Focus on Ancient Greek Myth Inspired Plays
IAKOVOS KAMBANELLIS
The Gorilla and the Hydrangea
Director – Teaching: Theodoros Espiritou
Thursday 22 September 2022 at 20:00
Theatre Aliki, Pedion Areos Park
Excerpt
MARY: …Homer has a quite strong personality, no…? When he’s around, the rest of us do not seem to exist… or rather, I don’t exist, because in any situation, you certainly make your own presence felt… even when you don’t speak at all, and let him do the talking, you still stand out… And if you asked me, who feels more exciting to me in that moment –him with his eloquence or you with your silence, I will have to admit that it is you..! Are you doing this on purpose…? Are you even aware how that silence brings me closer to you…! Say something! Why am I the one doing all the talking…? (The GORILLA looks straight into her eyes)
Summary
The Professor, married to the dutiful, and wealthy, Mary, brings a gorilla to their upper-class house which doubles also as laboratory for his studies. The gorilla was procured for his experiments from the zoo, and the Professor treats the animal if it were a normal human being. But when Mary begins to develop a strange intimacy with the gorilla and the animal begins to increasingly adopt facets of human behavior, an unfortunate series of events upsets the already delicate balance of the couple’s life. Kambanellis writes three different endings for the play, which, he explains, exist as also ‘three attempts to save the play’s characters from the paranoid relationship they find themselves trapped in’.
First performed 1959: three one-act plays, Elsa Vergi Theatre Company, YWCA Hall
Credits
Text: Iakovos Kambanellis
Director – Teaching: Theodoros Espiritou
Performers: Andreas Antoniadis, Nikos Pantelidis, Despina Sarafeidou, Emmanuel Stefanoudakis
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