A BRIGHT ROOM CALLED DAY by Tony Kushner

A BRIGHT ROOM CALLED DAY

by Tony Kushner

Greek premiere

Ziller Building | Nikos Kourkoulos Stage

Director: Yannis Moschos

From 31 March

“This Age wanted heroes. It got us instead: carefully constructed, but immobile. Subtle, but unfit to take up the burden of the times. It happens. A whole generation of washouts. History says stand up, and we totter and collapse, weeping, moved, but not sufficient."

Do we shape the times we live in or do the times shape our ephemeral lives? Is history written without us or by our own hands? The National Theatre of Greece presents the Greek premiere of A Bright Room Called Day by Tony Kushner, perhaps the most important living American writer and creator of the legendary Angels in America, in a production directed by Yannis Moschos. This major work talks about the responsibility we owe to others and to our own time, about dilemmas, difficult decisions and the degree to which each one of us influences political developments and the course of history.

On New Year's Day in Berlin in 1932, a group of left-wing artists gather at the house of an actress, Agnes, to celebrate. The group will continue to meet for the next year and a half, but as the clouds of Nazism gather, nothing will be the same. Through twenty-six masterfully structured scenes, Kushner observes how political unrest gradually shifts the equilibrium in human relationships, shattering illusions and bringing people face-to-face with others, but also with themselves.

This moving work by Kushner recounts an infamous period of history through the eyes of those who became a part of it without realising it. And in this respect, it is also an urgent warning about our own blind spots, about what we do not perceive about our own role in today's world. As the director notes: "If we consider that the rise of Nazism took place at a time of great economic crisis, with a higher incidence of violence and racism, and was nurtured by the apathy of the country's citizens, then we will inevitably draw chilling parallels with today. Kushner's work holds up a mirror in which we can see our own future in the past."

Production team

Translation: Christina Babou-Pagoureli

Direction and Adaptation: Yannis Moschos

Set design: Tina Tzoka

Costume design: Vana Giannoula

Music & Sound design: Thodoris Economou

Movement: Anthi Theofilidi

Video: Apostolis Koutsianikoulis

Lighting design: Lefteris Pavlopoulos

Tap dancing teacher: Thanos Daskalopoulos

Historical advisor: Vassilios Bogiatzis

Dramaturg: Eri Kyrgia

Directing assistant: Evi Nakou

Second directing assistant: Thomais Triantafyllidou

Second directing assistant: Konstantinos Kardakaris

Set design assistant: Stavros Balis

Costume design assistant: Alexandros Garnavos

Cast (in alphabetical order)

Anatoli Athanasiadou: Paulinka Erdnuss

Laertis Malkotsis/Themis Panou: Vealtninc Husz

Agoritsa Oikonomou: Agness Eggling

Panagiotis Panagopoulos: Gregor Bazwald (Baz)

Thanasis Raftopoulos: Gottfried Swetts

Sofia Seirli: Die Alte

Ypsipyli Sofia: Rosa Malek

Maria Tsima: Anabella Gotchling

Yilmaz Husmen: Emil Traum

Production photographs: Elina Yiounanli

Video: Apostolis Koutsianikoulis