The Greek ΣEX AND THE ΣITY
DEMETRIOS RHOMPOTIS
When four single, modern day Greek women come together and talk about men is something that put many people’s fantasies on hold and certainly stuff for movies, well, plays for this matter. Such was the case "With Power from Kifissia,” a contemporary comedy presented recently by the Center of Hellenic Culture (KEP from its Greek initials) in Astoria and written by Dimitris Kehaidis and Eleni Haviara two people who helped reinvent post war Greek playwriting. With their attentive eye they are respectful of their characters but condemn the alienation and immorality of everyday life. They challenge the audience and remind us that it is not people who are funny; it is life itself and our individual approach to it that is often comic. “Our plays are not comedies. It’s just that the events we describe are viewed from a… twisted perspective,” says Eleni Haviara.
Fotini, Maro, Aleka and her daughter, Electra, residing in the Athenian suburb of Kifissia, fall in love, laugh and cry, break up, want to be free and travel. In an attempt to overcome situations occurred after several failures in their relationships with men, they decide to take a vacation in Thailand. However, the trip is consistently postponed, as Aleka (Eleni Avgousti) is hoping to get back with her tenor boyfriend who shunned her because she – in a not so sacrificial mood slept with his opera director in order to give him the role of his life. Then Maro (Larissa Antypa) in her effort to get away from her former “fat” man falls in the hands of an every woman’s dream blue prince only to find out along the way that he is a crypto-Nazi, Fuhrer’s admirer! Fotini (Christina Stefanidis) is mad with her boyfriend’s naturalist adventures and the coolest of all Electra (Areti Palouki), Aleka’s daughter, is trying the get the three of them on the plane in order to bring her boyfriend in her mother’s apartment and enjoy a full week without their constant whining.
Although “With Power from Kifissia” was written long before HBO’s “Sex and the City” came about, one cannot but notice striking similarities that show how the Greek culture has evolved into resembling that of the US and other more “sophisticated” Western societies. For people immersed in the New York relationship scene, the play’s situations were familiar and predictable up to a point, but for those who came here a few decades ago, leaving behind a different Greece, certain parts might have been shocking!
Nevertheless, the play managed to produce good laughs and a kind of Greek spirit is kept throughout thanks to the writers’ use of a sparkling language (which the English super titles did not manage to carry through successfully) and the girls’ charming rendition. Eleni Avgusti completely mastered her role as if it were written for her, Larissa Antypa, gently sexy, displayed a genuine comfort in dealing with her character’s ups and downs, Christina Stephanidis was lovely in both high and low pitch and Areti Palouki was absolutely convincing in controlling the situation to her favor.
Martha Tompoulidou, a former National Theater of Greece actress and a seasoned director, staged the play masterfully in the KEP’s little den, Christos Alexandrou was her Assistant Director, Larisa Antypa Set and Costume Designer and Peter Christofidis Stage Manager/Sound & Light Operator.
