2002
The three short stories Will you Please be Quiet Please?, Gazebo and Sacks by Raymond Carver were dramatized and performed as three separate one-act plays was performed at the Experimental Stage of the National Theater of Greece during the Empty Space festival of in May 2002.
The director's approach serves a more complete reading. What these three stories have in common on stage is not only the theme of marital infidelity, but also their visual connection and above all, the fact that one actress has been chosen to play the leading female character, whereas the male characters are played by three different actors. This makes the audience wonder if we are after all watching the same couple in the course of its relationship, rather than the stories of three different couples. In spite of the apparent tensions in the action, the latter develops through pauses and silences. Although one can distinguish impasses, and there is a tone of bitterness, at the same time there is a pervasive sense that life is bigger than us and always moves forward.
Set in an intensely American landscape, but also transcending time and place through its moving universality, the production of Small Silly Sins takes the audience on a journey and an exploration of those small silly pleasures we constantly miss, in our constant attempt and need to define them. These are stories that scare and embarrass us; stories that will remain inside us, as the myth unfolds in tormenting slowness.
Original Text: Raymond Carver
Translation-Adaptation-Direction: Avra Sidiropoulou
Set-costume design: Assi Dimitrolopoulou
Lighting design: Panayotis Manousis
Choreography: Syrmati Hatzipetrou
Original Music Score: Christos Alexopoulos
Actors:
Ralph: Thanassis Vlavianos
Marianne, Holly, Sally: Marianna Kalbari
Duane: Diamantis Karanastasis
Les: Nestor Kopsidas
Mr. Palmer: Yorgos Charalambidis