“Spirtokuto” by Yannis Economides is not easy to forget. Once you have seen the film, you can easily (and also with pain or humor, depending on the type of involvement) remember the words that the characters shoot at each other, or even the militant atmosphere that reigns in the tragicomedic dysfunctional family presented to us. two years before the pandemic euphoria of the Athens Olympics. He sat down that since then his constant presence in the domestic pop culture “Spirtokuto” and his antics – from the persistence of “What are you going to do with Linda, Vangelis?” to the indignation of “Make a brothel” – they have come to symbolize a whole state of interpersonal relationships, which only “cults” no longer look like.

Giannis Anastasakis first saw the film on VHS in the living room of his house. He heard very good reviews about the project and from the very first minutes a pleasant shock awaited him. “The man managed to tell us about the daily life that we live in Greece in a very special way and with actors who were exceptionally supportive of the project,” says the K actor and director, and continues in the opposite atmosphere of the film. : “Then I called out to my wife and told her, ‘Come see something we’ve never seen before.’ Thus, “Matchbox” remained in my memory both for what he said and for how.

Agoriza Oikonomou, on the other hand, has not seen “Spirtokuto” until today. Even when she was offered to star in a film adaptation of the film in a musical, the actress was in no hurry to watch it even on YouTube, where it was posted and collected hundreds of thousands of views. “I didn’t see her on purpose,” he says, “because I really admire Eleni Kokkidu, who plays Mary, the mother, and I was afraid that even unconsciously I might copy something. On the one hand, it’s not pleasant to bother yourself with a colleague, but on the other hand, I wanted to treat adaptation as something new. Which, in a sense, already exists.”

Giannis Oikonomides managed to tell us in a special way about the daily life we ​​live in Greece.

What is certain is that Anastasakis and Oikonomou will have much more serious disagreements that need to be resolved (or rather immortalized) on the stage of the Roof of the Onassis Foundation, where “Spirtokuto: The Musical” runs from Friday to December 30; as they did in the film twenty years ago, Errikos Litsis and Eleni Kokkidu, Anastasakis and Oikonomou play the father and mother of “Spirtokutos”, in a stage adaptation, the music of which was written by Yiannis Niarros and Alexandros Livitsanos, also directed by Niarros (who also writes the lyrics for the film ” Spirokutos”). songs) and libretto by Giannis Oikonomidis and Doris Avgerinopoulos.

“How much more relevant can it be with everything that overwhelms us every day?” says Agorica Oikonomou, answering the obvious question about the relevance of such adaptation. “The fact that twenty years have passed and we are almost in the same place is sad for the future,” says Giannis Anastasakis, adding, however, that he remains stubbornly optimistic. In any case, another question is whether the pathologies of the Greek family are eliminated or smoothed over when conveyed through the seemingly easy genre of the musical. “Some of them will get even worse,” replies Giannis Anastasakis. “The performance is not just a commentary on what the original text says, but also a step forward, into the soul of these people, but also into our own idea of ​​u200bu200bwhat we live in – let’s not forget that there was also a hidden mockery in the film above itself, like the Economides. And if there are places in the musical where music and melodious words can fill the viewer with euphoria or make him want to laugh, then the next scene immediately or even the scene itself in its development also has elements from the opposite side. It makes you bite and say, “Wow, this looks like me, this is my mirror. Why am I sitting and laughing?”

“Laughter and tears go hand in hand on the show,” Oikonomou says. “Of course, music plays a catalytic role, and all the characters – even the neighbors – each have their own, special song. Of course, the melody somehow reveals black colors. This makes them less stunning, if you will, or brings a little smile. On the other hand, the heart may shrink after smiling or even laughing. Even within the same song. Which song, in the case of the father, is folk and heavy folk: his musical sign. In the first, which dominated his ear and soul as he grew up—he is an Epirote who lived in Korydallos for many years—he looks back at a difficult moment. The second one supports the image that he is trying to present to the world and to himself: he is a man, a boss, he decides, loves this way and does it, ”says Anastasakis. On the other hand, the mother, as Oikonomou explains, “has a slightly darker tone. A little more excited. She’s more of a problem herself. You’re going to tell me, aren’t you?

Sometimes some can speak in notes, while others in colors.

Is there any phrase in the “Matchbox Musical”, a mother’s saying that illuminates what weighs on her, her despair? “There are many, many phrases, and they are related to her husband,” says Agoritsa to Oikonom, as if expressing her concern for the real “Maria”. “These are small phrases,” he continues, “by which you understand that all these 20-25 years of their marriage, something did not go well at all. At some point, in a confrontation with her husband, expressed in prose, gradually turning into a song, Maria tells him: “Dimitris too, you are my man …”. As if he is ringing many bells at this moment. For their roles, for a lost contact that needs to be remembered again.

“Yes, there is a phrase characteristic of the father,” adds Giannis Anastasakis. “That’s where he says that ‘if that’s the case, why haven’t we messed it up for so many years?’ And it is important that at the same time, the whole project goes through the idea of ​​”repairing a brothel”, which means repairing oneself, one’s family, and society. However, Dimitris is probably already capable of breaking down. And he discovers that everything he wanted to build – his personality, his family, the shop he owns, the next one he dreams of – he built on a shaky foundation. So what to do? Of course, even at the moment when he says these words, he does not have the courage to change something – he says them in defeat, realizing at least for a moment that he has never seen what is happening inside and around him. And now, when he sees this, he wonders why they let him go, why he survived this and did not change. Of course, Economides, as well as Niarros and Livitsanos, know that you can’t just make a decision and everything that was fragile and broken is changing. Recovery takes a lot of work. And, apparently, this will take more than twenty years.

Maybe things would be a little better if people could communicate through singing and in life? “Good idea! Or at least we can see it as an option. In fact, things could be a little better. Or a little clearer. He would play a tune, and you would quickly understand what the other person wants to say, because the music it hits not according to the mind, not according to the logic of people, but right in the heart, “Agorica Oikonomu answers. Yannis Anastasakis recalls Katerina Gogou with emotion: “In one of her poems,” he concludes, “she says that the time will come when” people – think! – will speak in colors, others in notes.” Gogo is talking to his friend Maria, and after telling her that these are “difficult times,” she asks her to remember one thing: “it is important to remain human.” So this one moment may come: some speak with notes and others with colors. I don’t know if it will be better, but it will be another way to express ourselves, at least without shouting or our silence. And the way people express themselves, whether it is text or colors, song or music, sacred You can’t make it that way . You can enjoy it, become a participant by opening your own windows to the sound or word that the other person wants to convey to you. This is the beauty and value of art: contact and communication is not the way we are used to.