Performances of ancient drama from the distant past that left an era – and not always for good reason.
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It is known that the performances of ancient drama generate strong passions in the Greek public. Viewers are often divided and fight furiously on social media and elsewhere, and so are critics and people who haven't even seen the show. The phenomenon, however, is anything but new. The same and – not infrequently – much worse happened in the past. And we're not just talking about mass withdrawals and leveling reviews, but even bloody incidents with dead and injured people!
And to think that everything started sluggishly
The first professional performance of ancient drama in the modern Greek state took place in Herodeion in December 1867. The occasion was given by the arrival in the country of the new queen Olga, who a few weeks before had married George I in Saint Petersburg. The work chosen to be presented was Antigone of Sophocles.
The preparation took place for days in a climate of great anticipation. "A magnificent and entirely new spectacle is about to unfold in honor of our saint Anassi," writes Syntagma newspaper at the beginning of the month. Antigone would be embodied by the Italian-born star of the time Pipina Vonasera, Creon by Antonis Varveris and the rest of the roles would be played by University students. As an introduction, the orchestra would play it Antigone of Mendelssohn. Finally, after various postponements, the show was played at noon on December 7 and "due to the fear of rain, there was no intermission and therefore in two and a half hours it was over".
Exterior view of the Herodes Atticus Conservatory, circa 1865. [Benakis Museum Photo Archive]
We do not know what impressions the sixteen-year-old Olga got. But even if he understood Greek, he would certainly have difficulty with the archaic cleaning of the translation of Alexandros Rizos Ragavis. We do know, however, that the young royal couple remained until the end in the uncomfortable seats of the Herodeus - which had not yet been restored, but merely cleaned and beautified - and that "the spectators of both sexes were of the good world". As for the reviews that followed, they were rather condescending. It is clear that the theater-loving audience expected something more exciting.
However, it was not the beginning. In the coming months, at least four similar shows will be played at Herodion (Cyclops, Oedipus Tyrannus, Nephelaiand again Antigone) but again without success. "The required willingness of the Greek public is not observed" notes the newspaper Ethnophylax. On the contrary, when boulevard performances are staged in the same space, it becomes inseparable.
The royal sleep and the archaeologist professor
Two decades later, things had changed radically, and ancient dramas were performed very often, in theaters that were now closed. One of them, the Antigone and again, it was presented by the French troupe Lasalle-Charlet in 1888, at the opening of the Municipal Theatre, which was located in today's Kotzia Square until 1940, when it was demolished. The bad thing was that the text of the performance was the original one, with the result that the audience did not understand a word and a loud snoring could be heard from the royal gallery at some point. The fact did not go unnoticed by Souri:
"And I turned towards His Majesty
and the king lamented with all his right.
He was amused by that trope and entered the gallery to take it."
One of the people who took personally the question of the revival of the ancient theater was the archeologist professor of philology Georgios Mistriotis. In 1895, he founded the Society for the Teaching of Ancient Dramas, with the main purpose of "bringing out the stark authenticity of our ancestry" and then began staging plays in what he called "the right way".But his grandiose plans were not greeted with the necessary enthusiasm by everyone:
"A more appalling performance of the masterpiece never took place" reports Asty newspaper (28/3/1896). "THE Antigone it turned into a pitiful and irreverent and horrible and monstrous parody. The hypocrites are worthless. The music by whistling and Mr. Mistriotis by singing from the University. Fortunately, no one was a stranger. But why doesn't the Minister of Education ban extreme parodies?"
As it is obvious, we have entered strongly into the spirit that will prevail in the future.
The bloodstained Oresteia
On November 1, 1903, the premiere of Oresteia of Aeschylus, directed by the director of the organization Thomas Oikonomou and translation into the archaeologist's vernacular George Sotiriadis. It is a particularly bold undertaking, as the language issue is at stake. Just two years earlier, on the occasion of the translation into the vernacular of the Holy Bible, the bloody incidents had broken out that claimed the lives of about ten people and went down in history as Evangelically.
Depiction of the "Evangelists" in a lithograph of the time. In the background the building of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. [National History Museum]
In fact, Sotiriadis's translation is a mixture of the vernacular and the refined, "something like Rococo" as some would later describe it. The main roles are played by Edmund First, Eleni Leandrou and Nikos Megoulas while in that of Athena, the sixteen-year-old appears Marika Kotopoulis. The latter will also recite an ode to tragedy, written by Kostis Palamas.
The performance, which cost the mythical sum of twenty thousand drachmas for the time, is completed normally and the first reviews are released. Some are praiseworthy and some are just the opposite. The editor of Akropolis newspaper Timos Stathopoulos takes issue with the director ("Teach Megoulan to scream. This good actor is superior to the jackal role"), with Kotopoulis' height and shoes ("Have you ever seen Athenian a tiny monster? Have you ever seen Athenian in white high-heeled shoes Louis Kenz?"), while he accuses the translator of having translated 796 of the 2,796 verses ("For the other two thousand he considered Aeschylus a chatterbox!"). Finally, he addresses a piece of advice to the king: "Your Majesty, don't throw away Your money. Close this shop."
