The Suede Jacket

A play by Stanislav Stratiev
translated by Notis Paraskevopoulos

Theatrical Season:

2016-2017 [Opening: November 12, 2016]

Venue:

PK Theater

Creative Team:

Director: Notis Paraskevopoulos
Movement: Yiannis Polyzos
Set design: Myrsini Maneta
Costumes: Konstantina Maltezou
Music Supervisor: Notis Paraskevopoulos - Yiannis Polizos
Lighting design: Nikos Zairis
Set construction: Gerasimos Maltezos
Photography - Teaser video: Giorgos Charisis
Visual Communication: Nikos Gazetas

Cast:

Boss / Zhoro / First farmer / Ivanov Panos Kalantzis
Head of Department (voice) Stephanos Kyriakides
Second farmer / Hanging Man’s wife / Dermendzhieva Konstantina Maltezou
Ivan Antonov / Hanging Man’s son Dimitris Mamios
Bureaucrat / Hanging Man (voice) / Housewife Notis Paraskevopoulos
Barber / Eugene / Diko / Psychiatrist Tasos Tziviskos
The production toured the cities of Patras (Lithographeion Theater), Nafpaktos (Technourgeion) and Tripoli (Malliaropouleion Municipal Theater).

About the play

Ivan Antonov bought a jacket… somehow too hairy. Now, he is obligated to pay a tax on his sheep. That is, the jacket he breeds. That is, the sheep he is wearing. The absurdity of civil servants who represent the state-beast, crushes every hope for justice and the only solution seems to be the dilemma between madness and a lonely crusade against the system.

Director’s Note

Written in 1976, The Suede Jacket, remains timely with the author’s writing still fitting perfectly into Greek reality, 40 years later. Using the scourge of bureaucracy as a main subject and the Odyssey of Ivan Antonov in a public organization as a medium to present it, Stratiev deconstructs the State with his satire by setting rules that appear absurd leaving the protagonists powerless in front of the system. The truth, trapped in piles of circulars, instructions and reports, struggles to find its way out quickly getting lost again in the lockers of the forgotten corridors. The system, acting as an evolutionary hurdle, traps and eventually crushes the citizen who dares to escape.

Along with his satire and through his heroes, Stratiev also seeks the long lost time. The time translated into hours and growing into weeks, passes by like the wind through the repeating seasons while the man stays unchanged as an antefix waiting for "Someone to come, something to happen…” as Dermendzhieva confesses.

2016, marked 40 years for Stratiev's work and 35 since it’s first performance in Greece by director Spyros Evangelatos. Introducing a new translation, the production run with the official support of the Embassy of Bulgaria.
crossmenuchevron-down linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram