With elements of documentary theatre, original dramaturgy, and contemporary Greek music – a traditional and punk combination – by Thrax Punks, the performance by the 4frontal group directed by Thanasis Zeritis and Charis Kremmydas is based on the true story of Spyridoula, a 12-year-old maid, who shocked public opinion in the 1950s.
It is a production of the Athens Epidaurus 2023 Festival, premiered at 260 Piraeus Street in the framework of grape - Greek Agora of Performance, the platform for the international promotion of Greek performing arts.
The shocking story of a 12-year-old maid (psychokori)
The 50’ was a time when underage and impoverished girls were adopted by prominent families as maids (psychokores), working under contemporary slavery conditions, with their families believing that they were providing their girls with a better future.
Among them was 12-year-old Spyridoula Rapti, the eighth child of a poor family, from Mataranga, Agrinio, who moved to Piraeus to work in the wealthy house of George and Antigone Veizade. For two consecutive years, it was later revealed, the couple had been abusing her physically and mentally, going so far as to burn her with an electric iron on both her body and face, accusing her of stealing $50 from them. Spyridoula, however, found the courage to speak out, breaking the vicious cycle of violence.
From that moment on, Spyridoula became a popular idol and a source of empowerment for generations of women who suffer abuse and manage to spell it out and end it.
The author
Spyridoula "... became a symbol of the labour movement and the feminist movement at the time and a symbol of social oppression", says the author, Nefeli Maistrali. Her play draws from historical documents and women's interviews at the time as well as from women who currently as domestic workers. She brings before the viewer an original play, masterfully portraying what these girls experienced in the 1950s, acknowledging that when the debate on the subject was defused, no real change took place. "Spyridoula's torture happened in 1955. It took on horrific proportions and yet in the '60s, in all the Finos Films productions, the maid continues to be leaving in-house; a little butterfly with no biography", Nefeli Maistrali points out.
The directors
For the needs of the production and to expand on similar current issues, the two directors discussed with members of the Association of Filipinos in Greece. "The abuse of women working as domestic workers can be verbal, behavioral, and even sexual. If the abuse of Spyridoula in the 1950s was done with an iron, today the form of abuse has other faces", says Thanasis Zeritis. Charis Kremmydas adds that at a time when #metoo exists in our lives and women are now standing up for the trauma that has oppressed them, the show is in direct conversation with today.
Reviews
"The maids, through the chorus parts (of the show), "introduce" themselves to their future bosses, emphasizing all the jobs they know how to do, the speed with which they work and of course, their great quality: they eat little and thus won’t cost them much. They move non-stop on stage, amidst laundry and dirty sheets, carrying heavy garbage cans. They react. But through their narratives, we learn that not all bosses are bad. Some were happy in the houses they worked in; some bosses even arranged for them to get married".
(Adriana Tsiotsiou, www.2020mag.gr.)
"Nefeli Maistrali, drawing on true testimonies of women who worked as maids, writes an original work whose structure constitutes a well-written contemporary tragedy. External and internal elements are inextricably intertwined, building a tragic discourse that culminates in a liberating crescendo of resistance and visibility that shatters class stereotypes".
(Irini Driva, “Avgi”)
Credits
Directed by: Thanasis Zeritis, Charis Kremmydas
Dramaturgy: Nefeli Maistrali
Sets - costumes: Georgia Bourda
Music curation - composition: Thrax Punks
Movement: Panos Topsidis
Assistant director: Eleni Tsibrikidou
Lighting design: Sakis Birbilis
Photos: Elina Younanli
Research: Panagiotis Liaropoulos
Cast: Aristea Stafylaraki, Stavros Giannouladis, Tasos Dimitropoulos, Argyro Theodoraki, Tatiana Anna Pitta, Eleni Tsibrikidou.
Duration: 100'
For tickets: https://bit.ly/NIF_never_ends_tickets, Stephanis Stores and at the Nicosia Municipal Theatre box office (Monday-Friday 10:00-13:00).
For information: 22797979 (Monday - Friday 10:00-13:00).
Ticket prices
ZONE A: €18/€15
ZONE B: €16/ €12
ZONE C: €14/ €10
ZONE D: €12/ €10
Festival identity:
The Festival is co-organised by the Nicosia Municipality and Nicosia For Art, and forms part of Nicosia's bid for the European Capital of Culture 2030.
The Festival is presented by ECOMMBX.
Festival Silver Sponsor: Cyprus Public Transport
Festival Bronze sponsor: Embassy of Spain in Cyprus, Deloitte Legal
Hospitality sponsor: The Classic Hotel