“Timandra” by Thodoris Kallifatidis, directed by Chrysa Kapsoulis, overturns the taboos of historic Athens.
Historic Greece usually, Athens specifically and the golden age of Pericles specifically had been a privileged subject of idealization for the Western poetic or just poeticizing perspective. A notion rooted within the Renaissance, it got here of age with the plastic aesthetics of opera and was enriched with the romantic idealism of Helderlin and Winkelmann. To her affect we owe the brilliance of the indestructible bond of magnificence with the reality, which is justly attributed to Greece, but additionally the obscuration of the rostrum the place the achievements of the nice creators stand.
The one one who can converse
Summary romanticism is thus held in examine as a result of it forgot the arduous points of on a regular basis life in historic Greece, downplayed the significance {of professional} apply, and degraded its technical tradition. However it’s primarily answerable for the silencing of sure disturbing points of public life: its class construction and the controversial place of girls within the growth of social life. These classes will not be appropriate as an entire, however they pressured the historians and sociologists of the twentieth century to revise their perspective on many particular person points, specializing in the re-signaling of the feminine presence within the classical Greek world.
THE “Timandra” of Thodoris Kallifatidis is actually not an essay however derives its theme from comparable objections. It’s solid on the anvil of contemporary concerns and dissects with literary instruments numerous points of the Athenian democracy as they arose within the period of its decline, on the finish of the fifth BC. century. It’s a multifaceted work, dealing concurrently with love and conflict, whereas it’s dotted with many evocative references to historical past, poetry and philosophy. The writer speaks by the mouth of a lady not by likelihood. Among the many hosts of mistresses and their slaves, courtesans and orchestras, peasants and laundresses, fortune-tellers and priestesses, he aptly chooses a courtesan. In any case, she is the one one who can converse, because the courtesans had been distinguished for the mixture of magnificence and mental cultivation.
Alcibiades is her chosen one
Timandra, mom of the eponymous Laida, spreads her narrative on numerous ranges. It describes her affiliation with outstanding personalities of the time, politicians and poets, philosophers and generals, whereas commenting on well-known episodes of the Peloponnesian Conflict and the interval that adopted the defeat of the Athenians. However her references all the time revolve across the chosen certainly one of her coronary heart, the unstable and genius, lover and warrior Alcibiades. Kallifatidis, nevertheless, provides his work traits which might be nearer to the dramatic than to the tragic kind and in lots of locations he doesn’t keep away from the traps of emotional naivety or the excesses of extracting lyricism. His heroine suffers from late didacticism, extra admonishes and fewer exposes the incidents through which she is concerned, leaving the viewer to attract his personal conclusions.
I’ve not learn the unique literary textual content from which the director Chryssa Kapsoulis and Yiannis Tsaparegas derive their theatrical adaptation, and subsequently I can not decide whether or not the selection of the dramatized passages it presents was acceptable. Nonetheless, the director was actually between a rock and a tough place, as on the one hand she needed to make a subjective testimony convincing and then again to distance herself from it, in order that the efficiency could possibly be measured on the dimensions of objectivity required by historic accuracy, even when and artistically thought-about. As well as, he had the tough downside of resurrecting on stage, with the only reference level being the recollections of Timandra, the lacking protagonist of the entire Alcibiades affair.
Separate interpretations
To realize this, the director took the thread of the narrative from three completely different spatio-temporal beginning factors and divided her materials accordingly, specializing in three age phases of the charming courtesan. Thus, based mostly on the summary stage surroundings of Asi Dimitrolopoulou, who additionally indicators the timeless costumes of the present, Kapsouli tried to restrict the minimally theatrical, aphoristic tone of the work. And partly she succeeded, conserving her feminine protagonists on fixed alert and establishing an indirect, suggestive dialogue between them that negates the unequivocal order of theatrical monologue.
Dimitra Hatoupi, with identified appearing expertise and appreciable expertise, carried the burden of the heroine in her mature evolution. He gave a particular, bittersweet taste to Timandra’s private confession and clothed the courtesan’s diverse life with the ashen colours of a cynical smear, skilfully masking the fiery nature of a woman who swims in opposition to the present of dominant social conventions. Nana Papadaki emphasised the emotional stability of Timandra and gave voice to the denunciation ardour of the girl who fights victoriously with all of the adversities entailed by sticking to her love alternative. Valia Papachristou accomplished the profitable distribution embodying the heroine at a younger age, endowing her with a kinetic depth worthy of an unquenchable ardour and a young however fierce grievance.
INF0
Friday – Sunday ELER Theater – Eleni Erimou Phrynihou 10, Plaka
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