ANALOGIO FESTIVAL 2018
The Politics & Poetics of Contemporary Theatre
Akis Dimou
«Salty sky»
Direction Efi Theodorou
Work in Progress
Friday 21 September 2018, 19:00-20:00
Greek Art Theatre Karolos Koun – Frynichou
A woman, a man, a summer afternoon,
a window, a moon eager to riseaway from their words.
Centuries before, years later, the same promise of a night without words,
the same anticipation of a joy that won’t fit in any poem.
Direction: Efi Theodorou
Cast: Thanasis Dovris, Pinelopi Tsilika
Set design: Ζoe Molivda Fameli
Music composed by Pavlos Katzivelis
Lighting: Ζoe Molivda Fameli
The play
A man and a woman are in an open window overlooking the sea, an August evening at an island that closes and opens like a shell, discussing poetry, love, passions, weaknesses …
A fantastic meeting of the poet Nobel laureate Odysseus Elytis and the lyric poet Sappho in the space of immortality and writer’s creation.
The first form of “Salty Sky” was written at the beginning of the summer of 2010, following the assignment of the Theatrical Analogue and the Region of the North Aegean for the presentation of the project in the framework of the “Art Journey”. It was presented, with the participation of Natalia Dragoumi and Nikos Psarras, in Eresos, Lesvos on 10/8/2010. This original version is published in the volume “Akis Dimou, All Theatrics, volume δ”, Aegokeros Publications, 2011. The project took its final form in April 2017
Excerpt
MAN: Are you going to meet –
WOMAN: Yes. But I’m not sure that I’ll find her. Although I am on the right road, I am sure I am. I am sure that at the end of the road, where the last chamomile will have wilted away, Anactoria will be waiting for me, laughing. And I’ll go right into that laughter, dip into it as one takes a first dip into the sea: with fear mixed with yearning.
MAN: How can you be sure?
WOMAN: From the rustle of her dress. Throughout my sleep her dress rustles. I follow her dress… It’s light blue, slightly torn at the shoulders, its fringes a little worn… It’s a garment strictly for travelling, nothing else. Only to take you journeying. This kind of clothing will never trick you. (Brief Pause.) I follow her garment and go on… and on…
MAN: Do you get there?
WOMAN: No one ever gets to a love that’s finished.
MAN: In one’s dreams, one can get wherever one wants.
WOMAN: It seems that I don’t want to.
(Abrupt Pause.) Coffee?
MAN: Water. (Pause.) Why are you staring? Is this the first one someone asks you for some water?
WOMAN: It’s not that.
MAN: What, then?
WOMAN (after a pause): You look…
MAN: Familiar?
WOMAN: Yes… as if… as if I’ve met you before… somewhere… back then…
MAN (smiles): Because you spent a long time looking at my fingers.
WOMAN (smiles): Maybe.
MAN: You are lucky. I don’t know me at all. There are times that I wish so strongly that one could introduce me to myself so that I can start getting to know me. Gradually… starting from little things: the way I incline my head when I hear a silly joke, for instance, or how I put out my cigarette in the ashtray in my office…It’s a cheap ashtray, you know; a beer advertisement.
(Brief pause – at the window.) “Sometimes I feel to be among those I never met.” (Abrupt pause.) Look! Fishing lamps!
WOMAN: Let’s go!
MAN: Where?
WOMAN: There! Now!
MAN: They’ll have sailed before we get there.
WOMAN: We can make it!
MAN: No way. The beach –
WOMAN: No matter. We’ll stay on the sand.
MAN: Give me a minute to put my sandals on.
WOMAN: Why would you need sandals on the sand?
MAN: The street –
WOMAN: It’s soft, now; all streets go soft after dark.
MAN: I never go out without sandals.
WOMAN: You have to be coquettish, eh?
MAN: It’s not that. It’s – you see, my feet…
WOMAN: Alright, alright.
MAN: Let me explain.
WOMAN: I get it… Put them on, then!
MAN: No, you don’t understand.
WOMAN: You’re so tiresome.
MAN (after a pause): I love you, though.
WOMAN (after a pause): In what way?
MAN (after a pause): As an accomplice.
WOMAN (smiles): Alright, then… Shall we go now?
MAN: Leave it. Some other time.
WOMAN: There won’t be another time.
MAN: The boats with the fishing lights go out every night.
WOMAN: We don’t have many nights left.
MAN: Don’t be so sure.
WOMAN: It’s not me. It’s reality.
The playwright was born in Amaliada. He studied Law at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki where he also completed a postgraduate course in Civil Law and Criminology. The monologue “… and Juliet” was his first play to be staged in 1995. Since then, 24 of his plays have been presented on various theatre venues (state or other); four of his plays have been adapted from novels by Alexander Dumas (The Lady of the Camellias), Konstantinos Christomanos (The Waxen Doll), Maria Iordanidou (Loxandra) and Menis Koumandareas (Koula). In 2012, and in collaboration with Giorgos Kimoulis, he adapted for the stage Theo van Gogh’s and Theodor Holman’s screenplay “Interview”. A lot of his plays have been translated into English, French, Spanish and Portuguese and have been presented in theatre venues in the UK, Spain, Portugal and Belgium. His complete works in Greek have been published by Egokeros Editions. Since 2008 he has taught Dramaturgy in Andreas Voutsinas School of Drama. He lives in Thessaloniki.
PLAYS
Nothing in person, 2015 || Othon and Pothoula, 2012
What a Fake Horror!…Oresteia the next generation, 2011
Go; Sleep, if I’m late, 2011
Loxandra (stage adaptation of the homonymous novel by Maria Iordanidou), 2010
Koula (stage adaptation of the homonymous novel by Menis Koumandareas), 2010
If the Moon could Hear, 2009 || Sandra under the Light, 2008
Tonight we dine at Jocasta’s, 2008 || Night of Secrets, 2007
The Faded Blood (stage adaptation of the novel “The Waxen Doll” by Konstantinos Christomanos), 2007
Marguerite Gautier is Travelling Tonight (stage adaptation of the novel “The Lady of the Camellias” by Alexander Dumas), 2005
Destiny, 2004 || A Light for Every Darkness, 2004
You Remind me of Kisses, 2002 || Centuries away from Alaska, 2001
The Identification, 2000 || Andromache or a Woman Landscape at the Height of the Night, 1999
A Hands’ Teardrop, 1999-2000 || The Crumb of the Water, 1999
Put out my Laughter, 1998 || Flowers for the Lady, 1998
The Music Tonight, 1997 || Samantha and Max in the Bottom of the Asphalt, 1996
“… and Juliet”, 1995