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 27th 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 1st 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 21st 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.
These past few weeks have been all about the research for me. My performance has the potential to be something unique, something that the Lincolnshire audience has never seen. Nevertheless it also has the potential to become very messy.
To make sure my solo performance is successful, I needed to pinpoint my ideas down for the show and “think about the impact it will have on an audience” (Twaits, 2015). Within the solo performance module, the artist is present during the show and this “allows the artist to have complete creative control and tell the story they want to tell which is rare to find elsewhere in the industry” (Twaits, 2015).
With this in mind, I will be focussing on two key practitioners Eric Bogosian and Spalding Gray. I believe that both these practitioners fit well within the show I want to achieve. There performances are inspiring and engaging through the use of their autobiographical storytelling. A technique which I will be using throughout my performance to help me tell the stories of the Greek Cypriot community.
Twaits, M. (2015). WHAT MAKES A GREAT SOLO PERFORMANCE?. [Blog] Roundhouse Radio. Available at: http://www.roundhouse.org.uk/blog/2015/12/what-makes-a-great-solo-performance/ [Accessed 23 Apr. 2016].
So, I have been struggling to come up with an idea for some time now.
I have been trying to think of something different, but something entertaining of course and fun. There is nothing worse then doing something that you don’t enjoy right? Speaking with my papa, I told him I couldn’t come up with an idea.He suggested doing it on my heritage.
So I’m Greek Cypriot.
Therefore there is so much i could talk about, do about etc etc. So much!
Have you ever seen the film My Big Fat Greek Wedding?!
Brilliant film, Love it. Absolutely hilarious!
Yes it is a little over the top and exaggerated. We are not all like that, thank goodness!
So yes being Greek Cypriot, my family are loud, it is a big family and everyone knows each other’s business and it can be annoying but I love them dearly and wouldn’t change them for the world.
The Greek culture is great.
The food is beaut. The family is always trying to feed you! If my Yiayia’s (Grandma’s) offer you food and you don’t take it. Your in big trouble mate. So yeah, you get fat.
The party’s are so much fun! The dancing, traditional Greek dancing is great! If you want to make money on your wedding day, marry someone Greek they pin money on you!
Family! You have so many family members! First cousins, second cousin, third cousins. My cousins are like my best friends! We are super close! Family gathering’s are great- every Sunday there’s like 30 of us! That’s just my immediate family. You cant just invite one person, you have to invite everyone!
The alcohol is deadly! Tastes a bit like medicine! However gets you super drunk if your going out with friends! Ouzo and Zivania! Just drink it.
Cyprus is actually beautiful! Probably thinking I’m Biased. But i love it!
So here’s the thing. In 1974 Turkey invaded the North of Cyprus and it is now divided in two. Before this happened a lot of my relatives lived on that side. They said it was absolutely beautiful. Both my Yiayias villages were on that side. A lot of my family had to find new homes and were banished from that side of the country. Many became refugees. My family sometimes tell me story’s of what there lifes were like over there. Thousands who lost there homes. 42 Years later and it is still very raw for some people. The saddest part is The Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots lived in harmony before this had happened. They were friends, neighbours. It was not just Greek Cypriots who lost there homes but Turkish Cypriots also. Some of the Turkish Cypriots decided to join force with the Turkish troops who invaded and some did not. There was a huge divide and many left homeless and hurt.
I had never crossed to the Northern part of Cyprus until last year when I went on holiday. So, first of all if you wanted to drive across, you would have to pay which I believed to be absolutely shocking. So me, my Cousin and Auntie walked across. We had to show our passports and once they had seen I was Greek Cypriot, I felt as though I was looked at and treated differently. I was extremely uncomfortable. Walking through i could see some of the damage and ruins of the buildings, how sad they looked. Me and my family were constantly watched and being stared at. It was not a nice feeling at all. The writings on the walls were no longer Greek but Turkish. A local church had been damaged. It was upsetting and even though I was not there at the time it happened, it upset me. Crossing the borders to the Northern part of Cyprus, I had received a text from Vodafone my network provider. Welcome to Turkey! I was furious! Was that some sort of a joke. I’m sorry but we are in Cyprus not Turkey. That got me raging. So many rules, we were not allowed to buy anything from the Turkish side or they would confiscate it from you, when you would try to cross back over. It just was not a nice feeling. I had, had enough. It was time to go back.
I’ve been told and have heard that the Northern part of Cyprus was beautiful and still is in certain parts. However there is a lot of damage too. Apparently they have the best beaches. I have seen pictures, it looks amazing. It saddens me that I will never be able to experience it for myself. It saddens me that I will never really get to know what my family’s villages were like. The saddest part is, too this day I have really good friends who are Turkish Cypriot but that’s all it could ever be. If I was to ever get feelings for someone who is Turkish Cypriot, it could never work out. Even though me and that person could like each other, our family’s would never accept it. They would never allow it and there would be so much against it. That is how raw this war is still for some people. I hope in generations to come it does settle, because it isn’t a nice feeling. Just because i am Greek and someone is Turkish doesn’t mean we are involved with this war. Just because someone is Turkish or Turkish Cypriot doesn’t mean they are a bad person but it could only ever be friends and with some people that is totally fine but with others there not even allowed to be friends. Its so sad but unfortunately that’s how it is for many people.
So, I’m in a predicament of what i can do for my performance. I know its going to be on Greek Heritage however I don’t know what as there is so much.
I could do it on the culture, the dancing, the food, the music, the family life, have some autobiographical parts and some comedic acting parts.
Or
I could do it on the War and what happened and incorporate an autobiographical performance.
Or
What I’m favouring towards the most is a show incorporating of all elements together, some of the history, some of family life, some of the culture. Using autobiographical techniques, naturalistic techniques but also devising techniques so I can break out in to performances with some comedic light hearted aspects.
I have a vision of what my set could look like. Possibly set up in a Greek Type restaurant with tables and Greek food and drink.
This is all ideas for now. I’m hoping to be clearer on my thoughts soon.
YouTube. (2016). My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) Official Trailer #1 – Nia Vardalos Movie HD. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2mecmDFE-Q [Accessed 25 May 2016].
