Gorky classic opens this week at Kypseli theater
A Maxim Gorky classic, «Vassa Zheleznova,» will open at the main stage of the Kefallinias Street Theater on Wednesday. Directed by Stathis Livathinos, the play is a production of the Praxi theater company. «Vassa Zheleznova,» one of the Russian writer’s more well-known texts, consists of three acts containing immense power with precise and realistic details. As the father figure, who is the master of the house, is suffering, the title character, the tragic mother, manages to survive amid conspiracies, dirty alliances, forbidden love affairs and guilty secrets of the household. All these make up a human story of incredible delicacy and precision, embedded by Maxim Gorky’s vitriolic sense of humor. Gorky wrote two versions of this work. The first in 1910, before the revolution, and the second in 1935, well into the Soviet era, meaning that it was a version closer to the party line. The Praxi company will stage the first version, with a new Greek translation which Chryssa Prokopaki undertook especially for this performance. The play features actors Betty Arvaniti, Dimosthenis Papadopoulos, Manos Vakoussis, Anna Koutsaftiki, Ilias Kounelas, Maria Kallimani, Costas Galanakis, Eftychia Giakoumi and others. The sets and costumes are by Eleni Manolopoulou. It will be staged Thursdays to Saturdays at 9 p.m., Wednesdays and Sundays at 8 p.m. Kefallinias Street Theater, 16 Kefallinias, Kypseli, tel 210.883.8727.
