CANDIDE – REVIEW OF 2023 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Glimmerglass Festival has chosen to revive Francesca Zambello’s 2015 production of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide for this season. It is an unwieldy and at times difficult work to produce but Zambello managed to bring it together as a well-done satire and opera that thrilled the audience.

It is a robust, fast-moving, colourful and very well-sung production that almost zips you through all the plot complications to the final philosophical conclusion that the work is all about. You may not follow every detail, especially the philosophical backdrop  but you should enjoy the overall production.

And, yes, Candide has a serious philosophical underpinning that is presented through biting satire and comedy. On the more earthy level, there is murder, rape, war, pillage, robbery and a few other such happenings in human life that are a part of the comic operetta. It is based on a novella by Voltaire, after all.

Dr. Pangloss lives in Westphalia with the un-aristocratic Candide (Brian Vu) who loves Cunegonde (Katina Galka), the aristocratic daughter of the Baron of Westphalia (Carlos Ahrens). A commoner loving an aristocratic lady is verboten and Candide is summarily thrown out of Westphalia. Cunegonde joins him. Thus begin his travels around the world. He meets colourful and evil characters and goes through dramatic events in places like Bavaria, Montevideo, Paraguay, El Dorado and Venice. Cunegonde is with him but they are  separated and she is raped by soldiers during a war, he is flogged almost to death and I will not bore you with all the cruelties and examples of inhumanity that the operetta contains. Remember that the intent is a comic and satirical view of human conduct and institutions.

The novella and the comic opera are in the style of a picaresque work that depicts the adventures of a hero like Candide covering numerous episodes across many venues.

Brian Vu as Candide and Katrina Gulka as Cunegonde. 
Photo credit: Evan Zimmerman/The Glimmerglass Festival.

During the travels and various encounters, there is music and numerous songs, of course. Bernstein’s compositions from the now-famous overture to the incidental music to the songs are brilliant, muscular, lyrical, frequently demanding and a feast for the ear. 

The cast is led by actor Bradley Dean, a man of the theatre, who takes on the roles of Voltaire as the host and as Dr. Pangloss, the wise companion of Candide. He is charismatic and a vivacious raconteur who gives a splendid performance.

Candide is the eternal optimist who believes all is done for the good. Yes, we do live in the best of all possible worlds and no facts or disasters can dissuade him from that conviction. Needless to say, it’s all a joke.  Bernstein makes serious vocal demands on Brian Vu as Candide and he performs brilliantly. The same applies to Katrina Galka as Cunegonde who scales her high notes effortlessly and gives us a very admirable heroine.

The 2023 production of Candide. Photo credit:

 Evan Zimmerman/The Glimmerglass Festival.

Our heroes do give as well as take punishment. Dr. Pangloss is sentenced to death and Cunegonde to flogging. She is “shared” by the Grand Inquisitor (Ryan Johnson) and Don Issacar but they are both killed by our stars. The same thing happens to Maximillian when he objects to Candide marrying Cunegonde. Sweet revenge. 

As I said, Candide is based on Voltaire’s 1759 novella. The musical/opera based on it opened on Broadway in 1956 with music by Leonard Bernstein and libretto by Lilian Hellman. It didn’t really work. Since then, it has gone through head-spinning changes and revisions. The Glimmerglass production credits Hugh Wheeler for the book and Richard Wilbur, Stephen Sondheim, John la Touche, Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker and Leonard Bernstein for the lyrics.

The current revival of Francesca Zambello’s 2015 production is a lively and colourful Candide that flowed reasonably smoothly despite its unwieldy plot and far too many twists and turns. Eric Sean Fogel’s revival with set designs by James Noone  and costume designs by Jennifer Moeller gives us a coherent and well-sung production. Joeph Colaneri conducts the Glimmerglass Festival Orchestra and Chorus.

