Performing The Authentic Voice Of A Revolutionary Hero

Years ago, the distinguished Yale-trained actor and director Yannis Simonides was reminded by a friend about the Memoirs of Makriyannis.

“I had read it when I was young in Greece,” he says, “and I read it again now and fell in love with it all over again.”

So much so, that he began to read dramatized excerpts from 900-page-or-so memoirs and has been doing them ever since in colorful one-man performances.

“I don’t see myself as an actor,” says Simonides (who’s also done countless performances of Plato’s The Apology). “When I do these things, I employ my skills and what I’ve learned all these years. Once more I feel like a privileged vessel to be able to bring to some kind of immediacy and life these fantastic texts that are alive, have been alive, and will be alive.”

Yannis Simonides

He says, “If you read Makriyannis he makes perfect sense about today’s world. You want to run out in the street and run for office on his simple and eternal truths.”

But there is also the language. “It’s not just what he says, it’s how he says it,” says Simonides of the Memoirs, which mostly recount Makriyannis’ experience fighting in the Revolution. “Makriyannis was a brilliant fellow.” He was not only a general in the Greek revolution at 22, a self-made millionaire and a legendary klepht singer, he may have been the founder of modern Greek prose.”

“And this from a man who didn’t know how to read and write!” says Simonides. “He taught himself to read and write in three months. And then he sat down and wrote the Memoirs—which is massive—in the most wonderful language. It’s so fantastic. I can only describe it as Seferis has described it—it’s poetry. Imagine this fellow, illiterate, wrote just one thing, and it’s considered a masterpiece.”

Simonides’ dramatization is astonishing because he seems to channel the authentic voice of Makriyannis (who was from Roumelis) and Kolokotronis from Moria and Kapodistrias from the courts of Europe, though he did nothing to study the accents.

“It was fun when I read it recently,” he says, “and I had a distinct voice for Kapodistria, high-toned, and another for Makriyannis, Roumeliotikia, and another for Kolokotronis, choratikia. And people rushed up to me and said, how did you manage to have a Moriatiki Peliponnisiaki voice for Kolokotronis and and Roumeliotiki for Makriyannis?—and I hadn’t! There was no difference—but they thought so.” 

What he hopes stands out in his readings from Makriyannis, says Simonides, is the authentic voice of the man himself, who, he says, was “legendary for his purity, his integrity, his extraordinarily leadership and his care for the people of Greece.”

So much so that Makriyannis stayed active 40 years after the revolution, stayed a democrat to the end, and was imprisoned as an old man by King Otto for his outspoken opposition to what he saw was the autocratic ways of the monarchy.

“He became a main proponent for the constitution and over the course of his life he became one of the major reasons for the downfall of Otto and the adoption of a constitutional monarchy,” says Simonides. (In the end, Makriyannis won and Otto was shipped back to Bavaria.)

What makes Makriyannis unique among the revolutionary heroes?

They were great heroes but they did a lot of this stuff, they wanted something in return. He was legendary in how he treated his soldiers and his companions in arms, they worshipped him, and when the revolution was over Kapodistrias asked him to be one of the major people running Arcadia and the Peloponnese and he was stationed in Argos, and he felt there wasn’t much for hm to do—this administration business was just a few hours of day. So he taught himself to read and write—in three months. And then he sat down and he wrote the Memoirs—which is massive. He was barely 30.

How would you describe it?

It’s in the most wonderful language. It’s so fantastic. I can only describe it as Seferis describes it—it’s poetry. He’s considered one of the greatest figures of the Greek literary world—imagine that, this fellow, illiterate, wrote one thing, and it’s considered a masterpiece.

How often do you perform your interpretation?

I do it once or twice a year, I don’t promote it; people approach me. I belong to this organization called The Readers of Homer: I’m one of the founders, and we go around this country and around the world and select about 100 people at a time and we do marathon readings of the Odyssey and the Iliad all night long, all night long. We come together for dinner and then read assigned passages. Here done in English, with some ancient Greek, if someone from certain part of the world read first few lines in their own tongue.

How did your Makriyannis readings start?

It just happened a few years ago. We were talking with a friend and he suggested I take a look at it and I reread it, I had read it when I was young in Greece, and I fell in love with it all over again. Makriyannis I’ve been doing for many years around the country. Really, I read passages: I give the background historical and literary and when I read the passages I dramatize them and I do them in English.

