Hus Gottfried lives in Bremen in the first half of the 19th century, a time when a woman depended on her father, husband, brother and every other man for her life. She was not allowed to have an opinion and free will, she was not even allowed to love. Only prostitutes were considered free women, who, moreover, were subordinate to some kind of promoter. A woman’s claim to freedom was seen as a mental illness, a vice of nature, and could even lead her to trial. The goose, in its quest to win freedom, comes into conflict with all its surroundings, men and women, and when it encounters obstacles and feels threatened, it defends itself, resorting to extreme solutions that are beyond all logic.

The true story of Geese Gottfried, a Bremen merchant, reputedly a pious and honest woman, inspired Rainer Werner Fassbinder, a scary child and representative of the new German cinema, to write Freedom in Bremen, which he himself directed in 1971. at the theater in Bremen. “While I could deal with Fassbinder, this intelligent anarchist artist, I saw that his subjects were in constant dialogue with the political and social past of Germany. In his masterpiece “Berlin Alexanderplatz” the atmosphere of Nazism reigns. His characters are stuck in a regime of violence and menace. Men sell their wives to each other, beat them, kill them, prostitute them and sell Nazi newspapers to survive. When talking about the past, Fassbinder is absolutely right about the present.” says Maria Kehadzhioglu “K”., Geese in the play – winter production of DIPETA Crete, in a new translation by Giorgos Depastas and adaptation, staging, scenery, costumes, music, edited by Nikos Mastorakis. The performance after the tour of Crete until April takes place in the basement of the Artistic Theater of Karolos Koun.

In modern society

References to the work leave their mark on modern Greek society, including femicides, cases of sexual violence and homophobia. “It is touching to me that Fassbinder, tormented by his homosexuality, writes about a woman who wants to generalize the whole problem that arises from patriarchal ideas and attitudes. His heroine is not some emancipated, self-aware woman. She creates a dance around her, mostly men, but also women, trying to talk about the problem of female devaluation, covering as many sides as possible, and magically succeeds. Let each of us put ourselves a little bit in the place of a being who cannot in the least decide the same thing for himself. We are talking about basic human rights. For me, every murder of her is an act of desperation against a system that does not want to change at all. These are cries of despair, because from the first murder she knows that there is no way back for her either,” says M. Kehacioglu.

Let each of us put ourselves a little bit in the place of a being who cannot in the least decide the same thing for himself.

When asked if she believes that the oppressed can free themselves from their oppressor without being defeated, the actress mockingly replies: “Do you think we can easily get rid of, for example, misogyny? Bette Davis, speaking of gender discrimination, formulated it very aptly: “When a man expresses his opinion, he is a man; when a woman expresses her opinion, she is a bitch.” The world is changing very slowly. The roots of male dominance are very deep within all of us, men and women. This is scary. The struggle must be continuous, both inside and outside of us.”

“I always like a good show. A show that speaks to my soul. I miss an environment that allows you to create with all the ensuing consequences. Ingenuity, time to try and reject, time to gather people who are trying to do something, time and money for research. The times in which we live force us to care about survival.

“I am with the children with all my heart”

A graduate of the Drama School of the National Theatre, currently teaching at the same school, he supports the requests of students for an increase in art education and the position of artists in the State Qualification List.

“I was touched and shocked by the children. Talking to them, they conveyed to me their pulse, their beautiful and kind manners, their completely just demands. I felt like a dinosaur and wondered what I did when I was their age. A little. What I found in the theatre, I didn’t dispute much. Now these generations are ahead and they do not chew. First with #MeToo, then with debate and implementation of a code of conduct, and now with a sit-in over a ruling that downgraded their degrees and theater education. It’s as if they no longer talk about abuse of power, sexism, misogyny, homophobia, sexual harassment, authoritarianism, and the devaluation of the theater by the state. There is a ministry called “Culture” and its job is to invest in artistic life and produce cultural goods for its citizens. My heart is with our students.”