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Candide by Leonard Bernstein et. al. opened on July 8 and will be performed twelve times until August 20, 2023, at the Alice Busch Opera Theater, Cooperstown, New York. www.glimmerglass.org 

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greel Press

LA BOHÈME – REVIEW OF 2023 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Glimmerglass Festival came to life in 1975 with four performances in the auditorium of Cooperstown High School. Things picked up after that modest start and in 1987 it constructed the Alice Busch Opera Theatre along the shore of Otsego Lake, in the beautiful rolling countryside a few miles from Cooperstown. Yes, that is the one-street town that is famous for the Baseball Hall of Fame and one street full of stores selling baseball memorabilia.

The opera that was produced in the high school auditorium was Puccini’s La Boheme, which happens to be one of this year’s offerings in the 1200-seat Alice Busch Opera Theatre and not in the high school auditorium.

The current production, conducted by Nader Abbassi and directed by E. Loren Meeker, is a pleasure to watch, moving, well-sung, on superb sets. It is pure Bohème without directorial high jinks. Meeker knows the opera well. She directed the original 2016 production at the Glimmerglass Festival and had it set in the Paris of the colourful Belle Epoque of Toulouse Lautrec.    

What do we want? Give us a Mimi that will make Rodolfo  (and us) fall in love with her while searching for her key and make him and everyone in sight bawl in the final scene when she dies. Soprano Teresa Perrotta steps onto the stage to achieve all that. She is a young singer who won the 2023 Grand Final of The Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition. That propelled her into some minor roles until she was cast as Mimi for the Glimmerglass Festival production. 

Teresa Perrotta as Mimi and Joshua Blue as Rodolfo.

Photo credit: Evan Zimmerman/The Glimmerglass Festiva

She has a sweet and affecting voice that makes us love her and cry for her, and root for her when she describes her status as a poor but hard-working and virtuous young woman. She wants her candle lit by Rodolfo, she loses her key and tells us so delicately “Mi chiamano Mimi.” Perrotta carries us along Mimi’s love story, her distress and her fortitude when she separates from Rodolfo with no ill will.

What about Rodolfo, the poor, passionate poet, living in a cold garret in Paris who falls in love with Mimi deeply and forever and leaves her shortly after that.  Tenor Joshua Blue has been around the operatic block a few times and is climbing the artistic ladder with what seems to be a handsome and firm voice. Rodolfo has some fine moments and needs some high notes to express passion, pain and regret. He succeeds superbly. Puccini and his librettists Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa make him look like a jealous cad who abandons Mimi when he realizes she is seriously ill. But he is no cad. He separates from her because he cannot provide for her. He leaves her so she can find someone who can look after her. A superb performance by Blue.

Rodolfo’s garret mate and two friends do not always get the notice and appreciation that they deserve. True, they are relatively minor characters but they make a significant contribution to the opera. 

The cast of 2023's Glimmerglass Festival production of 

La bohème. Photo credit: Evan Zimmerman/The Glimmerglass Festival

I tip my hat to them and endow them with kudos. We have Darren Lakeith Drone as Marcello, the painter; Justin Burgess as Schaunard, the musician and Nan Wang as  Colline the philosopher along with Rodolfo, of course. Under Meeker’s direction, they make the friendship appear real through thick and thin. They can laugh and find fun in their poverty and stand with Rodolfo and Mimi in her last moments. Fine vocal performances by all.

Kevin Depinet’s sets are perfect for the production. The garret set is a reflection of the artists’ wherewithal, the scene at the Café Momus is colourful, full of activity and carnival joy.

Nader Abbassi conducts the Glimmerglass Orchestra, Chorus and Youth Chorus with vivacity and superb playing.         
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La Bohème by Giacomo Puccini (music) and Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa (libretto) opened on July 7 and will be performed thirteen times until August 19, 2023, at the Alice Busch Opera Theater, Cooperstown, New York. More information at: www.glimmerglass.org

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press

ROMEO AND JULIET – REVIEW OF 2023 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Glimmerglass Festival on the shore of Otsego Lake in upstate New York is at it again with its wonderful productions of operas in an idyllic setting. In its classic format, the Festival offers five productions this summer, namely La Boheme, Candide, Rinaldo and  The Rip Van Winkles, a new opera commissioned by the Festival. An Evening With Anthony Roth Costanzo and Love & War, a program of Cladio Monteverdi madrigals are two bonus performances.

