INTERVIEWS

Giorgos Sarigiannis

FROM THE SET TO THE STAGE

N.N. “Ever since the 60’s I wanted to do something in the theatre but since, due to my inexperience, that ‘something’ would prove particularly… painful for the theatre, I thought better of it and concentrated on cinema. Primarily because my education was in films and secondly because the cinema has a very strong “self-correction” facility. The theatre isn’t easily forgiving…
So, let’s just say that now I’m feeling more responsible and ready to take a risk. Ziogas’ play got me going and rekindled my willingness for theatrical adventure. Before this I’d considered but turned down two works by foreign playwrights.
It is a tortured work, tender and violent, a trip along a cynical road to nightmarish inner areas as well as beautiful ones. This is finally a play that exalts love where the heroes shock and are shocked, they fight desperately for the right to love, with reverence clinging onto to the rules of their hurtful game. I always wanted to direct a script with a happy end and this is a happy play with an interesting structure, unexpected reversals and the genuine anarchic style of Ziogas’ caught between Scylla and Charybdis.”
G.S. What is your reason for adding yet another approach in an already overloaded theatricallandscape?
N.N. “Overloaded how? By sensational performances perhaps, by fresh proposals, original visions or could it be by some refreshing and highquality effort in fields cultivated for years? I believe there is enough untrodden ground left. Naturally, I am not at this juncture permitted to claim that I’ve got all the above covered with guaranteed success. After the curtain rises, however…”
G.S. What has cinema taught you that you’ll find useful in the theatre?
N.N. “First of all, that they are two entirely separate artistic expressions. Secondly, that great care must be taken when contemplating grafting any purely cinematic elements to the body of theatre. I’ve further concluded that glances, loaded silences, tiny and meaningful gestures, counterpoint and repartee, an erotic relationship with the camera are things they have in common. But the main thing cinema’s taught me is that each actor orbits an independent planetary system which I love to explore and lose myself in.”

GEORGE SARIYIANNIS

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