James Karas
Georgios Souris (1853-1919) was a great Greek satirist who is virtually
unknown outside of Greece. His poems are still read in Greece and almost
everyone can quote a few verses that are as applicable today as they were almost
one hundred and fifty years ago. I was lucky to find a rambunctious production
of four of his one-act plays in Theatro Sofouli, a basement fringe theatre in Thessaloniki.
The cast of three women and five men is directed Pavlos Danelatos and
they give exuberant performances. The plays are written in rhyming verse and
they satirize Athenian society of the 1880s with parallels being pointed out to
today’s Greece. The message is that not much has changed.
Danelatos adopts a commedia dell’arte style of acting for the talented
cast. The men have painted masks and all the actors use exaggerated gestures,
physical comedy and slapstick, resulting in
boisterous comedy.
Sofouli Theatre which, according to its webpage, was founded in 2001
does not provide a program except for a postcard-size piece of paper that lists
the actors only but the names of the rest of the troupe can be found again on
their webpage. The actors are: Diogenis Gikas, Vicky Grigoriadou, Yiannis
Mastrogeorgiou, Despina Bischinioni, Konstantionos Petridis, Stamatis Stamoglou,
Chrysa Bolatti and Lefteris Panagiotidis. The last two are listed as friendly
participants.
The plays are The Nomoneyman, (a loose translation
of Anaparadiadis
or someone without money), (1884), The Epidemic (1881), He Has
No Qualifications (1885) and The Region (1886).
In The Nomoneyman a lawyer who has no clients and no money is
running away from a tax-collector. He tries to hide in a house where he finds a
spinster or an old maid to use the English of a certain age. She is ready to
go, as they say, but her brother arrives, who just happens to be the tax
collector. There is no way out but for the hapless lawyer to marry the spinster
and get rid of his debts.
Almost every Greek can relate to being chased for unpaid taxes and
unfortunately the stereotypical and untrue image of lawyers sounded true in
1884 as it does today. Horrors.
The second play, He Has No Qualifications (Δεν έχει τα
προσόντα) is a broad satire on the civil service of Greece which seems to have
grown exponentially over the past century and more. Jobs are offered based on
the clientelist electoral system to whomever
voted for and brought votes for the local winning politician. The sole
qualification was political connection. The feeling is that nothing has
changed.
The Epidemic is
about a hypochondriac who is fearful of dying from a typhus epidemic. The play looks
back to Aristophanes and Moliere with the smart-alecky maid and the
hypochondriac’s niece who switch between normal and falsetto voices to good
effect.
The Region (Η Περιφέρεια) presents the classic scenario of a crooked
politician campaigning in a village to country bumpkins.
The set consists of a couch and a few chairs when necessary but this is
barebones theatre that relies on the enthusiasm and exuberance of the actors,
their ability to deliver rhyming couplets and maintain high speed and comic
business throughout.
A highly enjoyable production of one-act plays that we are most unlikely
to see in North America.
____________
ELLAS GELAS four
one-act plays by Georgios Souris played from February 2, to February 11, 2018
at the Theatro Sofouli, Thessaloniki, Greece.
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