This is one of my all time favourite Greek songs by an artist called Panos Kiamos. The song is called Fire with Fire, I actually got the privilege to see him live in London at the forum in Kentish Town. I will be incorporating this very loved song in to my performance as it is a well known track from the majority of the Greek community. The performance wont feel authentic for me this particular song does not have a part.

Lyrics
Θάλασσα η αγάπη καράβι το κρεβάτι
του έρωτα την ώρα τώρα τώρα
φλόγες στα σεντόνια πληρωμένα λόγια
και τα θέλω όλα όλα όλα..

Φωτιά με φωτιά, φωτιά με φωτιά
φωτιά στο φιλί φωτιά στο κορμί
φωτιά στην καρδιά, φωτιά με φωτιά
χημεία ζημιά σε καίω με καις
σε θέλω με θες ξανά και ξανά

Κόλαση η αγάπη πάθος δίχως άκρη
και ο ιδρώτας στάζει στάζει στάζει
και στο μαξιλάρι κόκκινο φεγγάρι
μεθυσμένο μοιάζει μοιάζει αχ μοιάζει

Φωτιά με φωτιά, φωτιά με φωτιά
φωτιά στο φιλί φωτιά στο κορμί
φωτιά στην καρδιά, φωτιά με φωτιά
χημεία ζημιά σε καίω με καις
σε θέλω με θες ξανά και ξανά

Lyrics Translated 

Sea love boat bed

Love the time now now

Flames linen inclusive words

and I want all all all ..

Fire with fire, fire with fire

Fire kiss fire body

Fire heart, fire with fire

Chemical damage to burn to burn

I want to want again and again

Hell love passion without end

and the sweat drip drip drip

and pillow red moon

Drunken looks like ah like

Fire with fire, fire with fire

Fire kiss fire body

Fire heart, fire with fire

Chemical damage to burn to burn

I want to want again and again

The lyrics are translated the best they can be, word for word mirroring the Greek lyrics.

YouTube. (2016). Giannis Ploutarxos – To xastouki tis agapis. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDYHQG49vLs [Accessed 3 May 2016].

For the majority, Easter Sunday was on the 27^th March 2016.

You are probably thinking that’s weird, what do I mean for the majority?

Well there is two Easters! Your now probably thinking, how can there be two Easters?

The common religion for Greek Cypriots is Christian/Greek Orthodox which means we celebrate Easter on a different day. Weird right? I think it’s so weird and annoying.

Occasionally our Easter will fall on the same day. The majority of times it doesn’t. Greek Easter this year was on this bank holiday weekend, the 1^st May.

The dates are different because they are based on the ancient Julian calendar. “Although most of the world now follows the Gregorian calendar, the Eastern Orthodox Church still uses the earlier Julian calendar for calculating the dates of festivals such as Easter that are not fixed” (Bentley, 2016).

I’m a believer of God however I don’t really go to church as much as I should but I always make sure I pray at home. At Easter I always go to church, however this year being at university and having many assessments around the time period, I missed out. I was gutted and still am. Greek Easter is thoroughly enjoyable and it’s so nice being around friends and family. At Church you always see so many familiar faces and everyone is so happy. Everyone always dresses up in their best clothes because they know the whole Greek community is going to be at church! Young and old. There are always those few people who are secretly judging you, to see if your outfit is nice enough!

I am disappointed that I missed out on all my family being together and having that quality time with one another! I missed out on my Yiayias cooking! Greek cakes, eggs and the dinner! Greek Easter is a huge celebration for the Greek community and some say that it is on par with Christmas.

Bentley, D. (2016). When is Greek Easter in 2016? Why is it different and everything you need to know. [online] birminghammail. Available at: http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/greek-easter-2016-different-everything-9002486 [Accessed 3 May 2016].

YouTube. (2016). What Happens On Greek Easter. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtLquZ6akpo [Accessed 3 May 2016].

“Theatre matters because it’s the last actual live form of human communication between people whereby you can express the most fundamental thoughts, ideas, emotions that exist in society and do it instantaneously and it has a direct contact with people” (Bruno and Dixon, 2014, 5).

The point of my performance is to educate and introduce the Greek Cypriot heritage and community to the Lincolnshire audience, incorporating an underlying theme of ‘bitter sweetness’. My home town in the UK is London, Wembley to be precise where the Greek Cypriot community is huge. In North London there are many Greeks and people know about us and our ways. They probably hear us before they see us! Greeks are known for being extremely loud.

Well yes, I do love being Greek and I couldn’t imagine being anything else. My friends and people who get to know me are always saying “I wish my family were like yours, always together around each other, so close” etc. Yeah it’s great and I love my family dearly however having this stereotypical, loud, big Greek family can have its limits. At times I could just be sitting there thinking “give me a break” it can get all too much.  The reason for this bitter sweet theme.

Being Greek comes with a lot of baggage and expectations too. For example the War between Cyprus and Turkey. Even though I was not alive when it happened, there is still bitter rivalry’s! My Grandmas (Yiayia’s) I love them but sometimes with their old fashioned ways, it can be a bit too much. I’m sitting here wishing they would get to grips with this generation and the 21^st century! I suppose they could be worse and believe in (Proxenia) which basically means having an arranged marriage. I can’t believe some families of the Greek Community use to do that! One of my Yiayias had an arranged marriage! Poor woman no offence to my grandad (Bapou).

Being fluent in the Greek Language is amazing, I still sometimes can’t believe I speak two languages! The Greek language is not one of the easiest to learn either. My friends and people who meet me always think it’s amazing and are always getting me to say loads of words. That sounds cool, right? Well it’s not cool how I learn though.  So of course when you are younger, you go to school Monday to Friday. Well us Greeks had to go to school on Saturday, Greek School. How boring. My friends would always go out and have plans for the weekend. But us, Greek kids would have to miss out as we only got Sunday off and Sunday is family day.

This is my life and my community. This is all I know and I want to incorporate my stories with other people’s stories. A Greek Cypriot experience through an autobiographical performance. Viewing moments of laughter and light-heartedness clashing with the challenges of being raised as a Greek Cypriot. I want to share this bitter sweet feeling with the audience and educate them, while being educated myself from them.

“The audience becomes the director. When you get in front of the audience their response their attitudes, their laughter, their silence, will tell you, will teach you. A one man show is live a love affair with an audience. It’s a very private thing” (Bruno and Dixon, 2014, 5).

Bruno, S. and Dixon, L. (2014). Creating solo performance. New York: Routledge.