Performances

 
Golfo, Spyridon Peresiadis’ celebrated work, is the National Theatre of Northern Greece’s second major production this summer. A production that tells Golfo’s story in a contemporary way, in the hope that the audience will treasure its memory for years to come. After all, that’s what “golfo” means: a good luck charm worn close to the heart! 
  Love is a "tree rooted deep" in Golfo’s heart, and it has been nurtured for years by sacred vows and honeyed words. But when people learn her secret, jealousy and revenge set out to uproot it. Is Golfo just another tale of love and betrayal, or does it enshrine a timeless truth: that when love ends, life must too? Our bucolic tale begins in a village high in the Greek mountains. An “idyllic drama”, it speaks of love and the joys of life, sharing and togetherness. Nature helps the plot unfold, bringing blessings but also curses, promises and betrayals, decisions of the heart and of the head.
 
Spyridon Peresiadis wrote Golfo in 1893. The play was a great success and became core repertoire for the travelling players who toured the Greek provinces. A landmark in modern Greek writing for the stage, it approaches the passage of time through the very human passions of its heroes. The tale of a love that’s bruised and battered by financial interests and social conventions but manages to cling on to its essence recalls a society whose pure feelings, so raw and undiluted, seem as far away as they are alluring to our jaded contemporary eyes. Together, the manifestations of Nature that sync so harmoniously with the protagonists’ emotions, Golfo’s “crystallized” tears filling the stage with hail, the melodramatic touches setting the passions alight, take the audience on a powerful emotional journey from love to death and back again. Every single time.
 

Director’s note

There was once a love most precious
that vanished in the dust of time
or the depths of a heart
 
The naïf, mythical world which bubbles up out of the play like the Styx’s ancient waters fills our cistern-stage and, trickling like a crystal tear unfrozen, brings relief of sorts to those that seek it.
 
A powerful and emotive reason to create a performance for which preparations began months before rehearsals. All those meetings! All those phone calls! I simply have to say how grateful I am that, despite the trials and tribulations that have dogged this year of 2020, we will be able to embark as a company on this return to innocence, to a mythic utopia.
 
I hope the audience can join us on our journey, and that they’ll long keep the production close to their hearts as a bitter-sweet memory. After all, isn’t that what Golfo means: a good luck charm worn close to the heart!
 

CREDITS
Director-Dramaturg: Christos Papadimitriou
Set-Costume designer: Maria Kavalioti
Music: Alkis Kanidis
Lyrics: Christos Papadimitriou
Movement: Thanos Feretzelis
Music instruction: Chrysa Toumanidou
Lighting: Dimitra Aloutzanidou
Assistant to the director & to the set-costume designer: Tatiana Nikolaidou
Production photography: Tasos Thomoglou
Production coordinator: Marleen Verschuuren
 
Cast: Dafni Lamprogianni (Astero, Zisis, Stauroula, English Traveler), Dimitris Morfakidis (Kitsos, Thanasoulas, Mule-driver, Chorus), Christos Papadimitriou (Tasos, Chorus), Chrysa Toumanidou (Golfo, Chorus), Thanos Feretzelis (Dimos, Giannos, English Traveler, Giannoula, Chorus)
 
Musician on stage: Manolis Stamatiadis
 

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TOUR DATES
Friday 17, Saturday 18, Sunday 19 July│21:15│Thessaloniki, Lazaristes Monastery (Courtyard) Wednesday 5, Thursday 6, Friday 7 August │21:00│ Thessaloniki, Forest (Dasous) Theatre  
Thursday 13 August│21:00│Chalkidiki, Amphitheatre of Nea Moudania
Wednesday 19 August │21:00│Giannitsa, Open-air Theatre
Thursday 27, Friday 28 August │21:00│ Sykies, Open-air Theatre “Manos Katrakis”
Thursday 3 September │19:30│ Kilkis, Agios Georgios Hill Theatre
Saturday 5 September │21:00│Ioannina, Open-air Theatre “Frontzos” 
Friday 11, Saturday 12, Sunday 13 September │21:00│Thessaloniki, Lazaristes Monastery (Courtyard)