A Brilliant Elegy for Anthoula Stathopoulou

In the performance A Brilliant Elegy for Anthoula Stathopoulou, a poetess walks the fine line between life and death. As her end is near, she strives to hold onto the words she has served throughout her life. Giannis Soldatos and Efi Venianakis’ direction focuses on the meticulous handling and special accentuation of every word. Words turn into “stage props” and are pronounced with special emphasis, without mannerisms. The themes of human existential agony, decay, and death remain boldly relevant in this work’s poetic universe, as our era is also confronted with the same enduring questions.

Anthoula Stathopoulou passed away at the age of 27, in spring 1935, leaving behind a significant poetic body of work. In the exhibition accompanying the performance, the present day is linked to the past, through photographs from abandoned sanatoria, not as a realistic account but as a visual historiography. Their special identity leads them into the complex paths revealed by memory in 20th-century mythography.