Alexis Stamatis, Beehives
Agapi, an aged writer confined to her bed, is working on her last book with the aid of a young editor who transcribes her recordings. One evening she invites over her daughter, her son-in-law and her son for some important announcement she has to make. They come, with their own agenda. However, an unexpected revelation and the presence of another party change everything, threaten to upset the family balances and alter their image of themselves and the world.
MAN: A hug. The loser gets to hug the other.
AGAPI: Too easy. If I want to, you will hug me, anyway. Let the stakes be a slap.
MAN: No way! I won’t slap you.
AGAPI: But it’s the winner you gives the slap. A light slap…
MAN: In that case, I am ready to get slapped. But you’ll never find it. So?
AGAPI: Chapter three. The two children quarrelling in the yard, in the presence of their father. The boy has just smashed the girl’s doll, and she’s screaming “May Giorgos die!”, and the father says “Come here” to the boy. He hugs his son tight and cups his mouth and ears. It seems funny, but the father does not let go of the boy for so long that the girl fears her brother may suffocate. She starts kicking her father, kicking him hard in the shin, to make him let go of the boy. Unperturbed, the father rises, approaches the children who have gone white with fear, kneels before them, hugs them and says: “Remember this: Family is everything”.
MAN: No.
AGAPI: What do you mean, no?
MAN: You lost. It’s chapter seven, where Anna fantasizes about making love in the car… Pregnant by a man condemned to death.
AGAPI: Liar!
MAN: Do you want me to show you?
AGAPI: I don’t like it, anyway, I’ll delete it — don’t forget our deal. Come here, you scoundrel!
MAN: I won…
AGAPI: After what happened yesterday, you have to go and find the stupidest, the most soppy scene I’ve written?
MAN: You are wrong, That’s the essence—in what Irene wanted to happen to her, not in her childhood traumas.
AGAPI: How dirty they are…
MAN: What are you talking about? Who’s dirty?
AGAPI: The walls. The walls are dirty.
MAN: I have very strong eyes, and I see nothing.
AGAPI: I don’t need to see, I feel. Here’s one stain, and another one there. Clean them, please…
MAN: Alright, Agapi…
AGAPI: Details. There’s grandeur in details. Did you cut any sunflowers?
MAN: Yes.
AGAPI: I want them in a vase here, on the right-hand bed stand.
MAN: Okay, Agapi.
AGAPI: Now I need to make myself beautiful.
(The man opens a drawer and hands a mirror to her. He takes a comb to her hair while she’s looking herself in the mirror. Then she puts on some lipstick.)
AGAPI: A mess. A mess. A mess. Fine. Fuck it.
(Darkness.)
In collaboration with the Kefallinias Street Theatre
Director: Eleni Boza
Actors: Betty Arvaniti, Nikos Arvanitis, Maria Kechagioglou, Stathis Mantzoros, Danai Papoutsi, Nikos Hatzopoulos