I’m dying as a country (2019)

I’m dying as a country, D.Dimitriadis, directed by Roula Pateraki

Dimitris Dimitriadis’s really famous text “I’m dying as a country”, first published in a magazine in 1978 and as a book in 1979, is a flammable, feverish, visionary, violent, insane, prophetic, timeless text that gently describes the story of the end of a society, the end of a “Country”, the scary end of an era – which could be ours.It is still up-to-date and inspiring in many ways. This is the reason why it will be presented by the Piraeus Municipal Theater, directed by Roula Pateraki – in three different places, three different dates and three total different directions.

The first performance entitled “The Excursion” will take place in the Fish Market of Keratsini, with a large group of women actresses and men actors on Sunday, February 17, the same day that the historic Varkiza Agreement was signed, on February 1945.

Actors, Actresses who are participating: Angeliki Pardalidou, Aris Antonopoulos Eugenia Vagia, Spiros Varelis, Evri Sofroniadou, Niki Sereti, Michalis Panadis, Danai Papoutsi, Myrto Rigou, Nana Papadaki, Evantia Kourmouli, Vangelis Vogiatzis, Eftichia Giomela,Serafita Grigoriadou, Alexis Diamantis, Maria Legaki, Dora Stilianesi, Nikos Mavrakis, Dimitra Christogiannopoulou, Dimitris Siganos, Irena Ikonomou, Fotini Souleimani, Yiannis Harbatsis, Tasia Sofianidou, Asimeni Tounda, Nektarios Smirnakis, Dimitris Tsiklis

The second performance, entitled “The Breath”, will be presented on Wednesday, March 13, at the Main Stage of the Piraeus Municipal Theater, reminding the inevitable saying: “People have disappeared forever in the night of their death, but they will always been known as “the great actors of the city of Piraeus ”.

This show is dedicated to Veaki, Katraki, Tsarouchi, Pikionis, Papanoutso, Kriara, Papamichael, Rodiri, Kougioumtzi, Ploritis, Marketaki, Karali, Diamantidou.

The third performance entitled “The Extermination” will be presented at the underground subway station in Piraeus on Tuesday, April 9, reminding that April 9, 1940, is the day that German army invaded in Thessaloniki.

The main and greater part of this short but so dense prose is narrative. It narrates the various passions and sufferings of a country in a state of crisis and collapse – not just for external reasons, but mainly because of the internal rotting and corruption at all levels.

The storytelling is long and often interrupted by silences, leading to a rapacious, violent and desperate female monologue. The author’s writing style has been influenced by many aspects of Greek language. With an intrusive outburst that resembles a confession, it creates an unprecedented literary alchemy where homicide, humiliation, mockery, rape are combined with the ferocity of solitude and prayer.

Above all, however, Dimitris Dimitriadis did something unique with this work: he created a hallucinatory cosmic universe in which the vigorous launch of a national subconscious towards the absolute zero is wiped out. There is nothing beyond that …