Charles Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet gets a superb production, directed by Simon Godwin and conducted by Joseph Colaneri. It is a modern-dress production, beautifully designed and judiciously directed with attention to detail with superb playing by the Glimmerglass Festival Orchestra.

Librettists Jules Barbier and Michel Carré were faithful to Shakespeare’s text subject to making cuts to allow the opera to be performed in less than three hours with one intermission. It is sung in French but we do get some of Shakespeare’s memorable lines in the English surtitles.

The singing was very good with some superb performances. Tenor Duke Kim was agile vocally and physically as Romeo. He showed versatility and displayed Romeo’s passion and despair with fervour and gave an all-around enjoyable performance.

Juliet was sung by soprano Magdalena Kuzma, a young and developing singer who showed some fine vocalizing. However, her vocal strength was more apparent when she showed conviction and defiance rather than when she expressed love and passion. I felt that her voice may be more suitable for dramatic soprano roles rather than the lyrical quality that is more suitable, indeed essential for Juliet.  

Magdalena Kuźma (above) as Juliet and Duke Kim as Romeo.
Credit: Evan Zimmerman/The Glimmerglass Festival

Bass-baritone Stefano de Peppo as Lord Capulet starts the opera with the joyous aria “Allons! jeunes gens!” inviting the guests at his party to have fun. It is an ironic opening to an opera that will end in utter tragedy. De Peppo’s performance is marvelous as a forthright singer and Juliet’s father.

Baritone Olivier Zerouali (Mercutio), another young singer, had the opportunity to display his versatility and showmanship especially in “Mab, reine des mensonges” and he did with pizazz.

Bass Sergio Martinez sang Friar Laurence with sonority and a beautiful display of decency. Contralto Meredith Arwady plays Gertrude, better known as the Nurse, as a comic and upfront character that is quite enjoyable.

The set by Dan Soule is superb in its effect and versatility. It consists of several moveable pieces that at first show the aristocratic house of the Capulets. A grand staircase can be seen and a balcony. The pieces are moved around for the balcony scene, the street scene, Friar Laurence’s cell, Juliet’s bedroom etc. Efficient and effective without ostentation.

 

(L to R) Magdalena Kuźma as Juliet, Stefano de Peppo as 

Count Capulet, and Meredith Arwady as Gertrude. 

Photo Credit: Evan Zimmerman/The Glimmerglass Festival

Director Simon Godwin is a man of the theatre who has directed many Shakespeare plays including Romeo and Juliet for the stage. His sense of theatre serves him well in directing this production. The various scenes are handled meticulously and with Choreographer Jonathan Goddard the fight scenes are done splendidly.

The masked party of the opening scene gives the impression that the costumes may be some adaptation of sixteenth century attire. In the subsequent scenes the actors wear modern clothes which work just fine for the production.

The Glimmerglass Festival Orchestra shone under the baton of Joseph Colaneri  

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Romeo and Juliet by Charles Gounod opened on July 15 and will be performed in repertory seven times until August 19, 2023, at the Alice Busch Opera Theater, Cooperstown, New York.  www.glimmerglass.org

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press

KING GILGAMESH &THE MAN OF THE WILD – REVIEW OF TRIA THEATRE PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

King Gilgamesh & The Man of the Wild tells some interesting stories contains some humorous incidents and some Middle Eastern jazz and singing. It does touch on the ancient epic of Gilgamesh and some parts of the story are acted out by the two actors in the play. The real story is about the relationship between Jesse LaVercombe  and Ahmed Moneka who play themselves.

LaVercombe and Moneka along with Seth Bockley are the authors of the play and they are playing themselves be it in a fictionalized narration of their relationship. In the story of King Gilgamesh, Moneka plays King Gilgamesh and LaVercombe plays Enkidu.

Jesse and Ahmed meet in a café in Toronto. Ahmed, an Iraqi refugee, who works in the café, has just been granted landed status in Canada. Jesse is an American Jew from Minnesota who is staying in Canada he has health insurance because of a relationship with a Canadian woman. He is an actor looking for work in the U.S.A. Ahmed was a filmmaker in Iraq but was exiled because he made a film about homosexuals.

