“Party of my life”: dramatic monologue or monologue theater? A monologue work is a difficult task in theatrical practice. Moreover, he was considered an enemy of drama because he questioned the connection of dialogue with dramatic myth. Perhaps it is not so important to determine the exact type of her stage appearance. Eleni Radu in a non-theatrical or at least directly non-theatrical text. Her solo performance is a complete dramatic form at the level of scripting, directing and acting.

The piece is inspired by the play All These Wonderful Things (2013) by British writers Duncan Macmillan and Johnny Donahue, and is structured around the axis of a list of life-worthy experiences, the little joys of everyday life, numbered (from 1 to 5005) pleasures such as ice cream, red-colored “bugela”, Chios chewing gum that “sticks to the teeth”, “constellations” in the sky, or “not suitable for minors”.

The lyrics are sweet, bitter and witty, but it comes from the excellent direction of Anestis Azas and the creative presence of the musical duo String Demons, Konstantinou and Lydia Butunis, who arranged famous songs on their strings and created an original composition in the parallel universe of the musician on stage. Lydia Butuni also stands out for her acting skills, especially when she takes on the role of the heroine’s alter ego in the scene where she is told to always say no.

Anestis Azas staged “Republic of Baklava” after the special issue. “The Party of My Life” like a modern rhapsody, a life story that takes the form of evidence and maintains the plausibility of personal experience.

The viewer does not feel the absence of the other, is not embarrassed by the lack of dialogue, because the central character, talking and wandering between the voices of people in her life, mother, father, husband, son, tries to compose a story from a dialogue of situations and voices. Radu is constantly moving outward, as a direct appeal to the viewer, and inward, as a direct recollection of experiences from the past, as a movement towards the field of memory and one’s inner self. Azas embellished the monologue with musicality, movement and visual magic. He channeled fears, ghosts and fantasies musically. He staged a confession, where personal experiences and childhood, adolescent and youthful memories are mixed with the heroine’s comments, thoughts and silences, defining a monument of speech and inner emptiness, loneliness and communication.

Azas staged a confession, where personal experiences and childhood, adolescent and youthful memories are mixed with comments, thoughts and silence of the heroine.

Radu’s performance dynamically, constantly and effortlessly transforms with absolute naturalness, captivated by the detailed direction and kinesiology editing of Antigone Gyra. The actress’s speech is sweet and gentle, sometimes frightened and panicked, sometimes ironic, caustic and self-mocking. Her image, girlish and playful, gentle and romantic, always tries to establish direct contact with the viewer. It expresses revolution in the face of the conventional life of marital relations and rejects the conventionality of marriage. Her speech claims beauty, youth, anarchy, dream, and ends with an existential monologue associated with the denial of all fears caused by sadness and self-awareness. Recorded images, scenes, dialogues of everyday life of the monologue, elements related to the moments of the recent history of Greece, with references to the 1999 earthquake, the 2004 Olympic Games, the recent experience of imprisonment due to a pandemic.

The surreal scenography of Mayu Trikeriotis is in perfect harmony with the director’s line. Stage objects (chairs, telephone, various furniture) hang upside down from the ceiling and create a stage atmosphere reminiscent of a piano or violin concert hall in an old furniture factory in Berlin, where endless antiques float above the heads of enchanted spectators. .

Kiki Grammatikopoulou’s nostalgic outfit with All Star shoes and a plaid skirt completed a very successful trio of faces.

Party of Life is a hymn to love and to the priceless existence of a mother as a timeless symbol of that redemptive love. “Postscript” of the list – the finale of the show and the closing of the curtain: “5.005: I love you.”

Ms. Rhea Grigoriou holds a PhD in History and Drama from AUTH and is Professor of Greek Culture at EAP.