The well-known to all Greeks bucolic idyll between Golfo and Tassos, will revive for only one night, at the ancient theater of Epidaurus on August 16. The play, directed by Nikos Karathanos, enchanted during the winter season the Athenian audience who went to watch it at the National Theater’s theatrical stage, Marika Kotopouli, at the Rex.
“He wanted her. She wanted him very much. In the end, they both died. A very nice play.” Golfo and Tassos in threefold: love, betrayal, death. In the bucolic dramatic idyll written by Spyros Peresiadis in 1893, Golfo and Tassos swear eternal love to each other. Golfo stays loyal, but Tasos betrays her. The pain of betrayed love is redeemed from death, as if Golfo was a Shakespearean Juliet. Karathanos takes us to a dark “black” dream in the mountains of Helmos, while keeping the traditional decapentasyllabic verse of the fifteen syllables, he manages to renew the play and give it new life for one night in Epidaurus.
In the mountain village where the waters of the River Styx flow, the young Golfo and Tassos swear eternal love to one another. True to her word, Golfo rejects a nobleman who wishes to marry her, but Tassos breaks his oath and agrees to wed a rich young woman instead. When he changes his mind, it is too late and the forces of destiny continue their inevitable conclusion.
Linked with the historical tradition of traveling theater troupes, Golfo is almost synonymous with this aspect of the Greek theater. However, despite its unusual language and localized character, Peresiadis’s play is charged with emotion and technically is every bit as proficient as dramas from better-known names. Romantic rivalries, moral dilemmas and heartrending choices run through this important example of Greek theatrical heritage. Nikos Karathanos and his cast and crew approach Golfo with sensitivity and reveal it to be a genuine theatrical gem.
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