The Professional,» Theatro Technis Karolos Koun, 14 Frinichou, Plaka, tel 010.322.2464.«Blame,» Apo Michanis Theater, 13 Academou, Metaxourgeio, tel 010.52.3131.
