‘Lysistrata:’ Symbol of peace
He is not the first man to play a woman’s role, and certainly not in Aristophanes’ «Lysistrata.» Even so, despite his 20-year theatrical career, Yiannis Bezos is anxious. «The play should not be represented as a festival, a circus. The festival atmosphere repels me. These plays, in their very nature, are Dionysiac. Often, however, in an effort to make them more comic or commercial, these features are over-emphasized, trivializing the play. I don’t mean the production should be stultified. As it is, I don’t appear as a farcical woman. The role has a serious side; I can’t ridicule it.» Turning the play into a farce is something which Themis Moumoulidis, stage director of «Lysistrata» and the artistic director of the Regional Theater of Patras, also wanted to avoid in this production which will be presented at the Herod Atticus Theater on August 5 and 6. Alongside Bezos, the cast of the Patras troupe’s ambitious production includes Dimitris Piatas and Renia Louizidou. «A modern approach to a classical theme» is how lead actor Bezos described the production in a recent interview, saying that Lysistrata is a symbolic figure of woman’s struggle against men and for peace. «The role I’m playing is not daring. Don’t expect me to say that. Nor is it something new for a man to play a woman’s role. It would be wrong for the audience to focus on this. The point for me is to present what Aristophanes sketches in the ‘Lysistrata’,» he said. Lysistrata protests against war. What would you protest against today? I wouldn’t castigate the government, because the government is a reflection of us. The citizens had responsibilities in the Athenian democracy, just as politicians did. In today’s democracies, even though people have responsibilities, they disregard them. My protest or concern would be against those who don’t take care to put their own house in order. They spend all their time commenting on what others do. Does the atmosphere of carefree contentment which prevails in the theater worry you? I don’t believe that it exists. I think that we are in a good, healthy decade. It’s just that the carefree stuff is promoted and it makes a big bang. It has access to television and has a big effect in general, while those things with depth and concerns don’t make a big bang or get promoted. This doesn’t bother me; I’m hopeful. I don’t agree with the view that everything old is good. There are a lot of good things going on now. As an observer of events, doesn’t anything worry you? [For example], this idea that we should «have a good time.» We each interpret «having a good time» in our own way. You can’t define it. I have a good time with a play or a book, someone else by getting drunk every night. Time reveals these things. Neither mine or someone else’s «good time» is dictated. We should let people live as they wish. I don’t believe, for example, that everyone in the 1960s was reading Cavafy and Sikelianos in a frenzy. It was, though, a period that produced some great artists… Whom, however, we discovered later. If we look at how many copies of «Axion Esti» were sold this becomes clear. What I want to say is that time justifies everything. You know, people feel nostalgic for their youth. It is not the earlier period that we like, but ourselves then, because we were younger. In your field, people are often very exposed. Does this not scare you? Of course this contains dangers, but I prefer that. In any case, each of us takes the risk, gets exposed, pays his money. But something emerges from all this. You appear to share this. There is a discourse of destruction. Some say «the young weren’t so insolent in the old days.» I say forget all that… I’ll tell you about the insolence of the old… It’s like saying that Athenian houses used to be better than the ones today. Is that possible? They were awful. They didn’t even have toilets. Doesn’t the nouveau-riche feel of the new houses bother you? The genteel aesthetic that we are nostalgic for existed in only five Athenian houses. The rest were badly built, terrible, their occupants suffered. Let’s not claim woe as a virtue, as though it was a delightful era when Athens had a charming air and old ladies sat in gardens. It had its good points, I don’t deny that. I believe, though, that we should just remember the essence of the past and not let it weigh us down. We can’t focus our lives on what happened in the Greek theater in the 1950s. Did you have trouble starting out? Are you satisfied with the 20 years that have elapsed since then? Not just happy, but enthusiastic. I feel fulfilled. Doesn’t the predominant concept of leading an easy life make you uncomfortable? Uncomfortable, no. I also started out for the money and fame. No one starts out to do great art. They discover it over time. If someone tells you that they took up theater because they wanted to play Goethe and Schiller, don’t believe them; they’re lying. I’m telling you. They all want to become someone. Later they come into contact with the texts, the difficulties of the job, and they continue to struggle with these. No one sets out to play Oedipus. Did you want to be an actor from childhood? No. I went to the theater because my parents took me. I didn’t know anyone in this line of work. I started from nothing. I wanted to get on stage, for the world to know me, my colleagues to value me, to make lots of money… Let’s not censure the young, then, for their relationship with television. This is the same as what the older ones did with Greek cinema. Remember those films. Some became lead actors when they couldn’t even speak. It’s not a new phenomenon. Is it difficult for two artists to live in the same house, as with you and your wife? It’s often said that artists are eccentric, perhaps because they have a bohemian streak which often comes out as laziness. Either way, as I’m neither a bohemian nor lazy, I don’t have a problem. Do you see your sense of humor changing over the years? The speed with which the audience picks up things has changed. What kind of humor do you prefer? I am of the English style. I like subtle humor and not that which is just a big laugh. When your public meets you in more personal moments, do they ask you to say something funny? I don’t allow room for this. Generally, I’m an uneasy person. There is humor in my life, but I offer it where I want. I don’t seek great intimacy, I prefer a little distance from the public. Otherwise you won’t captivate them. The pat on the back is a little dubious. It’s so chummy, it’s suspect…
