by Elias Kapetanakis

THE SOIREE

From 20 April 2024

Away From Home

An unexpected matchmaking visit to a middle-class Athenian home is the springboard for a series of misunderstandings, quarrels and surprises. The apparently formal encounter between the Stenos family and Mr and Mrs Neroulos, which is mocked mercilessly, ends in absurdist disaster.

The soiree, written in 1894, is a trenchant one-act comedy of manners laced with acerbic barbs. The writer portrays the world of his time, outlining the weakness and moral sickness of its inhabitants. Ignorance, obsession with all things foreign, hypocrisy and buffoonery are carefully dissected, highlighting attitudes and opinions of the past as individual and collective symptoms of the present.

Taking a playful approach to the comic dialogue, familiar characters and humorous situations of Kapetanakis’s play, the directors and an ensemble company serve up a fast-paced, hugely enjoyable production. The satirical writing is allowed to shine, the laughs build steadily, and hilarity and excess are brought to the fore in an uproarious comedy whose truth remains as timeless and topical as ever.