Stamatis Polenakis, Fish soup
Everything in duplicate
At first all seems normal, predictable, “our own”. Indeed, what could go wrong between two respectable fellow humans in a middle-class drawing room? A lot, replies the author of Fish soup, Stamatis Polenakis, as he serves with precisely measured ingredients his tasty story, at the same time “slyly” undermining the apparent cohesion of stage events and lets out through the cracks the “flavours” of another atmosphere, strange and grotesque. Polenakis builds his stage world with ingredients that come straight from the inherent dynamic of the theatre. Exploiting the distance between what it seems to be and what it actually is, between the face and the mask, he places there his little time bombs, expertly adjusted to go off at the right moment to create living space for the fragments of human imagination to come alive in a game of constantly receding meaning.
COLONEL (showing the trunk): This one, here…
LUDWIG: The trunk, you mean? A rare piece indeed. I inherited it from my late uncle.
COLONEL (Rises, approaches the trunk and examines it): I am not talking about the trunk itself, but…
LUDWIG (Interrupts him, alarmed): But what?
COLONEL: To the carvings, of course. It’s all carved by the hand of a great craftsman. A rare thing. Do you realize what a treasure you have here?
LUDWIG: A while ago I was approached with a view to selling this trunk. I refused. There are things in life that money can’t buy.
COLONEL: Quite right.
LUDWIG: The sentimental value… You know…
COLONEL: By the way, in case you haven’t noticed… There is a leg in the trunk.
LUDWIG: A leg, you say? Is that possible, colonel?
COLONEL: Yes, take a better look
LUDWIG: Let me see… (Stoops over the leg.) Indeed, now that you mention it, it does look like a leg.
COLONEL: And a female one at that.
LUDWIG: Pay no attention to such things; they happen every day
COLONEL: If you don’t mind my asking, how did this leg come into your possession? Are you a collector or did you inherit it together with the trunk?
LUDWIG: The trunk, as I told you, I inherited; the leg was added later. A sad story. Let’s not talk about it now, let’s not spoil the atmosphere of such a memorable afternoon.
COLONEL: You are right, my friend.
LUDWIG: Can I offer you something?
COLONEL: No, thank you. I only drink at home.
LUDWIG: I won’t insist.
(Enters THERESA in her white bridal gown. Stands before them and performs some dance figures.)
Director: Eleni Georgopoulou
Music selection: Nestor Kopsidas, Giannis Chrysogonou
Actors: Manos Vakousis, Maria Tsima, Dimitris Piatas, Emilia Valvi