For those of us
who complain about the paucity of Greek theatre in Toronto (starting with me),
the local branch of the International Society of Friends of Nikos Kazantzakis
(ISFNK), had a surprise for us last Sunday, November 18, 2018. They introduced
us to Nikos Kazantzakis’s tragedy Kapodistrias at the Polymenakio
Cultural Centre of the Greek Community of Toronto.
The number of
people who have seen any of Kazantzakis’s
thirteen plays, let alone Kapodistrias,
cannot be many. In Toronto we have seen adaptations of his novels Zorba
the Greek and The Greek Passion (under the title He
Who Must Die) but I am not aware of any of his plays having been ever
been staged.
Toronto’s
Friends of Kazantzakis under the capable leadership of Voula Vetsis with the
help of the Greek Community of Toronto and the Cretans’ Association of Toronto
“Knossos” has given us a partial reading of Kapodistrias.
Director Maria
Kordoni uses a narrator for introductory and connecting material (the
inimitable Irene Stubos) and four actors to read some of the lines of seven
characters of the play as well as a chorus of four women. The play has fifteen
parts and a chorus that can vary in number, and is quite long. Irene Stubos made
some judicial choices for what she offered the audience that packed Polymenakio
Centre and was also responsible for the casting. [In my review in The Greek
Press I erroneously credited the editing of the play to the director].
The murder of Kapodistrias by Charalambos
Pachis.
The main
character is of course Ioannis Kapodistrias and Andreas Batakis does an
exceptional job in reading his lines. Kazantzakis’s Kapodistrias is an
intellectual with political wisdom and a vision of a new Greece without
fratricidal factions. He is a Christ-like figure who knows that his death is
near but is ready to sacrifice himself for the people.
Batakis is tall
and broad-faced, physical features appropriate for a sympathetic portrayal of
Kapodistrias, as well as the vocal intonation to achieve a representation of
the tragic figure. Dimitris Kobiliris reads the honest and fearless
Makriyiannis. Yiannis Kassios reads Papagiorgis while Ioannis Dimitriou is the
gruff Kolokotronis. The latter doubles as the assassin Konstantis
Mavromichalis. Thanasis Adamos reads the parts of Giorgakis Mavromichalis and
Gikas.
No one should
underestimate the effort and success of the actors. Except, for the chorus, they
all had to read Kazantzakis’s rather awkward thirteen-syllable verse which results
in almost all speaking in a similar vein.
The chorus made
up of Panagiota Vogdou, Maria Diolitsi, Ourania Korentos and Dr. Maria Lychnaki
delivered some of the choral passages of the play very competently.
The actors read
their lines while seated and my only comment would be that they may have been
better off if they read them standing at lecterns. This would have given them
more freedom of movement including having the script on a lectern rather than
their laps and would have been easier to indicate who would have been on stage
in a full production.
Kazantzakis
wrote Kapodistrias in 1944, near the end of the German occupation of
Greece. It was produced by the National Theatre of Greece in 1946 when Greece was
torn by fanatic factions and political hatreds. Despite Kapodistrias’s and
Kazantzakis’s plea for moderation, all-out verbal war broke out in the
newspapers between the left and right political extremes and the production was
quickly closed.
The play was not
produced again until 1976 and the same production was mounted in 1982. These
three production, if my information is correct, are the sum total of stagings
of Kapodistrias in Greece.
The local
Friends of Kazantzakis who were organized in 1988, may have achieved a lot more
than they are even aware of.
__________
Kapodistrias by Nikos Kazantzakis was performed once on November 18, 2018 at the Polymenakio
Cultural Centre, Greek Community of Toronto, 30 Thornecliffe Park Drive,
Toronto, Ontario.
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