Matthew: If there is anyone there, I think He has exhausted all His punishment… There is nothing to worry about anymore… They also smell like roses, I don’t know if you noticed? And the watered grass… If the Gardener is not fired, then at least tell him to water more…

With his new work, Yannis Tsiros expands the dramaturgy of the “foreigner” and connects the feeling of fear of a potential enemy with the insecurity of the bourgeoisie. He processes the wreckage of personal and family relationships, dead ends, predicaments, oxymoronic forms of love and hate, heavy guilt, as well as personal disappointments that act like lightning and disrupt all urban decency, order and balance. References to a traumatic past, to a “negligent crime” committed by a pair of protagonists, are interspersed in the speech of dramatic characters.

The urban balance of Mr. Matthaios and his wife Yulias is exposed to various dangers, but they also try to create security barriers to protect themselves from these dangers: wall, surveillance cameras, private security.

The director read the play correctly, with knowledge of realism and all the dramaturgy of Tsiros. Manos Karatsoyannis singled out the semiology of the alien, “other”, external invisible enemy that threatens urban life and seeks the tranquility of the couple. He emphasized the structure of the police mystery, not so much in the classical sense of the one who committed it, but in the sense of the obscurity that brings the disclosure of a sin committed in the past and tormenting the heroes in the present. . He emphasized the presence of a well-hidden secret, delved into the emotional structure of the personalities of the two spouses and placed them opposite each other on deck chairs in the garden. She kept silence, beautiful looks, and perfumed the scene of the performance with the scent of Lula Anagnostaki, the scent of the beautiful roses of her dramaturgy. The correspondence between work and performance is a victory for the director, who also worked abstractly in realism, with a semiological almost obsession with the details of voices, movements and expressions of dramatic figures. In supporting roles, she singled out the “straight” and “clean” look of Lena, the young au pair, which Anastasia Pantusi interpreted with restraint.

A balanced show, with a sense of proportion at all levels, acting, scenography, interpretive texture.

Maximos Moumouris, as Mr. Matteos, has captured all the dynamics of the role in a serious, action-packed performance that gives the extroversion of this role the weight it deserves. The actor has benefited from learning an interpretive approach that weighs heavily on the modern urban lifestyle of a businessman, the financially successful and well-trained, dynamic Mr. Matthew. He sets “rules”, delimits relationships, works in contrast with Fai Xila, who, as wife Yulia, gives her role an introverted weight, which also suits him. Both of them carefully paint with beautiful and aesthetic strokes the dark and dramatic basis of their personality, their criminal existential depth, their well-hidden secret behind the brilliance of their neo-urban lifestyle. Fai Xila has her impulses, sometimes unrestrained and sometimes restrained, she works on a depressive background between alcoholism and anxiety disorder, providing the stylistic balance of the performance with her interpretation. Finally, Vassilis Athanasopoulos interprets the role of the guardian of the house, protecting the couple from all possible dangers, with particular vividness. He maintains a controversial attitude towards domestic servants, in his own way exercising his own power over a vulnerable female existence.

The set sketch for Teta Tsavdaridou suggests a beautifully designed garden area of ​​a city residence, a large area of ​​which is occupied by a dimly lit pool – a symbol not only of urban prosperity, but also of the root of evil. which puts pressure on the conscience of the two main characters.

The Day of the Lord is a balanced performance, with a sense of proportion at all levels, acting, scenography, and interpretive texture. Finally, it highlights the hidden enemy in the face of the Muslim gardener, who, however, is never revealed on stage.

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