The Citizens are called upon a pressing matter by “The Palace”. The matter is unknown. Time passes. The Palace remains silent. No-one is coming out to meet them. Will they stay outside and wait? Will they break in? Why is this happening? What does this mean? Should they take action? What action? When? Who will? Will there be consequences? 

The Chorus of Citizens is called to define their role in the modern political landscape. A landscape of an absence of Governance that fleets into the unknown. Will we ever claim the authority on our fate and how will any decision finally transform us?

About Dimitris Dimitriadis

Dimitris Dimitriadis was born in Thessaloniki in 1944. In 1963, and with a scholarship from the Belgian government, he studied theater and film in Brussels, at the Institut national supérieur des Arts du Spectacle (INSAS). In 1966, he wrote his first play “The Price of Resistance in the Black Market” (originally written in French), which was later staged in Paris, shortly after the events of May ’68; it was staged at the Théâtre de la Commune d’Aubervilliers and directed by the leading French director Patrice Chéreau, who also played the character of the King. More prose pieces, poems, and, naturally, theater plays will follow, including “The New Church of Blood” (1983), “Elevation” (1991), “The Unknown Harmony of the Next Century” (1993), “The Beginning of Life” (1995), “The Stunning of Animals Before the Slaughter” (2000), “Oblivion and Four Other Monologues” (2002), “Settlement Proceedings” (2003), “Ulysses” (2003), “Ithaca” (2004), “The Circle of the Square” (2006), “Homer” (2006), “Insenso” (2007), “Chrysippus” (2008), “Touching the Seabed” (2008), “Cassandra’s Annunciation” (2009) “Labour (Tokos)” (2009). Most of his work was published by the Greek editorial houses Shakespearikon, Indiktos, and Agra.

Since 1971, Dimitriadis is also professionally involved with translation. He has translated, among others, works by Jean Genet, J.-P. Sartre, Maurice Blanchot, Georges Bataille, Costas Axelos, Witold Gombrowicz, Molière, Michel Butor, Willian Shakespeare, Gérard de Nerval, Marguerite Duras, Georges Courteline, Maurice Maeterlinck, Honoré de Balzac, Bernard-Marie Koltès, Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, Samuel Beckett, Julien Green, Emil Cioran, Tennessee Williams, Alain Robbe-Grillet, as well as ancient Greek drama plays – tragedies by Aeschylus (“Oresteia”) and Euripides (“The Phoenician Women,” “Hippolytus,” “Helen,” “Iphigenia en Tauris”).

“I hate this country. It has devoured my bowels. I’m writing to you because together we craved for these bowels to be fertile…” In 1978, his first prose piece “Dying as a Country” is published (Agra Editions, ATHENS) and creates a sensation, remaining a milestone of Greek modernism to this day. At the time, writer, translator, and Hellenist Michel Volkovitch wrote an article about it for “Le Monde”: “From time to time, the history of literature is marked by certain lonesome works, in which the perfection in the expression of despair or gruesomeness makes them sparkle like black diamonds. ‘Dying as a Country’ belongs in this impressive category. Can we dive deeper in the bowels of the human being than this book does?”

In 2010, Dimitriadis was honored by famous Parisian theater Odéon, which, operating under the artistic direction of Olivier Py, proclaimed him the Contemporary European Director of the Year. In the context of this tribute, his texts “Dying like a Country” (directed by Michel Marmarinos) and “The Stunning of Animals Before the Slaughter” (directed by the Italian Caterina Gozzi) were staged; at the same time, his play “The Circle of the Square” (which was at the time still unpublished in Greek) had its world premiere under the direction of the Italian Giorgio Barberio Corsetti. Parallel to this, a series of events took place, including play readings, seminars, and live emissions by the TV station “France CULTURE.”

When Dimitris Karantzas (1987) directed Chekhov’s “Ivanov” in 2010, still at the young age of 22, he amazed audiences and critics alike with his idiosyncratic talent. This year, he directs Luigi Pirandello’s “So It Is (If You Think So)” for the National Theatre of Greece, in a performance where Xenia Kalogeropoulou plays the lead part.

* “Touching the Seabed” is available from Indiktos Editions. On the occasion of the tribute to Dimitris Dimitriadis, “Evacuation” and “Phaethon” are available by Shakespearikon Editions, whereas “The Circle of the Square” is available by Nefeli Editions (as part of the series “The Language of Theater”).

(excerpt from Onassis Cosmos)