The most touching and funniest part of the play is what Jesse and Ahmed tell us about themselves. We hear about Ahmed becoming a refugee in Canada while the rest of his family is in Turkey and about the American invasion of his country. He is aware that he comes from a country that can claim to be the source of civilization. Jesse comes from Minnesota, the state with the largest ball of string in the world. 

 Jesse LaVercombe  and Ahmed Moneka

The funniest part of the play is probably the telling by each of them, of their first sexual experience involving premature ejaculation and extended coitus. I will not bore you with the details.

There is a professional band on stage and they deserve individual mention. Demetrios Patsalakis is the bandleader and he plays several instruments. Waleed Abdulhamis plays bass and sings. Jessica Deutsch plays the violin, Max Senitt handles the drums and Selcuk Suna is on the saxophone and clarinet. LaVercombe plays the piano and Moneka sings. They give us almost a concert of Iraqi music which, thou unfamiliar, was quite enjoyable.

Let me praise Moneka and LaVercombe. Moneka has a wonderful voice and he is a natural entertainer. He is forthright, energetic and in command of his material. One small complaint about him is that he was not always clearly understood. He was miked (I assume it was a necessity because he has to sing??) and his voice was a bit loud for the size of the theatre during dialogue.

 Jesse LaVercombe  and Ahmed Moneka

LaVercombe gave a stellar performance. He is a natural comic who has perfect timing. He can get a laugh with a facial expression, a voice modulation or a slight delay in replying during the dialogue. I found him just brilliant. Performances are under the tutelage of the director and in this case Bockley gets the wreath for excellent work. The performers and creative team are a veritable United Nations.

The plot follows the relationship between the two men who become friends and discuss Gilgamesh and act out scenes from the old epic. They do well but what they do was not clear and calling the play King Gilgamesh & The Man of the Wild is, I suggest,  misleading. It may be what brought the three writers together and they spent time putting it together but the Gilgamesh parts were the weakest.

The set by Lorenzo Savoini consisted of a large table and some chairs (plus the musicians at the back)  and that was all that was needed in the Michael Young Theatre.

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King Gilgamesh & the Man of the Wild by Jesse LaVercombe  and Ahmed Moneka continues until August 6, 2023 at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, 55 Tank House Lane, Toronto, Ontario. www.soulpepper.ca.

James Karas is the enior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press. This review appears in the newspaper.

HIPPOLYTUS – REVIEW OF 2023 PRODUCTION AT THE IRENE PAPAS THEATRE, ATHENS

Reviewed by James Karas

The National Theatre of Greece has staged an audacious production of Euripides’ Hippolytus at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus and subsequently took it on tour across Greece, I caught a performance at the Irene Papas Theatre in the School of the National Theatre, in Athens.

The production is directed by Katerina Evangelatos who also adapted and dramaturged the play. In other words, it represents forcefully her view of the play. The production presents Aphrodite, the goddess of sexuality and beauty, as a vengeful tart who is present on stage and on a video projection almost throughout the performance.

Artemis, the goddess of chastity and hunting, is worshipped by Hippolytus, the bastard son of Theseus and the queen of the Amazons. He considers her the best of the gods. Aphrodite thinks that Hippolytus considers her the worst of the gods and he shuns sex and marriage. She intends to punish him for his beliefs.

The method of punishment that she chooses is to have his stepmother Phaedra become sexually infatuated with  Hippolytus to the point that she will do anything to have coitus with him. Phaedra is a decent woman and she resists the temptation but she may be considered a tool of Aphrodite and attempts to seduce Hippolytus. He rejects her and she commits suicide after leaving a letter for her husband Theseus accusing Hippolytus of attempting to rape her. That’s the story in a nutshell.

