Το πρώτο θεατρικό έργο του Βασίλη Ρώτα : Τ' αποπαίδια της μοίρας
Part of : Παράβασις : επιστημονικό περιοδικό Τμήματος Θεατρικών Σπουδών Πανεπιστημίου Αθηνών ; Vol.5, No.1, 2004, pages 125-225
Issue:
Pages:
125-225
Parallel Title:
T'apopaidia tis moiras : Vassilis Rotas' first play
Section Title:
Μελέτες και άρθρα
Author:
Abstract:
T'Apopaidia tis Moiras (The disowned Children of Fate) is Vassilis Rotas’ first play, written in 1906, when he was seventeen years old. It had been submitted to a drama competition held by the University of Athens (called Pantelidis’ Contest). Not only did it not win the prize, but the comments on it by the committee were brief and ironical. This hurt the young playwright so much that perhaps it was the reason he did not attempt to write another play for many years, although he studied acting and translated for the theatre (in his long career besides a playwright he was an actor, director and translated a great number of plays, all of Shakespeare’s works among them). The manuscript of the play, which does not have the name of the author, was found in the National Library among many such manuscripts belonging to the drama competitions of the university. It was identified by scanty information, its title and the record of its participation in the competition. It is written in verse and its main subject is incest, perhaps the reason of the severity of the university critics, who traditionally objected to such bold themes, since the time they were much in vogue when Greek Romanticism was at its peak, around the middle of 19th century. The plot is the following: a rich captain and ship-owner elopes with a beautiful country girl and lives with her without marrying. They have two children, but he gives them for adoption. He is handsome and a rake and has many love affairs. In one of his trips he meets his daughter and seduces her. Her brother is also in love with her and one day attacks him as a rival. Of course they do not know their blood relationship. The captain kills him. By degrees he understands who his victim was, also that he has made his daughter his mistress and kills himself. His daughter also drowns herself. In this play Rotas criticises patriarch society and its autocratic rules, where the men err both when they conform to these rules and when they break them. Women are the victims, sinners perhaps but innocent ones. Influences of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Goethe’s Faust have been traced.
Subject (LC):
