Will Economides’ film become a musical? Are catchphrases and explosive verbiage called singers? And finally, the eternal question “What are you going to do with Linda, Vangelis?” is there an answer in 2022? These and many other questions will be answered by the musical version of the legendary Matchbox.

However, Giannis Oikonomidis himself, who also signs the play’s libretto, anticipates and disapproves of any comparison with the cinematic model, stating that he is more than pleased with the result. “There is no question of comparison. This is a new work, self-existing, with its own coherence, originality and dignity. It will be judged according to musical criteria. Personally, I believe in the strength and originality of what has been done, I think it can create its own legend,” he emphasizes.

As the Greek film director explains, the idea of ​​making a musical theater film was his own, while at the same time recognizing the great complexity of the undertaking. “I kept this in my head for a long time, but did not dare to say. It became interesting to me, if the characters argued not with voices and dialogues, but with a musical song, what would happen? When I finally posted it, the right people were found to promote it.”

One of them, perhaps the most important, is Giannis Nyarros, who, along with Alexandros Livitsanos, owns the lyrics, some of the music, as well as directing the show. “The story of ‘Spirtokutos’ has very good material for a musical. Firstly, the characters are very symbolic, caricatured in some cases, in a good way. This is something that speaks of the world of the musical, where the characters are also quite monotonous,” Yiannis Nyarros tells us .

Dialogues and dynamics

“The feature that makes it automatic and timeless is that it is not an ethnography – it is an archetypal work, a love story in the depths of the soul,” says director G. Niarros.

When I ask him what he found the easiest and most difficult part of the ‘translation’ process, he replies without hesitation: ‘It helps a lot that the dialogues are repeated in Economides. Someone says one thing, and then repeats it 2-3 different ways. This is the choir. This gives you the code to build. Another musical term has to do with dynamics: something that starts, peaks, and has an end. These already existed. The difficulty now, from a lyrical point of view, is that the Greek language is rarely interpreted in this way. Some will surely be repulsed by swearing or a direct reason to be called singers. On the other hand, in American language, you won’t be put off by a blues song that talks about a bar or whiskey, for example. But if you translate it into Greek, you get a rather comical result. And the work itself, however, balances between absolute absurdity (in the sense of laughter) and absolute darkness.

Violence and imprisonment

As for the relevance of Spirtokoutos today, more than twenty years after its original arrest, Giannis Oikonomidis has no doubts. “Something has changed; In the same way, we are emerging from two years of imprisonment and more than a decade of crisis. Broken nerves. Of course, there have always been such scenes. From the moment a person was walled up in an apartment that is not a natural place to live, problems began. Another thing is human relations. Violence now flares up forever, even wilder and more violent than in the past. We also follow them in the news. We see violence behind closed doors, more incomprehensible and without rules.”

For those (few) who don’t remember, “Spirtokuto” is essentially the story of a family led by Father Dimitris arguing in turn with everyone else on a hot August day. The tension is over the top, voices turn into screams, sweat pours in rivers, and everyone is pushed to the limit, often for no apparent reason or reason. According to the cast, each of the film’s unique characters will be “translated” into the musical through their own musical language, resulting in audiences hearing just about everything from rock and symphonic melodies to hip-hop trap and heavy folk.

However, for thirty-year-old Giannis Nyarros, “Spirtokuto” was already a myth when he first encountered it. “Like most of my generation, I first saw Matchbox on YouTube. For me, the feature that is automatic and timeless is that it is not an ethnography. People like it not because it depicts Greece in 2002 or 2022, but because it is an archetypal play about love and hate, a love story at heart. There you see your father, the twisted love of the family, power relationships and so on. It could be, for example, Norwegian, but instead of being terribly hot, it would be very cold,” he adds.

“Spirtokuto” will be performed on November 11, from Wednesday to Sunday, on the Main Stage of the roof of the Onassis Foundation at 20:30. Starring Giannis Anastasakis, Agoritsa Oikonomou, Marios Sarantidis, George Katsis, Apostolis Psychramis and others.