An Unknown From The Seine
Pulsar group presented, in a co-production with the Municipal and Regional Theatre of Kavala, for the first time in Greece, Ödön von Horvath’s unknown masterpiece An Unknown From The Seine.
The theatre play was presented for a secord series of performances in Athens, at Baumstrasse Theatre, from 12 to 15, 20 to 22 and 27 to 29 April 2013.
The first series of performances were presented in Kavala, at Antigoni Valakou Theatre, from 21 to 24 and 28 to 31 March 2013.
Translation: Melina Garbi, Vicky Georgiadou
Director, dramaturgy: Vicky Georgiadou
Assistant director: Danai Tikou
Set/costume design: Kyriaki Tsitsa
Furniture and origami: Eleni Vardava
Lighting designer: Melina Mascha
Music and sound design: Costas Andreou
Production: Pulsar group, Municipal and Regional Theatre of Kavala
Cast:
Caretaker / Lilly: Yiouli Karnachoriti
Klara / Lucille: Voula Verdeli
Irene: Athanasia Agoraki
Emil / Teodor: Pantelis Flatsousis
Albert: Yiorgos Kafetzopoulos
Silberling / Policeman: Tassos Tsoukalis
Nicolo: the actors
Ernst: Foivos Simeonidis
Unknown: Genovefa Zagga and Ifigenia Makri
In a city somewhere in Europe
Eighty years ago, in the thick of the inter-war year, in a period of time that bears alarming similarities with our present time, Ödön von Horvath writes his play An Unknown From The Seine.
Eighty years ago, he sets his sights on the enternal petit bourgeois who, in a state of flux, instability and social crisis, can easily become prey, victim, ruthless or oppressor, by rotation or even simultaneously.
In a European city which stands on the quicksand of economic depression by the bank of a river, Horvath sets his characters: petit bourgeois representatives who should convince themselves and others that there are still constants in their lifes (a steady job, a profitable business, reputation, a good marriage, order and security), little thieves who are an essential accessory of every similar age, an unemployed man and a suicide girl who are the side-effect casualties of every similar age.
The unemployed man is Albert. In order to overcome his financial reefs, he will be involved in a robbery in the watchmaker’s flat. The watchmaker will wake up, Albert will hit him with an alarm clock in the head and the watchmaker will die. Albert’s future is ruined.
There are two solutions for him: either to commit suicide or to surrender and go to jail. Or the solution offered to him by the Unknown, a suicide girl who gets a second chance for life or an Undine who becomes Albert’s guardian angel. The Unknown offers Albert an alibi for the night of the murder. Albert will be saved, he will find a job, he will be married, he will have children, he will live happily ever after and the Unknown will go back to the water.
In this delicate play, Horvath lets the atmosphere of a fairy-tale pierce a story deeply rooted in cruel reality. An Undine, searching for a soul, enters the world of cynical petit bourgeois people. Horvath combines these two realities and writes a cynical tale, an elegiac comedy, a heartbreaking satire, a requiem of life under the title An Unknown From The Seine.
What happens to the world when changes come before human actions?
A river that flows through a city. Between two wars. Anywhere in Europe in 1933 or here today.
A house. At number nine. People are in limbo, lost. Tyring to find their way again, by buying and selling. On the left side a flower shop. It sells roses and happiness. On the right side a clock shop. It sells clocks and time. And in between there are human beings. Sinking in damp, they try to build their future, flabbergasted, desperate and “strong”.
A deal or an intercourse, a robbery and a murder. Albert’s life is on the brink of ruin: an unemployed man who got involved in a robbery and became a killer. Irene, Ernst, Emil, the Caretaker, Klara should not lose their foot-pace. The time requires to move forward, at any cost. Let him get lost!
But still. There is an Unknown moving around. Ready to offer everything for a flower. She will try to save him.
She came from nowhere, from the water, from the world of the dead. She is a suicide girl who returns to gain redemption, she is an Undine who wants to gain a soul, a human being who wants to transcend human limitations. Ready to became a ball of fire, to burn everything, so that everything be reborn anew.
She offers Albert an alibi. They were together during the night of the murder. Alber grabs the chance. He can live his life again. But without her. She must return to the water. Nobody knows whether she gained her redemption, whether she took her soul back.
Years later
Where the flower shop was in the past, now is a drycleaner’s shop. It cleans. It leaves no marks or stains or traces. Nextdoor, where the clock shop was, is an antiquarian bookshop. On its shelves, among motionless books, there are copies of the death-mask of The Unknown from the Seine, displayed for sale. Happiness.
People will go on together. They will build their future on their land and in their time. In a world of erotic deals and national anniversaries, in a world of secrets and silences, of tumultuous happiness and silent stupidity. With death being always close beside. In every breath, every movement and thought. And with the smile of the Unknown from the Seine stone-still for ever in life, with the Unknown herself trying to be heard: there is another way in life, even though Undines do not really exist.
The poster for the second series of performances, in Athens, at Baumstrasse Theatre
The poster for the first series of performances (Antigoni Valakou theatre)
Poster design: Sophia Braila
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