Greece Tour
With its two most recent productions, The Curve of Happiness and Don’t Kill the Mother, ETHAL visited Thessaloniki and Kavala in December 2007. The five performances were a great success. Below, we share excerpts from reviews in newspapers in Kavala and Thessaloniki.
KAVALA – “Don’t Kill the Mother”: All Five Were Wonderful
By Voula Deligianni
Director Maria Mannaridou-Karsera and the four actresses faced various challenges, from the strange moments of childhood games to frequent time shifts and changes in the minimalist set, but most of all, they wrestled with the complex web of interpersonal relationships. The lack of action, a hallmark of the play, posed a risk of dramatic flatness. However, the actresses, with the collaboration of the director, bravely addressed the play’s quirks, successfully achieving its theatrical realization.
The matriarchal figure of Doris, played by Patricia Pettemeridou, effortlessly won over the audience with her mature wisdom, bitter knowledge, and often sarcastic take on women’s fate. Katerina Kazantzi, as the granddaughter Rosie, was lighthearted, confident, optimistic, and lively in her portrayal of the child. The excellent Anna Papageorgiou, as the daughter Jackie, successfully transformed her character from a rebellious teenager to a successful art entrepreneur. Meanwhile, Andri Evemidou was impeccable as Margaret, the daughter and mother who has paid a high price in life.
Charlotte Keatley’s My Mother Said I Never Should was first performed in 1987 at the Royal Court Theatre in England and was considered a model of playwriting for the new generation. It was subsequently translated into many languages and performed by theater groups worldwide.
THESSALONIKI – Thessaloniki Newspaper: Limassol Theatre Development Company (ETHAL). Men, Women, People
By Zoe Ververopoulou
Two performances are certainly not enough to form a complete picture of a theater company. However, if carefully selected, they can hint at an artistic viewpoint, offer a glimpse of a stage profile, or even suggest a repertoire policy. Something similar happened with ETHAL’s productions from Cyprus (The Curve of Happiness and Don’t Kill the Mother), which were presented in Thessaloniki for two days each.
The two productions left warm impressions, and if their stay had been extended, they would have likely been well-received by the city’s audience. Both were appealing to the average theatergoer without excluding the initiated: they were enjoyable and accessible but maintained high-quality standards within their respective genres.
Eduardo Galán & Pedro Gómez, The Curve of Happiness – Directed by Minas Tigkilis
Abandoned by his wife, in a premenopausal phase, overweight, and balding. Additionally, he’s depressed and uninspired, unable to finish the TV script he urgently needs to submit to his director. How could things get worse for the desperate Kino? They do, when his ex-wife pressures him to sell their house and give her half the money. Three buyers will compete for the property, overwhelming Kino with their offers and arguments, for whom selling the house symbolizes a final break with his married past. During the transaction, however, the four men will bond, realize they share common problems and insecurities, and ultimately support each other. They’ll talk about women, criticize them, and miss them, eventually transforming from couples to a group of friends. Until the cycle reverses again…
The Curve of Happiness is a charming Spanish comedy – somewhat like With Strength from Kifisia by Kehayidis-Haviaras in its male version with Woody Allen-esque undertones – which transcends its occasional script-like or TV-like aesthetic by playfully tweaking the linearity of the plot and experimenting with theatrical form and audience perception. The witty dialogues – smoothly translated by Nana Papanikolaou – and the lively, contemporary characters of the play are fully brought to life by the well-orchestrated, “ergonomic” direction of Minas Tigkilis, who enhances the text’s inherent humor and adds a mischievous note by framing the play as a rehearsal (theatre within theatre) in a subtle, humorous way that increases the functionality of the comedy.
Effortlessly funny, Kostas Kazakas (Kino) stands out, portraying an adorable loser, while Antonis Lapithiotis (Fer), Manolis Michailidis (Javier), and Michalis Ellinas (Manuel) cheerfully sync with the rhythms of the writing and direction, sketching sympathetic male characters, defeated by relationships and their tragicomic struggles.
Charlotte Keatley, Don’t Kill the Mother – Directed by Maria Mannaridou-Karsera
The play was first introduced by the Experimental Stage of “Art” in 1995. In its Cypriot reinterpretation, it complemented The Curve of Happiness, inviting comparison in three main areas: the theme, the characters, and the genre and style of the text. Don’t Kill the Mother, written in the 1980s by British playwright Charlotte Keatley and translated into fluid Greek by Effi Stamouli, is a bittersweet, sensitive exploration of the female experience and the journey of 20th-century women towards social and emotional fulfillment.
The play focuses on four women of primary kinship (grandmother, mother, daughter, granddaughter), who serve as a laboratory sample for the playwright’s observation of feminine existence. The play delves into love, gender roles, family, career, and the struggle with self and others. Above all, it centers on the mother-daughter bond in all its majesty and psychological complexity, revealing both the burden and blessing of this unique relationship.
Maria Mannaridou-Karsera skillfully brought out the layers of the play, transmitting its raw emotions with care. Particularly interesting were the scenes of childhood games, where all four women, in a dreamlike setting, meet as children and explore, with all their innocence and harshness, the mysteries of adulthood, sexuality, and death