Akis Demou
“Andromache or landscape of a woman at the height of night” (Andromache i topio gynaikas sto ypsos tis nychtas)
Directed by Theodoros Espiritou
A summary of the work
The end of the Trojan War leaves Andromache, Hector’s widow, a slave of the Greeks. She follows Pyrrhus, Achilles’ son, home to Greece as his captive and concubine. After Pyrrhus is murdered by Orestes, she is handed over to Helenus, Hector’s brother, and ultimately finds refuge in Epirus, the sole inhabitant of an artificial Trojan landscape, an imitation of her mother city, through which a man-made Simoeis, a tributary of the Scamander, runs. There, she begins to recollect…
The monologue Andromache or landscape of a woman at the height of night received its première in Athens as part of the Cultural Olympiad’s monologue programme in October 2003, directed by Panos Skouraliakos with Eleni Zioga in the role of Andromache.
Excerpt from the work
This city, it is I. Whole, a landscape unplundered, unpillaged: the buildings and the ruins, the catacombs and the terraces, the avenues for strolls and the square for executions, the palace and the graveyard, the coats of arms and the scaffolds… I warm a river in the hothouse and have sown the foam off its body in his grave. This city it is I, far from cities. Buried in the pretext of my history, rebuilt out of the sediment of my imagination on foundations sunk deep below the mortar of my mind. My tongue, extinguished city of my joy. With heaven locked, how will I speak!
Akis Demou
Born in Amaliada, Western Greece. Graduated from the University of Thessaloniki Law School. He completed an MA in Criminal Law and Criminology at the same institution.
His first venture into theatre was with … and Juliet, which was staged in 1995. Works of his, both originals and adaptations have been staged in state and private theatres. Translated into English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian, they have been performed in England, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Romania. He lives in Thessaloniki.
