Looking at “The Man from Padolsk” by Dmitry Danilov, a play that Giorgos Kutlis is staging at the National Theatre, one can recall other texts similar to Huxley’s “Brave New World”, where people are forced to take drugs to make them happy. ; Burgess’s “Ripe Orange”, where the young delinquent is corrected in an appropriately violent way, and, of course, Kafka’s “Trial”, where the hero is persecuted by the authorities, without knowing why.

Giorgos Kutlis read Danilov’s work in 2019, when he studied at the Moscow theater school GITIS. He did not get tired of reading it for a minute and felt that the text had the original writing. Of course, he was also fascinated by his subject, this sophisticated interrogation being carried out by a group of police officers on poor Nikolai, who is in no mood to participate in observational exercises or answer questions about the history of his city: he is unacceptably unhappy and does not like his girlfriend and his hobbies.

“My latest productions have a similar internal logic,” says Yorgos Kutlis, “with which something connects me: it is a meeting of a person with a system that operates according to completely irrational rules. On “Talk Show” someone encountered the phenomenon of “life” and tried to understand it; in “Dog, Night and Knife” he encountered a wild society and tried to survive; now he faces the repressive apparatus of a liberal, capitalist society that has adopted modern mechanisms for the implementation of violence, more insidious than the former.

“The Man from Padolsk” is a liturgical performance that, if it does not make the viewer think about forced happiness, can lead him to reconsider happiness in general. This, of course, is not the only reason why Kutlis finally crosses the threshold of the National Theatre. Because the director is also the first artistic director of the new experimental scene (Katerina Yiannopoulou and Eleni Efthymiou will follow each year) which was suspended under Lignadis and is being resumed.

There was an elephant in the room and now you can talk about it without fear, as you can about other pathologies and deal with them a little easier.”

raw material

The emphasis will be on the first steps of the artists, on everyday creativity and on the dialogue about what is the raw material for the theatrical performance. Is all this different from a regime that supported neither the youth nor the searches? “Maybe I don’t know,” Giorgos Kutlis replies. “Listen, I’m doing a scene called New Creators Experimental Scene. I am glad that it exists and gives the right and space for mistakes, trials, experiments, trying something that we have never seen before. Of course, there are performances by more experienced writers that are great – I don’t think there should be just one. But surely it must exist.”

The three-manager system comments on this with the phrase “three minds are better than one.” Such a collaborative approach sounds beneficial, especially after what happened in the Greek theater. Does the director feel that something has changed? “There was an elephant in the room, and now you can talk about it without fear, how can you talk about other pathologies and deal with them a little easier,” says Kutlis and adds: “I don’t think everything is decided, and I’m afraid, that some pathologies will disappear and others will be created, including very insidious ones. But I can’t help but rejoice, can’t help but feel that people who thought they owned other people’s souls and lives were finally forced to get together – I really hope, maybe a little, but at least some things need to be thought twice and thrice. Like all of us, patriarchy is deeply rooted in us.”

Speaking of powers, what does he think of the debate about the authoritarian Russian mentality that has unfolded since the war in Ukraine? He himself lived in Moscow for many years, and he translated the Russian plays he staged (The Man from Padolsk, The Players at the Ark Theater and The Fool’s Dream on the March) himself. “This is a country with conditions quite different from many others,” he concludes. “This is the one that has the largest area in the world. This creates a different perception of the earth, a person’s relationship to his homeland. Moreover, Russia has a biography – the 1917 revolution, internal changes, the fall of communism, the turbulent period of the 90s – that we cannot understand. At some point, a progressive friend of mine said to me, “You can’t understand the size of this country and its need for a father.” I don’t know if this is true, but they are definitely very special people. Of course, I have met very conservative people, but I have also met strong spirits, people who have a “Russian dosha” – “Russian soul” – which is characterized by romanticism in relation to life and existence, which cannot but fascinate. This is my second home, and I love it very much, despite its problems.”