Thanassis Sarantos: Papadiamandis shook me up

By Aggeliki Karystinou (published in elculture)

Ithikon Akmaiotaton Theatre Company commemorates the 100 years anniversary of Alaxandros Papadiamadis death and puts on from scratch the play THE AMERICAN at Michael Cacoyannis Foundation on January 8 & 9. The play is a novelettish narration by Thanasis Sarantos based on the homonymous classic novel written by Alexandros Papadiamandis (1851-1911) .

A part of the interview from Thanassis Sarantos by Aggeliki Karystinou follows.

Why did you choose nowadays to stage the American by Papadiamandis?
First of all I must say that Papadiamandis shook me up. The American was written in 1891. Papadiamandis was a journalist who published Christmas short stories every Christmas in the The Asti newspaper and one of them was the American. It was so successful that it was republished again the next day. The story is about a Greek emigrant in America who has lost every touch with his homeland, Skiathos, and about his return to his country to find his great love The story pays an honor the Greek emigrants. The specific hero worked as a crop supervisor, back then Greeks did the slaves work, many had even disappeared in America. He of course had made money. The concept of emigration urged me, because in a way I too was an emigrant for four years in the US and Berlin when I was studying. At that time I felt what nostalgia means. The whole concept of the text is the ideal love. He was in love with a woman and came back to find her without knowing whether she was waiting for him. Finally the story has a happy ending The hero is a bit like Odysseus; he wandered, travelled and goes back to his Penelope. Naturally the texts picturesque and glittering style cast a spell on me. It is a short story that has gone deep. I wouldnt exaggerate if I said that Papadiamandis is our own Dostoyevsky. He even read and translated Dostoyevskys texts. We have written this off. Papadiamandis himself had no interest in fame, he was simple. He didnt want nor yearn for publicity, he didnt even like to have his photos taken. And this is another reason why I dealt with his work. Papadiamandis is so against our era of seeming that reading him and only brought piece inside me. I wasnt looking to stage a play. I started researching this great writer and everything else came later on.

How do you overcome the narrative style of the text and assign to it the theatrical aspect?
Papadiamandis uses the language of his time, but it has incredible theatricality, he has x-raided his heroes idiosyncrasy. I play all roles with very simple mediums: with a scarf which can also be turned into a neckerchief for instance. I play the roles but I dont identify myself with the heroes, they do come alive on stage through the narration. This is also assisted by Lambrou Pigounis music, who plays the piano live. The piano as well turns into many things. At some point Lambros also plays electronic music through a laptop and so we recreate his story: who is this man, why did he come, what are his homes remains

Was Papadiamandis language difficult for you?
Yes, the familiarization with the language was one of the most difficult stages. You cannot diverge from the text, it is like a score. You cannot remove anything, theres so much music in this text. Through it, Papadiamandis passes all of his being, even his political belief. With one word only he talks about his times. Greece was then at several places under the Turks occupation and Papadiamandis becomes the chronograph of his era. I had to understand what was going on then, but mostly I wanted to find what was contemporary; and contemporary are the human relationships.

You direct, act and you have also a monologue Three difficulties in one play
Yes, exactly I basically deal with the saying. And this is what is important to me in the theatre: actors and directors are the medium through which the text passes on to the spectator. And when I say saying I also mean the thinking behind the words not only what you can hear. I would like of course to be able to watch myself act but I think that all actors have a third eye. My viewpoint on the text was that I didnt want to hide from the audience. This is way I address the audience. My intention is to pass the text with out mashing it. I believe the spectators are in some way my team players.