And you include other Revolutionary figures in your dramatizations.

It’s fun when I read Kapodistrias and I have a distinct voice: high-toned. And another for Makriyannis, Roumeliotiki, and the same for Kolokotronis, Choriotiki. And people rush up to me and say, How did you manage to have a Moriatiki Peliponisiaki foni for Kolokotronis and Roumeliotiki for Makriyannis! But it’s really not much difference: Kolokotronis is a lion and Makriyannis is sweeter.

What do you think the Memoirs bring to modern audiences?

They’re timeless. And it’s not what he says, it’s also how he says it. Makriyannis was a brilliant fellow: he was a millionaire by the standards of those years, who started out as a poor boy. By age 22-23 he was a general. One of the kindest, most inspired, most gifted leaders of the revolution. He was also a great klepht singer. He improvised. At the end of the battle at night they would eat and bury their dead. And they would say, Eh, Makriyannis, tragoudisemas, and he would improvise klephtika song on what had happened on that day.

And this is a man who didn’t know how to read or write.

But the man didn’t know how to read and write. He put all his money in the Revolution. But the key thing about him is that he’s legendary for his purity, his integrity, his extraordinarily leadership and his care for the people of Greece, not so much for the warlords. They were great heroes but they did a lot of this stuff, they wanted something in return. He was legendary in how he treated his soldiers and his companions in arms: they worshipped him.

How did an illiterate man teach himself how to read and write and write a masterpiece?

That is the miracle. He wrote a 900-page memoir, after teaching himself how to read and write in three months. And it’s a literary masterpiece: he created modern Greek prose. It immediately became a bible.

What is the style?

Makyriyannis was a poet and his language is that of a Homeric palikari unspoken centuries before Homer. A few months after winning the Nobel Prize Seferis characteristically said, Since 1926, when I first held in my hands the Memoirs of General Makriyannis, down to this very day, no month has passed without my reading some of its pages. No week without me thinking of some of the exquisitely vital passages which I have found in them. These pages have been my companions for voyages and peregrinations, in joys and sorrows they have been sources of illumination and of consolation. In this country of ours where we are so cruelly self-taught, Makriyannis has been the humblest, but also the steadiest of my teachers.

How do you compare Makriyannis with your other readings of Socrates?

Socrates and Makriyannis are both plain in their language, but also very complex, and Makriyannis the man was even more humble. Socrates had a dose of arrogance, because from age 20 he knew he was considered the wise man of Athens—he was it—he was Socrates. For 50 years he ruled with his mind. Makriyannis was humbler. He was one of those fantastic simple souls who had a lot in common with Socrates, in the sense that they were not interested in money, and if they made any they gave it all away. They were beloved by the younger generation, and they had an extraordinary amount of integrity. And their lives were ruled by an unconditional acceptance and love of the country and its laws and its people.”

And besides the Memoirs, Makriyannis was creative in other ways.

He made paintings of different battles of the Revolution. The siege of the Acropolis, for example. He hired an old veteran who was a primitive painter and worked with him and paid him good money and they would go to the location of the battles and he would say, Here is where I was and here is where the general stood and here’s how it happened. He made about 27 paintings.

And his political life?

He became a main proponent for the constitution, and over the course of his life he became one of the major reasons for the downfall of Otho (he was exiled) and the adoption more of a constitutional monarchy. Makriyannis is very Socratic. He loves unconditionally, unconditionally his land and his comrades and his people. He has no prejudices; he has no enemies that he has created, and he fought against Otho and anybody he felt was against the best interests of Greece. Otho had brought him to trial for treason and had put him in prison, as a very old man, which broke his health. But then he commuted it and let him out, and eventually, when Otho was thrown out, the first man leading the people into the palace was Otho Makriyannis, his godson.

What are the years of his life?

He was born in 1797 and died in 1864.

What is your own personal fulfillment from these readings?

I don’t see myself as an actor. When I do these things, I employ my skills and what I’ve learned all these years. Once more I feel like a privileged vessel, to be able to bring to some kind of immediacy and life these fantastic texts that are alive, have been alive, and will be alive. They will always be contemporary: if you read Makriyannis he makes perfect sense about today’s world. You want to run out in the street and run for office and apply the simple truths that are timeless in his writing and thinking about the world.