A cold rainy day of February 2020 I got easily lost
(together with a friend who supposedly knew how to get to the little multimedia space of Vault theatre and who had invited me there)
at the Keramikos area of central Athens.
Finally we found the VAULT place and waited outside for the theatre room II to open its doors to the all female production of "FELICE and LILLY" based on a Greek text (by Helena Karasavidou) that was itself based on the book Lilly told to a writer towards the end of her life.
Both texts are telling the real love story of two very different women in Nazi Germany towards the end of the war, the story of Lilly, a naive German mother and wife of a Nazi soldier and of Felice, a sofisticated Jew woman courageously dancing away the fear of betrayal and imminent death.
I have read Lilly's memoir and had seen the cinematic fiction under the tittle of "Aimée and Jaguar"
many, many years ago in one of women cinema festivals either in Florence or Creteil or maybe in London, could not remember where, only that it belonged to the classical stories totally intergrated into my mind and heart.
I was curious to see this all female Greek version at this lovely, tiny, doll like theatre situated 10 min from Acropolis at the heart of what remained of the Athenian red light district full of cafés and restaurants.
My expectations were low as I did not expect them to add anything to this classic, almost Shakespearian tale of absolute love and dedication beyond the tragic spirit of its historical time and the divisons race and gender commanded.
Happily I was to be disappointed in my blasé, quite cynical attitude as I saw very quickly from the first moments of Katerina Polyhronopoulou's production and direction.
The invisible curtains open and we are in the presence of old Lilly (the touching young actress and very pregnant Dimitra Syrou) reminiscing about her bitter sweet youth and the beginning of what had seemed inimaginable to the naive young Nazi wife and mother that she has been:
meeting up with a cultivated and full of life woman named Felice with whom she was to fall in love head over heels and later discover that she was also a Jew.
The wonderful idea of placing two Lillies on stage, the old one opening the scene in her day dreaming and the young one (the delicate Dimitra Vamvakari) that does not exist anymore and the carnal and explosive ghost of Felice (in the wonderful multilayered performance of Elena Tyrea) who inevitably died in the war.
Three actresses working in unison as one body giving flesh and bones to the tragic love story between those two so unlikely lovers, an experience so intense that managed to cross Lilly's own existence, become a tale she told on and off camera and then a documentary, a classic fiction film with the title of "Aimée and Jaguar" and a book of memoirs all dedicated to her life long love, Felice.
And also a nostalgic souvenir in all of us who knew about it, a nostalgic void screaming to be heard inside our busy and yet so inhabited lives.
I said it and shall say it again, A Romea and Jiulietta in Nazi times where impossibility was dressed in gender (two women) and race (one a free German and one a persecuted Jew) clothes that were not permitted to exist neither privately nor socially, historically.
The actresses minimalistic and also densily impressionistic performances are greatly helped and enhanced by the rest of this all women crew, the lighting (so suggestive and intense in creating shadows and ecstasis), the choreography (this carnal tale of desire and love never becomes vulgar or banal), the music (so nostalgic, painful and happy when appropriate), the costumes (Aggelina Pagoni), the theatrical dramatic props (letters, historical objects, old looking photographs), all work together wonderfully to bring to life two ghosts that seem more real than ourselves during the hour and a half the performance/play lasts.
I was very impressed by this organic collaboration where all personal vanity was exiled and put into the service of the dramatic truth making the experience for the audience so vivid, so touching, so full of organic tensions and spasms.
Concerning the content, what I liked most in this interpretation of the classical love theme was the fact that did not wish to polemically underline and promote or defend homosexuality, it was so matter of fact in its approach as life is to all of us.
Another element I appreciated is the way they approched love; love is seen as a life force that wins everything and shines with its own light transfiguring everything in its passage, going beyond time, beyond death, beyond history, beyond propaganda of any kind to become a sort of universal test of truth and of value.
Love as a metaphysical power house lighting up the torch of what is true and of what is right and beautiful.
Utopic, you say?
I prefer their humanistic, lovers utopia to your single, solipsistic, apocalyptic dystopia that the COVID19 just came to undeline.
A big bravo to all the cast and a shout out to European theatres and festivals
that might be interested to invite them over.
They are able and willing!
Eviva Art and Eviva Love!
And Thank YOU...
(c) Haris Metaxa, Chaumont sur Yonne, 3/4/2020
music theme by Maria Voumvaki https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKz26PSKyHI
the memoir in book form https://www.ebooks.com/en-fr/book/2509103/aimee-jaguar/fischer-erica/?src=feed&gclid=CjwKCAjwvZv0BRA8EiwAD9T2VTpYKsfjqcg_NShf7KG8ijZ86Xp2KGehVraIfxX8iCTRcLcfPlefjBoCLPYQAvD_BwE
Fiction Aimée and Jaguar here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSen_TP1DoQ
