A performance about the weak, the chaos of Principles and Law, the four forces, institutions is the play “Four Eyes” by Yiannis Tsiros, which has been filling the theater “Ilisia-Volanaki” since October on Wednesdays and weekends. It was written in 2008, but there is not a trace of dust on it.

A young girl is arrested for stealing lipstick from a cosmetics store. Hours later, her worried grandfather tries to help his granddaughter, who is accused of resisting the authorities. And then, as the author notes, a whole state apparatus comes into play to fight the “crime”.

In the play directed by Giorgos Pirpasopoulos, Maria Katsandri, Christos Saputzis, Panagos Ioakheim and Natalia Swift share two roles. Katsandra plays an implacable police officer, but also a housekeeper in the judge’s house, “a tool of power and its opposite, controlled” as says “K”. “One sets conditions, and the other cannot set conditions. They differ in their moral attitude to life and things. A police officer cannot do anything except what the law requires. The project is out of bounds.”

In his note, Yannis Tsiros argues that “the law is equal for all. But people are not equal,” and adds: “Socially weak offenders appear to be more guilty. I have seen them plead for leniency in court, using their own weakness as an extenuating circumstance. (…) Weak criminals are eliminated, strong ones survive.”

Maria Katsandri explains that “every day we see a lack of justice in a society of deviations”, and cites the cases of P. Philippidis and D. Lignadis as an example. “Both are at home. But put one of the characters in the play in their place. For example, a grandfather who wants to help his granddaughter. No matter how weak he is, without acquaintances, where would he be today?

He emphasizes that “these two people, or others we do not know, and some who have died and done the same and much worse, do not define the space of culture. These situations may continue, but I think the ‘I can do whatever I want’ arrogance will be limited.”

Time wants them for the keyboard – but I hope for the young ones, because I have met many educated and educated people.

She herself, at the age of 19, survived an attempted rape by someone who is no longer alive. “I believe that many women have found themselves in this condition. But I was a wild little girl, I didn’t give a shit. Not everyone reacts that way.”

She emphasizes that in her space there was the power of the director or producer to do whatever they want, and adds, “But we also have the power. I wonder how they, producers and directors, did not understand that without actors they do not exist.

Artistic theater

City lover Maria Katsandri has lived in Lofo Skus for many years and cycles to work. She was born in Chicago to an immigrant father who lived there for 50 years, while her mother lived there for 10 years. She was 17 months old when they returned home at the urging of her mother, whom she followed to performances at the National Theater as a child. Once she took that mother to a play, but to the Art Theater. The show that marked her: Car Graveyard by F. Arabal directed by K. Kun, with Maia Limberopoulou, Mimi Kuyumci and others.

She dreamed of studying ethnology and philosophy, but gambling made her an actress. While she was preparing for the introductions, a friend said to her: “What are you reading and getting tired? You are destined to be an actress.” “So I gave it to the theater studio of the Art Theater to prove her wrong.” However, she passed the school, and soon the world of Kun took over her. So much so that when he passed the Faculty of Philosophy at AUTI, he did not even go for registration. In the theater for 46 years.

She is not repelled by theatrical overabundance. “They are doing well and they are building teams. Of these, new projects, actors and directors will appear. Today, young people have a harder time and are poorer. There is no education that the older generation probably had. We were taught by the ancients, inner, conscious richness, which the young do not know. Times require them before the keyboard, and many do not know how to write, do not understand some concepts, do not know who Solomon, Kalvos are, do not understand the language of Papadiamantis. But I hope for the youth, because I have met many who study and educate.”

We close the discussion by returning the public to the theatres, but he comments pointedly: “They come to see the inept. Isn’t that how the government treats us?” Before, I ask? “As specialists,” answers M. Katsandri, “because we graduated from higher educational institutions. At some point, the actor’s license was revoked, but we did not lose our diploma. Higher education institutions were accredited by the state. Now they are devaluing art history by equating diplomas with high school diplomas. But every child who completed three years of study at the theater studio read something and learned something. After all, in recent years they have been considered by two cultural commissions. Children spend time as participants. What do these committees at the entrance and exit of the school mean? So we are not laborers. But the authorities are afraid of art, because they cannot control it.”