Fresh take on 19th century idyll
Anestis Azas’s first stint as a stage director at the Epi Kolono Theater last winter was a success. The dramatic idyll by Dimitris Koromilas, «The Lover of the Shepherdess,» presented in a fresh and youthful fashion, did not, however focus on the romance between Liakos and Kroustallo. The 29-year-old director, who lives in Berlin, had something very different in mind when he began his treatment of the play three years ago. Still a student at the time, and with the help of Angeliki Kontis – who designed the sets and costumes for the production – the pair wanted to show their work in Greece, but with a play that was «very Greek» and could be approached from a social and political angle. The play, the director admits, «clicked» from the outset. The two artists came to Athens, sought a theater that would meet their needs and scouted for actors for the production which was originally financed by Azas’s film school in Germany. That was the beginning, and now Azas is showing a new and improved version of the idyll at the Athens Festival’s Scholeion venue until Sunday. A bent for the new Hugely into heavy metal as a teenager and then into classic Greek rebetika, a fan of filmmaker Jim Jarmusch and stage director Dimitar Gochev, one wonders what could possibly have drawn this young man to Koromilas’s 19th century idyll. It wasn’t the genre that won him over, Azas says. «We tried to underscore the religious character of the play,» he explains. «The role played by religion in our lives and in society more generally. I wanted to make a comment on the separation of the church and state, but in the end the material took us to a more timeless theme.» The story of the beau, in this case Liakos, a poor young man who is not granted the hand of his beloved Kroustallo because her mother wishes her to marry a wealthier man, is a familiar one since childhood. Azas directed the play around the threat of a curse. «In the story, the threat of a curse is what brings a happy ending to the love affair. In our play, you won’t see this in the finale. I edited the last act and gave it a different resolution,» he says. The religious element to which he wanted to draw attention is apparent from the very first scene, starting with a votive offering before the action unfolds, which is not true to Koromilas’s original text. Further emphasis is also placed on the music, which was penned by actor Costas Korakis and marries the accordion with percussion in a medley spanning all genres from traditional Greek dances to the tango. Azas’s family hails from Asia Minor, and none had anything to do with the arts. His need for something different first stirred in adolescence. He began watching films and gradually, theater. He would skip school to attend screenings at the Thessaloniki Film Festival and later enrolled at Aristotle University’s drama school with a view to becoming an actor. Soon, however, he realized that he had neither the patience nor the inclination for it. He wanted to leave Greece, to live in a city where things were happening in the arts. Now, six years after making that first move that took him to Germany, he sees things a little differently: «The situation in Berlin is fiercely competitive. There are a lot of artists and few jobs. It is not a rich city, but this does give it a more human face,» says Azas. Unlike what happens with most Greeks returning from abroad, in Athens Azas found a city that was wide open. «The biggest problem here is financial and a lack of organization in theaters. The way in which theaters function as non-profit bodies makes things especially difficult. In Greece you get the impression that theater, from a political perspective, is more about entertainment and commerce that a cultural commodity and an art that should be funded by the state irrespective of its profitability. Conditions are harder here in comparison to Germany, where artists are given a chance without expectations. On the other hand, though, here the theater scene is more open. People are not suspicious and they have shown us that they are thirsty for alternative proposals.» His goal? «I am interested in political theater. Not as a manifesto, but in this society, which is so dominated by television terrorism and television obsession, I want to see theater that asks questions.» The anxiety of a young artist is the same everywhere, he admits. «It’s hard anywhere you go. It’s just that in Germany the artistic result is not judged in terms of commercial success. There is more freedom to experiment, to try new things.» Scholeion, 52 Pireos, Moschato. Tickets are available at the Athens Festival box office (39 Panepistimiou, tel 210.327.2000) and the theater itself.
