SIMPLE AND FLAWLESS "TROJAN WOMEN" BY LEONIDAS LOIZIDES

We had the honor to host in our island, Ios, at the 13^th of August the play "Trojan Women" of Euripides under the direction of Mr Leonidas Loizides.

Given that in Ios we rarely host such ambitious productions, we were anticipating the event and the interest of locals was admittedly high. Especially when the music is signed by the great Mikis Theodorakis and the translation belongs to Michael Kakoyiannis, every Greek wants to be present.

I stood in awe when I first set my eyes on the actors. On a small stage, the lights over the women's bodies were giving out the war atmosphere before speech took over. The costumes of Georgia Koniaviti were signaling the misery, the abandoning, the violence and the despair.

While the plot was evolving I was thinking that a director does not need luxurious components if he knows how to work well his basic elements, the actors and the script. It's obvious that Leonidas Loizides has focused on these. The protagonists with their solid speech were moving with precision on stage, achievement that was helped by the translation of Michael Kakoyiannis that renders the deep meanings of the script with such excellence. Every movement had its own purpose whether it was accompanied by speech or not. All the parts were performed with passion and coherence by this new blood of actors. The stentorious speech was astonishing. The dead-end of the war, the never ending cycle of violence that has no winners or losers, was all out there, in front of our eyes.

The lyrical part holds an exceptional place in Loizides' work. The amazing music of Theodorakis was used with originality ending up being a major component of the performance. The ethereal chorus with voices of angels was surrounding with softness the deep pain of the Trojans. The imaginative ending adds the last detail of this piece of art signed by Leonidas Loizides.

Finally, I'd like to congratulate Mr Andreas Dimitriou, Minister of Education and Culture of Cypriot Democracy who supports the aforementioned production and its upcoming world tour. I wish for the rest of places around Greece to have the same luck as we had in Ios, because this is our heritage. This theatre, the deep and meaningful, is a gift for every Greek around the world.