Archived Performances
Rigas Velestinlis - Fereos,
a play by Takis Chrisoulis
The play
In
order for someone to portray fully a historic personage must evince
with explicitness, time and social background. And moreover I
believe that plays are not fictional biographies. But through
theatrical action raises the characters and facts depict. With these
in mind and through the sparingness of theatric act, I tried with
simple, clear dialogue and humor, to show the epoch, Rigas
personality, lifework and influence in the struggle of Greek nation
for freedom.
The hypothesis evolves initially, with Rigas' return from Triesti in
Vienna (1797). There, among the Greek community patriots, he makes
the last preparations for secret descent to slaved Greece. It
follows their treason and arrest in Triesti, return and inquisition
in Vienna, transport and death in Belgrade.
The play closes during the Greek revolution in a tavern in
unfettered Nafplio, where Rigas' influence -and his comrades- is
revealed and how their sacrifice contributed on the fighting Greeks
mettle.
The writer,
Takis Chrisoulis
-
Takis Chrisoulis play: "Rigas Velestinlis
Fereos", published from "DODONIS Publications". Greece, Athens,
November 1999.
Short Bio of Rigas Velestinlis Fereos
Rigas
Velestinlis Fereos, [(1757-1798) born in Velestino of Thessaly]
He left Theassaly probably because he offended a Turk. He went to
study in Constantinople and later in Vlahia. Rigas, who had served a
number of Phanariote hospodars in the Danubian principalities, spent
part of the 1790s in Vienna. There he had come under the influence
of the French Revolution, as is manifest in a number of
revolutionary tracts he had printed ("Declaration of the Rights of
Man" and a "New Political Constitution of the Inhabitants of Rumeli,
Asia Minor, the Islands of the Aegean, and the principalities of
Moldavia and Wallachia.") He intended to distribute them in an
effort to stimulate a Pan-Balkan uprising against the Ottomans.
But Rigas' ambitious schemes ended prematurely. A fellow Greek
betrayed him to the Austrian authorities that promptly handed him
and a small group of "co-conspirators" over to the Ottoman
authorities. They were strangulated by Ottomans in Belgrade in the
summer of 1798.
Rigas' death couldn't end his influence on Greeks and a lot of
holdovers finally led the Greeks in a revolution. Not only that but
his Pan-Balcanic ideas continue to live until today.
Kesariani Theatre Production
Produced
by Kesariani theatre. 1999-2001.
Director: Spyros Konstandinidis
Scene & costume: Katerina Syrianoglou
Music: Kostas Mavrandis
Cast:
Narrator: Haris Aronis
Margarita: Alice Katsavou
Argendis: Takis Chrisoulis
Panagis: Andreas Konstandinides
Perrevos: Nikos Grizanis
Officer Hoyler: Elias Androvitsaneas
Rigas: Giannis Tsikis
Commanding officer Pergen: Thanos Kanousis
Guard: Elias Androvitsaneas
Pasha: Thanos Kanousis
Taverner: Giannis Economides
Artistic Direction: Theatromathia