Aphrodite on the stage and her eyes on the video screen

The play opens with Aphrodite’s soliloquy about who she is and what she intends to do to Hippolytus. Evangelatos focuses her production on Aphrodite. Elena Topalidou, dressed in a blonde wig, short skirt and zebra boots, opens the production looking sleazy. Evangelatos has placed a large screen at the back of the playing area that she uses for closeups of the actors. The first close ups are of the eyes of Topalidou, then her legs and the rest of her. This Aphrodite looks cunning and evil but more like a teenager than a goddess. She reaches the apogee of her juvenile nastiness when she hears of Hippolytus’s death and starts romping around the stage in a dance of delight. As I said, she is on stage virtually all the time, lurking from behind some bushes and always making her presence known.

Phaedra in the hands Kora Karvouni is a beautiful, decent woman who is overtaken by an uncontrollable sexual passion for her stepson. She discloses her passion to the Nurse (Maria Skoula), makes an attempt on Hippolytus and is too disgraced to continue living. Does she write a letter with lies to Theseus (he is away when all this is happening) on her own volition or under the influence of Aphrodite?

A distraught Theseus pulling his son out of the water

Orestis Chalkias  as Hippolytus is an intense young man, a puritan and in his own words a misogynist. He would prefer a world made up of men only. He is an extremist and although we admire his repugnance at having sex with his stepmother and his fidelity to his father, we have issues with him too. Is he making his own decisions or is he under the undue influence of Artemis? The goddess of chastity and hunting (she did other things too) was once seen bathing with her nymphs by the hunter Actaeon. She turned him into a stag and he was torn apart by his own dogs.   

Artemis appears near the end of the play, a deus ex machina, played by the same actress and wearing the same costume as Aphrodite, except for a set of large stag horns on her head. She does not offer any help to the dying Hippolytus or to Theseus but does offer a cult in the name of Hippolytus. Euripides creates a huge dilemma about the conduct of the goddesses and the behaviour of the mortals and allows us to decide on who is right and who is wrong. Evangelatos seems to present a vengeful, evil and horrible Aphrodite but she does not leave Artemis in a much better position by explicitly having her played by the same actress, in the same costume.

Yiannis Tsortekis give a stellar performance as the authoritarian and misled Theseus who finally realizes the monstrous results of his conduct in cursing his son and then seeing his blood-soaked body at the point of death.

Maria Skoula does superb work as the Nurse and Dimitris Papanikolaou as the Messenger delivers the horrible news of Hippolytus’s fate.

A happy Aphrodite watches Theseus with his dying son.

The Chorus of Hippolytus is described as the women of Trozen (or Troezen, modern day Trizina), or the married women of Trozen. Evangelatos adds a Chorus of male hunters and one matter that has gained attention is the fact that they all appear naked near the end of the play. The National Theatre recommends this production for ages fifteen and over. Euripides’ odes are drastically cut but the performance of the Chorus is still effective.

The play was performed at the National Theatre of Greece School of Athens where the courtyard is called the Irene Papas Theatre. The outdoor theatre consists of scaffolding with seating for (my guess) no more than three hundred people. The set by Eva Manidaki has, as I mentioned, a large screen, bushes on the perimeter and a pond where we will see Phaedra’s very dramatic drowning and where Hippolytus’ bloodied body will be placed after he has been trampled by his horses. The costumes by Eva Goulakou are modern dress.

It is a well-acted and thought-out production that deserves the highest praise.

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Hippolytus by Euripides, translated by Kostas Topouzis opened on July 7 at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus and played at the School of Athens Irene Papas Theatre and other venues.  For more information:

https://www.n-t.gr/en/events/hippolytos/.  For photos and videos: https://www.n-t.gr/en/events/hippolytos#p1-40

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press

 

THE GAMBLERS – REVIEW OF 2023 PRODUCTION AT THE KIPOTHEATRO IN PAPAGOU-CHOLARGOS, ATHENS

Reviewed by James Karas 

Nikolai Gogol was a prolific writer, but he finished only three plays. In the West, he is best known for the many incarnations of The Government Inspector, but his other two plays Marriage and The Gamblers are seen infrequently. I was delighted to have a chance to see a production of The Gamblers at the Kipotheatro (Garden Theatre) of the municipality of Papagou-Cholargos, in suburban Athens.

The production is sponsored by the municipality and the play is translated, adapted, and directed by Giorgos Koutlis.

