Journey into darkness before returning to light
Following its successful staging in May at the Metaxourgeio Theater, Sylvia Plath’s «Bell Jar» is playing once more, every Monday and Tuesday, this time at the 104 Word & Art Center. The indirectly autobiographical play describes, in the first person, the adventures of 19-year-old Esther. In the course of a few eventful months, Esther’s life plunges dangerously into darkness before returning into the light. The young woman encounters success as an up-and-coming talented writer, she takes care of lingering love affairs, she crosses the line of purity, fights against depression that leads her to a suicide attempt and then comes to terms with herself and re-emerges transformed. Using plenty of irony, humor and deep insight, Sylvia Plath deals with the pressing issues of social repression, female sexuality, the scar of first love, maternity and emotional upheaval in the USA in the 1950s. Plath is well known to the Greek reading public, with poetry, short stories and also a novel to her name. Born in Boston in 1932, at the age of 23 she married British poet Ted Hughes with whom she had two children. Plath committed suicide in 1963, at the age of 30, in her house in London, after her split with Hughes. Their tumultuous relationship has also been taken to the big screen, in the film «Sylvia» starring Gwyneth Paltrow. Her novel «The Bell Jar» was published under a pseudonym shortly before her death. Her suicide was kept a secret, until the news leaked to the BBC. Esther is played by Angelita Tsoungou, who is also joint director along with Theodora Katsifi. 104 Center, 104 Themistocleous, Exarchia, tel 210.382.6185.