Soon the interest is focused exclusively on the fact of the translation into the vernacular. It is led by Georgios Mistriotis who, in addition to his ideological opposition to "hairy", he has reserved them for his competitors in the theater field. With lectures, fiery articles and interviews, he calls his students and the people to a general uprising. And this even though, as he admits, he hasn't even seen the show. "Vorvoros is a mixture of mixed-Venetian and mixed-Turkish words and disgusting phrases. We must prevent this destruction at all costs." And he adds: "I resign, let Palamas come to teach." The students revolted and in the following days held rallies and marches and burned the programs of the show. The blood is inflamed even more because of a "troll" that is circulating and is taken as fact: That in the play Elektra is called Amber.
The drama culminates on November 15. The students, shouting slogans such as "Down with the barbers" and "Down with Palamas", try again to approach Saint Constantine. Near Omonia, however, they are repulsed by the police, the army and a group of cavalry that suddenly rushes in, trampling among others an elderly passer-by. Shots are heard and the twenty-year-old Georgios Mantas falls dead, hit by a military weapon (some sources refer to him as a student and others as a would-be immigrant to America). Dozens of people are injured, while hundreds of arrests are made.
The victim's funeral is emotional. The students' procession crosses Akadimias street and reaches the church of Zoodochos Pigi where the funeral procession takes place. "We will stick to our fight. We will shed our blood to restore the glory of the language of our masterpieces" says one of the student leaders at the funeral. A friend of the deceased then recites a poem. But when those gathered realize that it is written in elementary school, they expel him from the church.
In the following days, more arrests will be made and the government of Dimitrios Ralli will generally take a tough stance. And the show will go down, according to the program, a little later.
Marika Kotopoulis and the Ethiopian oxen
In 1924 the language issue has faded. After all, there have been three major military conflicts, a – and a good – national division, as well as the refugee drama which has overshadowed everything. The only one who has remained steadfast in her position for years is Marika Kotopoulis, as the biggest name of the Greek theater. When a political star of the time like Ras Tafari, the later emperor of Abyssinia, comes to Greece for an official visit Haile Selassie A, she is the one who takes it upon herself to entertain him, performing in Herodion with her troupe, after just two rehearsals, Agamemnon of Aeschylus.
Ioannis Georgalas, Performance of Electra at the Herodeum in honor of Ras Tafari, 1924. [ELIA-MIET]
The prince is said to have been thrilled by the performance. On the contrary, the famous journalist and writer Spyros Melas, editor of the newspaper Demokratia, was not satisfied: "Everything bore the stamp of haste and draftsmanship. Kotopoulis – although a queen – was climbing in a completely goatish way. She certainly exerts a great deal of pressure on her professional environment. In a moment it appeared to me that this dance was also a Chicken in many bearded copies". Mainly Melas was disturbed by the scenography: "The palaces of Agamemnon gave the impression of a booth, from which you expected someone injured to come forward to give you a cigarette. I am sure that Ras Tafari will never invite the builder to Addis Ababa to commission him to build his own palaces. At most he should send him an ox for his labor, in which case the recipient will surely have two.' However, he also found something good to say: "Finally, let's note a sympathetic appearance: Mr. Rodiris. What youth! What a figure! With heroic perseverance he overcame many flaws he had while studying at our drama school. He is on a good path. If it goes ahead."
THE Dimitris Rontiris he progressed and indeed with great strides. He arrived in 1938 to direct the first performance that was performed in the ancient theater of Epidaurus in recent years – the Electra by Sophocles, with Katina Paxinou and Eleni Papadakis as protagonists – and above all to lay the foundations of the aesthetic perception of the theater that dominated Greece for at least thirty years.
Katina Paxinos as Electra in Epidaurus, 1938. [ELIA-MIET, Leo Frantzis archive]
And Ras Tafari really sent oxen! He donated three hundred oxen to the Greek state as a minimal contribution for the nutritional needs of the refugees. But due to a series of manipulations by the Greek government with a strong smell of scandal, the transport of the animals by sea from Ethiopia cost more than if they had been bought normally.
Eleni Papadaki, Katina Paxinou, 1928.
Great expectations in the navel of the Earth
The interwar period is a time of intense spiritual ferment. And two of the persons leading them are Angelos Sikelianos and his wife Eva Palmer. Their vision, obviously grandiose, looks forward to the spiritual upliftment of humanity through a universal spirit that will lead it to global cohesion. Thus they organize the famous Delphic Festivals, hoping that the institution will become a meeting place where the intellectuals, artists and scientists of the world community will work together for the purpose of bringing people together.