The Gamblers has some colourful characters and a funny plot. Ikharev (Vasilis Mougaliotis), a gambler and master card handler has won the enormous sum of 80,000 rubles by gambling. He stops in a town inn and meets two other sharks, Colonel Krugel (Alexandros Christianopoulos) and Stepan (Giannis Niarros). They decide to team up and bilk Glov (Themis Panou), a rich landowner of 200,000 rubles that he is readying for the marriage of his daughter. They cannot convince him to gamble but his apparently dim son Alexander (Ilias Moulas) is convinced to gamble and he loses 200,000 rubles. But there is a small problem - he does not have the money. But he does give them a promissory note.

The hoped-for duoe (in red) and the cheating masters (dupes?) of The Gamblers  

The three crooks are in a quandary between immediate needs (money) and future expectations.(more money from the promissory note later). Krugel and Stepan agree to sign the note over to Ikharev and in return he will give the two his 80,000. The plot gets complicated and very interesting from then on as true identities are revealed and who cheated whom is discovered only at the end of the play and it is fascinating. Gogol provides some marvelous plot twists.

The production is all Koutlis and he has chosen a style and method of acting for the cast that raises eyebrows. There is some hilarious comedy, especially when Moulas is on stage. He wears red shorts and appears dim-witted as the son of the wealthy landowner and is very funny. He can bring the house down by trying to sit back on a stool. He does not fall off but teeters on the verge of falling and maintains the posture with hilarious results. He produces a gun at one point, again with very funny outcomes. Koutlis deserves credit for choreographing Moulas’s performance as something highly entertaining. Unfortunately, it is the exception.

For the rest of the performances Koutlis chooses overacting, overdoing and undercutting any humorous possibility. The three gamblers yell through their mikes and the humour never comes out. I don’t think I heard more than a twitter of laughter in the first hour of the production. Koutlis believes in fast-forward motion as if this were a video. A card game begins and the actors move as if they are performing under a gun, flailing their arms, contorting their bodies and engaging in a lot of needless activity. It was not funny.

Koutlis has a band on stage with a percussionist (I could not find his name anywhere) a guitar player (played by Giorgos Tzavaras who also plays Alexei, the inn’s servant.) The band frequently plays background music during the dialogue. It was annoying and unnecessary. When a character says a good line, the drummer gives a brief drumroll. It is like the musicians on a late-night talk show hitting the drums when the star says something funny. In The Gamblers it did not work.

There was a  microphone stand centerstage with a microphone on it, of course, and it was frequently used as if were watching a rock concert. It was part of the frenetic pace that Koutlis was trying to create and maintain to questionable effect. There was some audience interaction with the actors and that proved to be funny.

The costumes by Ioanna Tzami were modern non-descript except for Alexander’s outfit and Alexei’s. Tzavaras  wears a woman servant’s apron and I am not sure if we are to take him as a man or a woman. There is no need to worry about him as Tzavaras did a good job in that role as well as a secondary part that I will not disclose.

The production could have worked much better with less effort. Much of the frantic overacting could have been reduced to better effect. At times the actors looked robotic and left the audience cold.

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The Gamblers by Nikolai Gogol in a version translated and adapted by Giorgos Koutlis was performed on July 19 and 20, 2023 at Kipotheatro (Garden Theatre), at Papagou-Cholargos, Athens as part of the Municipal Papagou-Cholargou Festival.  https://festival.dpapxol.gov.gr/

James Karas is the Senior Editor – Culture of The Greek Press.

 

OEDIPUS TYRANNOS – REVIEW OF 2023 PRODUCTION AT THEATRO DASSOUS IN SALONICA

Reviewed by James Karas

Greece is going through the worst heatwave and fires in its history, but theatrical productions continue across the country. The system of professional companies travelling across the country provides many people away from the large centres with opportunities to see productions that they may not have been able to see otherwise.

The epicenters of theatre may be Epidaurus and Athens, but smaller theaters and cities are not left salivating over fine productions. Oedipus Tyrannos, in a production by the National Theatre of Northern Greece and Theatrical Events Iasmos, directed by Simos Kakalas opened at the Theatro Dassous (Forest Theatre) in Thessaloniki for two performances on July 12 and 13, 2023 and will tour around Greece. It will be performed at Epidaurus on August 25 and 26, 2023.

