A bold and interesting undertaking by the theater group Elephas Tiliensis to re-present to the public the play that captivated audiences and critics when it was staged by Lefteris Vogiatsis in 1998 on the magical and dreamy stage of Odos of the Cyclades. Voyatsis’s grotesque performance as 75-year-old Jonah at the moment of a heart attack, explaining over the phone the process of collecting bones after the exhumation of the deceased, is a benchmark for any acting or directing master class.

The case of Giorgos Dialegmenos is special because he himself reacts to the dual status of actor and writer, and this status is revealed in the detailed directions of his plays. “Night of the Owl” contains all his fears and obsessions about decay, decay, death, thematic motifs, but integrated into a dramatic environment that is completely new in relation to his previous plays. There are no outbursts about the social structure, tones of boredom caused by the poverty of everyday life, rude references to political power. He leaves aside petty-bourgeois figures and marginal figures (“Mother, mother, mother”, “We lost our aunt, stop!”) and focuses on the moment of the end of existence. In a dramatic development unlike any synthetic structure known in contemporary Greek theatre, a dialogue is organized between the objective reality that Ion experiences at the moment of her death and her sudden reversal of the memory of the past.

The setting surprises with its many shifts, the action is not organized into actions, scenes or images, but unfolds in five different spaces from the section of lost bones in the cemetery where Ion works, to the undefined universe of the afterlife.

“Night of the Owl” is the last night of the protagonist. The dead man now reads his death certificate in order to believe for himself that he is dead. In fact, Jonah’s consciousness is not in intensive care, but in a nightmarish game with time. The technique of recalling experiences from the past is activated and memory stands in a single case from the life of Jonah, in his illegal love affair with Pelageya, in the betrayal of this relationship, the betrayal that brought Pelageya to suicide. The Chosen One turns to the theme of being and captures the only moment of its impasse, the moment of repentance, guilt and all its painful versions. On the one hand, the female romantic role is outlined, and on the other, the pettiness and cowardice of the man, his inability to overcome social conventions and take the risk of illegal love, is revealed.

The directors followed all the points of action, but did not delve into the inner world of dramatic personalities.

Directors Dimitris Agartsidis and Despina Anastasoglu carefully unraveled the thread of the dramatic plot from the moment of death to the meeting of Jonah (Hectoras Ligizos) with Pelageya (Paraskevi Duruklakis) in the afterlife. They followed all the steps of the action, but did not delve into the inner world of dramatic characters, did not allow the viewer to oscillate between life and death, between repentance and redemption. A bathtub, a microphone, transparent partitions in the form of a curtain in the background, organized dance groups, colorless lighting, black glasses, nudity – finds that are not entirely justified by the poetically realistic texture of the work. . Stage accessories in practice are not the most suitable for creating a “nightmare atmosphere”. Hector Lygyzos is the only actor who conveyed Jonah’s temperament with inner fullness and conveyed aspects of his temperament with an “obsession with details”. His acting line, both vocal and physical, is a strong asset to the show. With his speech, gestures and body movements, he tries to balance the gaps in the acting of the ensemble and the director’s clumsiness in handling dramatic material, ensuring the unity of style, especially in the powerful scene between husband and lover. His witty references to Lefteris Voyatsis winked aptly at suspicious onlookers.

There is no catharsis in Night of the Owl. This nostalgic night of interwar reality leaves questions open: where did Jonah’s wine come from? The psychological burden of the death of a twenty-six-year-old girl? Was he really in love and, in fact, betrayed himself, or is it just an existential fear of death, retribution in the afterlife, that makes him ask for forgiveness?

* Ms. Rhea Grigoriou is a Doctor of Historical Sciences and Dramaturgy and a Professor at the Department of Greek Culture at EAP.