Refashioning Dramaturgy : A Stage Rewriting of a 19th-c. Play in 2013 Greece
Part of : Γράμμα : περιοδικό θεωρίας και κριτικής ; Vol.22, No.2, 2014, pages 135-144
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135-144
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Golfo by Spyridon Peresiades is by far the most famous modern Greek play ever written. Since 1894, the tragic-ending love story of a shepherd and a mountain girl has seen a great number of performances and adaptations, both on stage and screen. By the end of the twentieth century, the play was heavily criticized as old-fashioned and overemotional, and was rarely seen on stage. Whenever it found its way to the stage, its reception was not that flattering. However, in March 2013 the National Theatre of Greece staged a new version of Golfo, which attracted large audiences, critical acclaim, and an invitation to be performed at the ancient theatre of Epidaurus. This new production, without altering substantially the language, characters, or plot, turned the old script into a visual and musical canvas, depicting distressed identities and wrecked dreams, and thus transforming, as we intend to argue, a piece of traditional dramaturgy into a work of alternative dramaturgy. Our aim in this paper is, therefore, twofold: first, to explore the ways the recent production rewrites the original text and negotiates its role in stage history, by disrupting its performative boundaries and refashioning its dramatic code; and, second, to discuss the haunting image of a society in mourning, the performance fosters—a "festive" requiem as the director put it—at a time when economic crisis and political instability incite feelings of despair and acts of violence, in response to what is often described, concerning the recent situation in Greece, as a process of modern colonization.1
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