Maria Skoula reads the short story ''The Detective'' by Dimitris Hatzis

The SNFCC readers' theater series, entitled PARABASES/READINGS, is returning to the core of stage reading this year, drawing inspiration from Cavafy's verse, "Voices, loved and idealized."

7 theater protagonists, 7 "idealized voices," comprise two-people theater companies (in collaboration with young stage directors, renowned Greek composers and/or on-stage musicians) and attempt live theatrical readings of literary texts (short stories, novels, prose), all of them landmark works of Greek literature. In this way, the series utilizes the dramaturgy of the Readings that were recorded and presented by the SNFCC during 2020-2021, attracting great interest from the public.

The texts selection was compiled in collaboration with poet Nikos A. Panagiotopoulos (December 1945 - July 2023), to whose memory the series is dedicated.

Nikos Kouris teams up with Mario Banushi and reads Viral Pneumonia, the only short story Zisimos Lorentzatos ever attempted to write.

Iro Bezou collaborates with Danai Spilioti and reads two pieces of prose by Photis Kontoglou: Conan the God and His Monastery, the So-Called "Submergence" and Hosanna! .

Maria Skoula teams up with Kornilios Selamsis and reads the short story The Detective by Dimitris Hatzis.

Amalia Moutousi collaborates with Emmanouil Kontos and reads Moonstruck by Alexandros Papadiamantis.

Christos Loulis reads excerpts from Erotokritos by Vitsentzos Kornaros.

Akilas Karazisis teams up with Iason Aly and reads excerpts from the Architecture of a Dissolute Life, Nikos Gabriel Pentzikis's trailblazing work.

Anna Kokkinou collaborates with Nikos Veliotis and reads Moskov Selim, the most remarkable short story of Georgios Vizyinos.

Sunday, December 10, 17.00 | LIGHTHOUSE

Maria Skoula reads the short story The Detective by Dimitris Hatzis.
Directed by by Kornilios Selamsis

Dimitris Hatzis (1913-1981) is one of the most innovative representatives of post-war realism. As a short story writer, he followed in the tradition of Papadiamantis and Vizyinos, although he did not consider himself an imaginative and prolific creator. He once confessed: "My work has been the fruit of hard and painstaking intellectual work. I never experienced that visceral, spontaneous outpouring. [...] I wrote slowly, torturously, almost like someone convicted to forced labor." To then add: "My teacher [...] was a poet: Cavafy. And I have always considered my way of writing as a transference of Cavafy's poetic technique to prose." Hatzis formed a literary bridge between the Interwar generation and that of the Resistance, and his writings captured the social concerns of the time with sincere humanism. He wrote poetry, novels, short stories and essays. Born in Ioannina and spending many years abroad as a political exile, he lived an eventful life, with Greece always in his heart and in his writings. Standing out among the latter are The End of Our Small Town, The Double Book, and The Face of Modern Hellenism.

The collection of short stories titled The End of Our Small Town, one of the greatest and most moving ones in modern Greek literature, holds a special place in the prose of Hatzis, capturing the microcosm of Greek small towns during the interwar period. The book's title alludes to American writer Thornton Wilder's Our Town. The point of reference shared by the seven short stories comprising the collection is the provincial town, in which the author places his ordinary, everyday characters, but which remains unnamed. The Detective, the last short story of the collection, stars "Thodorakis" who, like a modern-day Don Quixote, is balancing on a tightrope between fantasy and reality. A lover of detective novels, he has been trying for years to solve the mystery of a fellow townsman's disappearance. Eventually he will succeed, but he will also find himself confronted with a painful personal revelation.

The reading takes place with permission granted by copyright holder, Ms. Kaiti Hatzi.

This event comes under a grant by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF). Alongside the majority of its events, which are free thanks to a series of SNF grants, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center also organizes a number of events with affordable tickets, thus enriching its income sources and securing its long-term financial integrity.