Actor and director Konstantinos Moraitis knew the Costalexi case as a myth. When he was young and spent a lot of time at home, his family teased him, “You’ve become Costalexi.” On the occasion of the pandemic, he watched it and learned more about the story that shocked the entire country in 1978 and became a serial in the newspapers of the time.

Then an anonymous complaint to the police revealed the horror that had been going on for decades in the village of Kostalexi in Central Greece, where parents kept their daughter Eleni Karioti locked up in their basement for 29 years. “Many knew but didn’t reveal themselves,” says Konstantinos Moraitis “K,” who is inspired by the incident and is presenting the story at Thesion Theater with the 812:Coal Theater Company from today.

“In the photographs published in the newspapers of the time, Eleni Kariotis looked like a frightened wild animal. In addition, after the complaint, not only the gendarme went to the family’s house, but also the prosecutor, journalist and photographer. Instead of immediate headline first aid, photographs were taken. Unfortunately, even today there are similar situations in rural areas, as well as in small popular areas of Athens, where it matters what the neighbor says.”

There were many options for what happened to her. “They said she was a beautiful girl who fell in love with a rebel. The second version was that she fell in love with a communist teacher, and the third – that there was heredity in mental problems, ”says K. Moraitis and adds. “A relative claimed that during the Civil War he saw a woman stabbed to death, and since then he has been in trouble. Along the way, she fell in love with a rebel she was giving information to, and when her family found out, they put her in jail. Every version is possible, and every one has loopholes.”

Elena Triantafillopoulou and Artemis Psilopoulou took over the investigation of the case and writing the text, while the actor and director took up editing and dramaturgy. For seven months, they searched for materials in the press of the time, testimonies, interviews, as well as court records in the archives of parliament. “The only contrived part of the show is some of Helen’s monologues. We wanted to approach her character in a more dreamy way.”

K. Moraitis explains that this is no ordinary project. He moves in the context of dramaturgy, which he studied at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London in 2016, after the drama school of the Athens Conservatory. The son of a journalist and actor, he realized the importance of research and truth, as well as the need for self-expression on stage. “There is enough physicality in the performance, we move in realistic contexts in relation to the acting line, this is not a theater of form. We change images, the stage is naked, so we play in the theater lobby, because it’s like a dungeon.”

“We focus on the pathogenicity of the family and society in relation to the mentally ill,” says Mr. Moraitis.

What prompted him, along with Alkisti Nikolaidis (who plays the heroine) and Zografia Mendesidou, to present Costalexi? “That this woman, Eleni Kariotis, has actually disappeared since 1998. Some claimed she was locked up in a convent, but we were told by a psychologist that monasteries don’t accept mentally ill people. We were also concerned that in the legal process that followed after she was found in the basement of the house, her siblings, who continued to keep her locked up after her parents’ death, were acquitted. The transcripts of the trial are heard in the program.

Family

Does he fit the show from the point of view of the victim or the perpetrator? “Initially, we look from the side of the parent, who considers the child his property and often becomes his dictator. According to the psychiatric hospital where she was treated, Eleni was diagnosed with schizophrenic schizophrenia. The father, wanting to protect her, according to another version, took her home. We focus on the pathogenesis of the attitude of the family and society towards the mentally ill. It worries me that these days we don’t let justice or scientists do their job. We have seen this in the behavior of some of the opponents of vaccination, as well as in other cases. In Greece, where the death penalty has been abolished, some say that So-and-so “wants to hang himself in the Constitution.” The rule of law cannot act with anger.”

If he had to choose, Konstantinos would declare himself an actor. He enjoyed learning different characters from a young age. He followed his dream in Athens, amid the financial crisis. Hard landing after school years, he admits. “Today I am not as romantic about the theater as I was during my studies. But I see in the eyes of students the desire “we will change the world.” He teaches at the first courses of the theater studio Etniko.

At 33, what does he want from the theater? “Working with directors, working in a theater that I love, but other than that, I no longer know what a dream means. I dream of shelter and food. I love theater, but it’s not my life. And then there’s family, friends, love, a baby, a date.”

Costalexi, Tision Theatre, Friday and Saturday at 23:30, Sunday at 22:30.