Vassilis Papavassileiou: Trying to perceive the magnitude of the event
Director Vassilis Papavassileiou is not from Patras but is one of the few artists who will have had the dual experience of being involved in Thessaloniki when it was Cultural Capital of Europe and he headed up the State Theater of Northern Greece, and in Patras, where he is directing the Municipal Regional Theater of Patras in Goldoni’s «Last Night of Carnival» (on January 23). He has also lived and worked in Patras as a close associate of the Patras theater. We asked him for a preliminary assessment of the two experiences. «Without wanting to compare them, the very fact of a Greek city being named as a future cultural capital sparks off fantasies and expectations that are out of proportion to reality. Later this disproportion favors a special combination of political opportunism and cultural populism, if I may use that expression, or, in simpler terms, an inability to perceive the real magnitude of the event. «The management of the Athens Festival has already shown us that the public sector cannot successfully manage the production of cultural events. Self-fulfilling prophecy «As for Patras to be more specific, it looks like a self-fulfilling prophecy. What you heard being said, almost like a wish, two-and-a-half years ago, namely that things wouldn’t go well, is coming true. «Despite that, and despite what I’ve just said, there will be events, attempts to create in Patras.»
