The play

In 1953 in a farmhouse in rural Western Ukraine, a widow continues to keep a Jewish man, a man whom she saved during the war, hidden in her basement, without ever telling him that the war was over. A Soviet official visits the house on the first day of spring, searching for a war criminal, but what he will find will be far more disturbing. Religion, nationhood, ideology, motherland come under the microscope, as the causes and pretexts for war in an anti-war play that is profoundly existential.

The conclusion is that war doesn’t leave anyone unchanged and shears the lives of people like poppies in a field losing their petals.

The play received an honourable mention at the Greek National Awards for Playwrights in 2022 by the committee of the Ministry of Culture. It was presented as a staged reading at the international Cimientos festival held by the IATI theatre in New York.

Excerpt from the play

DANIL: I always carry god within me. But God is one of the ways in which people avoid thinking about decisions they have to make for themselves. So as not to torture themselves. It supplies you with ready conclusions that would otherwise be difficult to reach. Another such way is the Party. You’re still young and happy to be a Party Member and to hold an official position. Soon you will come to realise that you cannot believe in the truth of God and the truth of the Party at the same time. One of these two will dwindle, when they provide different solutions to the same question.

SAMI: So you think there are no truths that hold true for everyone?

DANIL: Death. That is the conclusion for all truths.

Dimitris Alexiou

Dimitris Alexiou Studied Legal Sciences at the NCUA and works as an attorney.

His first literary work was the novel Bitter cherries (Dioptra Publications, 2008). Since then he has published five novels, has been included in short story collections and has also translated numerous literary books from English into Greek.

He started working in theatre as an actor in 1990, as a playwright in 2013 and as a director in 2015. Six of his plays have been staged. Six of his plays have been staged.

He has received a Distinction from the National Awards Committee in 2022 for his play A valley of poppies, which was also chosen for a staged reading at the Cimientos international festival in June 2025 at the IATI theatre in New York.

His work When the Bell Rings was a Eurodram 2022 selection.

As a writer, playwright and translator he is a member of PEN Greece.

A valley of poppies

Playwright – Director: Dimitris Alexiou