Reviewed by James Karas
The Dollars Are Coming (Τα Δολάρια Έρχονται), Gregory Terzakis’s new play, refers to the arrival of sailors of the American fleet that is about to make a stop at the port of Piraeus around 1980. The aim of the play is to garner laughter as it skates over incidents in the preparation of bar owners to welcome the hormonally driven (it is hoped) American sailors and relieve them of their dollars.
Terzakis wrote the script, directed and starred in the production (not to mention arranged the music, designed the lighting and managed the staging) and the Greek community of Toronto owes a debt of gratitude to him. There are not that many Greek theatrical productions in Toronto, to put it very politely.
The glossy program lists a cast of thirteen characters and ten minor parts with no lines. I counted only 21 cast members, but it makes no difference. Terzakis has lined up about half a dozen very attractive ladies. Some are ladies of the evening, very late evening, dressed to kill and intended to attract the generosity of the sailors in the tough economic times. I will not grade the attractiveness of the nubile ladies in obedience to my instinct for self-preservation.
We start with Maria Lichnaki who plays a no-nonsense mother of three sons. One is Jimmy (Christos Anastasopoulos), a useless, lazy and seriously unkempt drummer who, well, plays the drums and does nothing else. His brother Kimon (Yiannis Plagos) thinks he is made of political leadership or management material, and you can just imagine his actual talents.
Angelo (Gregory Terzakis), the star of the show, is the sane one in the family and he tries desperately to make ends meet. He speaks English and is hired to teach two bubble-gum chewing, high heel wearing and very nubile ladies, Gina (Aliki Kaboura) and Lisa (Tonia Kokkorou) English by Monday so they can make some verbal communication with the sailors.
The fleet is arriving or has arrived, and the plot becomes frantic as the need for entertainers must be completed. translators put in place and deal with the unorthodox French arts manager Henri (an ebullient scarf-tossing Christos Anastasopoulos). Harris (Antonis Sarriyiannis) is the harried manager of the cabaret who has more troubles than he can handle. Lena (Mariam Honsari) plays the efficient bar tender of the cabaret and Kosmas Amexisoglou plays a tough guy and competitor to Lena’s cabaret, if I understood him correctly.
Dimitris “Jim” Kambosos plays Charlie, Angelo’s friend who gave a job to Jimmy and caught him stealing. This is one of the subplots that Terzakis adds to his play to tie loose ends and keep the action moving.
The set consisted of an “apartment” with a couch and a few pieces of furniture and Jimmy’s drums. Most of the play takes place in the cabaret where the Americans are to be entertained. Furniture was provided by a local furniture store and food for the actors was likewise donated by a local restaurant.
This is community theatre based on amateur volunteers and they want us to laugh. One of the biggest laughs came when Angelo brought a loaf of bread from Serrano’s, a well-known local bakery. The audience could relate to that and responded enthusiastically to pieces of well-known Greek songs that were played.
Most of the actors have very limited onstage experience and Terzakis does the best he can with them. They have no training and most of them don’t have the ability to project their voice and be heard at the back of the theater. As a result, they rely on mikes in order to be heard. But as I said this is community theatre that “spoke” to the people watching it. The audience wanted to be entertained, to laugh and they were, and they did.
The plot? In the end the dollars came both metaphorically and in reality, and they all lived happily ever after.
(My apologies if I butchered any names in my transliteration)
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Τα Δολάρια Έρχονται! (The Dollars Are Coming) by Gregory Terzakis was performed on May 23, 24
and 25, 2025 at the Papermill Theatre
in the Todmorden Mills Heritage Site, 67 Pottery Road, Toronto, Ontario. www.greekcommunity.org
James Karas is the Senior Editor, ulture, of The Greek Press
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