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“An Enemy of the People” by Erik Ibsen is performed at the Rectifié Theater, directed by Georgia Mavragani (119 Konstantinoupoleos Ave., Kerameikos).
A political work, written in 1882, with honesty and skill it takes the moral problems and decisions that every citizen and society is called to face and make.
On the theater stage, we watch six actors – Irini Adamou, Vangelis Ambatzi, Giorgos Zygouri, Yiannis Katsimihas, Stefanos Lolo, Stavros Tsitsopoulos – tell and represent the story of the small coastal town of Sienne – the place that Ibsen’s birth, like a dramatized document. in an assembly, where all the background and political and personal manipulations slowly came out.
In particular, the doctor of a small town, which has recently developed due to its therapeutic baths, discovers that the baths are contaminated. In order to make his countrymen aware of the problem, he will seek the help of the local press and political leadership.
The press would rave about the scandal and hail him as a hero. On the contrary, the political leadership will inform him that the reconstruction of the baths means more taxes for the citizens and stop the economic development of the city. The doctor will call a meeting of the citizens. At the gathering he finds himself in front of public opinion that does not like the truth. The balance is changing. The press and the leadership will be made with the opinion of the majority. The doctor will question the rights and rights of the majority and soon, the citizens will denounce him as an “enemy of society and the people”. The doctor’s moral dilemma gets worse.
“An Enemy of the People” by Erik Ibsen, a play written in 1882, is surprising in its topicality. Why do you think this happened, almost a century and a half ago?
“In 1882, a series of bourgeois-democratic revolutions were completed, in Europe the abolition of slavery, the end of absolute monarchy and the emergence of representative democracy. There were important revolutions in France, Holland, Germany , Austria, etc.
All these events contribute to the dominance of the new order, the dominance of the course of the new socio-economic formation that it brings, capitalism. I will not expand on what capitalism means in practice and how we experience its effects.
I will only stick to the fact that when profit is the only axis on which a society treads – more together, Palestine is lost, trains kill their passengers, children are poisoned by the food provided in schools and factory to burn to cover. things. The scary thing is that this whole situation is well entrenched and has survived for a century and a half and we are struggling to survive as long as we can. ”
Tell us about your collaboration with Georgia Mavragani?
“My collaboration with Georgia is a blessing. He is honest, he knows what he wants. It gives security to the actor; It creates the universe and smoothly integrates you into it. He is a person who is very serious about his work, time to work on it with the patience and energy I have never known before. He made us a team from the first meetings. He is a great man.”
Tell us a few words about his approach to Ibsen’s text.
“Georgia studied the text carefully and taught us its history and dramaturgy, as simply and comprehensibly as she could. Surely she herself should answer this answer better. As an actor and part of the process , I can only say that it made me feel completely confident.
The rectifier is a new space. What need led you to create it, after the Factory?
“Fabrica is already counting a few years of activity. Like a growing child, he also needs a “big bed”, a longer bike, bigger clothes.
This child of ours, who is in the stage of adulthood, has greater needs and responsibilities; We are building, again with our own hands, a bigger theater, ready to invite new groups, new shows, to invite his friends, to meet new people, to try a theater that does not forget where it started and invites groups to co-exist, with the research theater as a core. We provide shelter to artists who have faith and love for what they do. ”
Is there care from the state to support such initiatives?
“I compared our Factory to our son. Therefore, as long as the state helps people to raise their children, provides them with security, care, medical care, access to knowledge, so are such initiatives. We will not lose our faith that things will change and we will not stop fighting for it, from our own experience. Because we can’t do it any other way.”