How does Kakalas deal with one of the most famous and by all descriptions greatest tragedies in world theatre? He brings his own vision, of course. The cast wears specially constructed masks throughout and the putting on and removing the mask serves as a change of character. He makes extensive use of the Chorus of Theban Elders speaking in unison doing away with most of the chanting or the use of the Leader as spokesman.

Yiannis Stankoglou as Oedipus

The performance opens with violinist and composer Fotis Siotas playing some dissonant music, some of the dissonance caused more by the loudspeakers of the theatre than by the musician. We hear him play several times during the performance. Thirteen actors in black suits enter and perform some dance steps. Twelve of them form the Chorus of Theban Elders but the entire cast of the play is also part of the chorus.  

This is the full cast of the play: Yiannis Stankoglou, Marilita Lampropoulou, Yiannis Dalianis, Christos Malakis, Giorgos Amoutzas, Konstantinos Moraitis, Markos Gettos, Panagos Ioakeim, Simos Kakalas, Apostolos Kamitsakis, Augustinos Koumoulos, George Loxas, Pavlos Pavlidis. Note that Kakalas, the director, is one of the members of the Chorus.

Wearing sculpted masks developed by Martha Fokas they will form a part of the Chorus, but individual members remove the mask and play other characters in the play. It is a fascinating approach by Kakalas who has the Chorus speak in unison throughout and chant recitative style some choral passages. The accepted tradition is that the Chorus danced and sang or chanted the odes while the Leader of the Chorus spoke.

The Chorus in Oedipus Tyrannos

Oedipus dominates the opening scene as Yiannis Stankoglou in the name role appears before the Elders. He is confident, concerned, sympathetic, powerful and in control of the situation. Every inch a king. But there is a serious problem. The city has been struck by a plague and the reason for it must be discovered and a remedy found.

A member of the Chorus (Christos Malakis) steps out, removes his mask and becomes the old, wise Teiresias. John Dalianis does the same and assumes the role of Creon. He is Jocasta’s brother and has been sent to the oracle at Delphi to discover the reason for the plague in Thebes. (We meet Creon in Antigone, the next chapter in the story of the Royal House of Thebes as a dictatorial successor to Oedipus).

As the plot unravels, we discover that Oedipus unknowingly murdered his father and then married his mother Jocasta. Marilita Lampropoulou steps away from the Chorus and removes her mask to appear as Jocasta, wearing a skirt. She gives an outstanding performance as a woman who married her husband’s murderer and had two children by him.

Giorgos Amoutzas steps out from the Chorus and becomes a messenger while Konstantinos Moraitis does the same and assumes the role of the Herald who has the heavy task of informing the people of Thebes about Jocasta’s fate and Oedipus’s self-punishment. Outstanding dramatic narratives. 

The set by Yiannis Katranitsas consists of a raised, rectangular platform, open on the side of the audience. It is functional and, one may add, easily transportable. With the number of one or two performances in theatres around Greece, one can’t imagine a much bigger set. He also designed simple black outfits for the cast.

As a footnote I add that the performance was scheduled to begin at 9:00. The line up on top of the hill to get in the theatre was huge. Someone asked for a toilet and was told there was none. For half a euro you could get a styrofoam cushion to sit on the concrete steps. We were finally funneled into the large amphitheater and the performance started not quite on schedule. To add to the annoyance, there was no program available. The theatre was almost full.  

Just to give you a rough idea of the travelling company, the cast will perform in Cyprus, Rhodes, Crete, Kalamata, Patra, Kavala, Andros etc.

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Oedipus Tyrannos by Sophocles, translated by Giorgos Blanas, in a production by Theatrical Events Iasmos and the National Theatre of Northen Greece was performed on July 12 and 13, 2023 at the Theatro Dassous (Forest Theatre) Thessaloniki, Greece and will be performed in numerous venues throughout the summer.  https://www.ntng.gr/

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press.