Nelly's, Delphic Feasts. Prometheus Bound, 1930. [ELIA-MIET]
Only two events were held. In the first, in May 1927, it was played in the context of the events o Prometheus Bound of Aeschylus and in the second, in May 1930, the Iketides of Euripides and again the Prometheus Bound. Much has been said about these three shows. At the time, most newspaper reviews were laudatory. "It was a charming divine vision" he writes about them Iketides Achilleas Mamakis in Ethnos.
But not all of them: "Ancestor shock has always been a problem of urban Greece," says Rizospastis. "The infamous Delphic effort is nothing more than a pathological mysticism of the bourgeoisie collapsing and seeking solace in the glorious past [...] And how do we know that the Sicilian did not aspire to be both Apollo and Eve to sit on a golden tripod and become a Pythia? »
Delphic Festivals, Dance Girls of the Oceanids, Rehearsals in the ancient theater of Delphi before the performance of Prometheus Bound, 1930. [Maynard Owen Williams/National Geographic]
It is not only the editor of the Radical who mocks the Sicilian. The famous critic Eleni Ourani, signing as always with a pseudonym Alkis Thrylos, had in an unsuspecting time indirectly but clearly characterized him as shopping: "He descends with difficulty from the height where he alone has placed himself" he had written. In the same spirit and her husband, Kostas Ouranis: "He is not a great spiritual personality, he has misunderstood himself."
And Fotos Politis, although he had not seen any of the performances, was adamant: "When the actors perform with realistic rock faces, they are no longer ideal human types, nor are they just human. They are monkeys."
It is a fact, however, that the vision of the Sicilians gave a lot of food to the artistic things of the country and, thanks mainly to the efforts of Eva Palmer, a fresh – albeit controversial – breath in terms of the interpretation and movement of the Dance in the performances ancient drama. The whole venture, however, was so ambitious that it was doomed from the start to fail, further driving the couple into bankruptcy.
The Delphic Festivals of 1927 through the camera of the Gaziadis brothers.
Towards the new era
The interwar period ends and the country enters the great adventure of war, occupation and civil strife. The theaters, however, remain open and some performances of ancient drama are staged. Among them the Hecuba of Euripides on the stage of the National Theatre, in 1943. This is the swan song of Eleni Papadakis, who as is known will be accused of her relations with the occupying Prime Minister Ralli and will be brutally murdered a year later in December. During this performance, EAM actors such as Aleka Paizi are said to have feigned fainting from hunger to protest the suffering of the Greek people – or by others to sabotage Papadakis.
Hekabi, on the Central Stage of the National Theatre, 1944. Eleni Papadakis as Hekabi and Tzavalas Karousos as Agamemnon in front of the Dance of captive Trojan women. [National Theater]
Inside the Occupation, it was founded by Karolos Koon and the Art Theater. However, one of its most talked-about performances took place during its second period of operation, at the end of the 1950s. Many performances of ancient drama had taken place, as well as, in 1955, the establishment of the Epidaurus festival. On Saturday, August 29, 1959, the Art Theater stages their Herodeion Chickens by Aristophanes, directed by Karolos Koon and translated by Vassilis Rotas. The sets and costumes are by Yiannis Tsarouchis, the music by Manos Hadjidakis and the choreography by Rallous Manos. The scandal begins when the actor playing the priest makes a sacrifice to Zeus while chanting like an orthodox priest. Someone in the audience shouts "Enough!" and some more follow him, shouting "Shame!" and "Desecration". Most viewers, on the contrary, shout "Bravo!" and burst into applause encouraging the actors to continue. For a few minutes there is a great commotion, until Dimitris Hatzimarkos as Persuader saves the situation by chasing away the priest one by one and "jumping" to the next scene.
Koon's historical Chickens, 1959. [Karolos Koon Art Theater Archive]
The performance ends normally and the minister of the presidency of the Karamanlis government - and later the President of Greece - Konstantinos Tsatsos, leaves the Herodeion without speaking. On Sunday morning, it is announced on the radio that the rest of the scheduled performances are canceled because "the work that appeared yesterday, imperfectly prepared, was a distortion of the spirit of the classic text. Certain scenes were presented in a way that offended the religious feelings of the people".
A political earthquake follows. The press of the Right speaks of an "attempt to communistize Aristophanes" by the performers of the show. "Only the communists applauded" writes Hestia. Opposition newspapers, on the other hand, accuse the government of openly attacking the freedom of the spirit. "Since until today every progressive idea has been fought, now even Aristophanes is banned" writes Avgi. And Tsatsos will receive from the inventive cartoonist of the Young Fokionas Dimitriadis a very desirable gift: A hen that will follow him - or even replace him in his duties - in all the cartoons.
The case will remain in the spotlight for a long time, causing tremors in the already turbulent political life of the country. At its core, however, it was another episode in the eternal conflict between academicism and radicalism in the field of presenting the works of ancient Greek drama in the modern era. A controversy that, as we find every summer, continues to this day.
*Cover photo: Nelly's, snapshot of the Pyrrhic dance in the ancient Delphi stadium at the 2nd Delphic Festival, 1930. [Benakis Museum Photographic Archives]
Source: insidestory