Thirty directors from all over Europe converged on Greece for a showcase of its fizzing new talent that even included a play about the Nazis by Tony Kushner. What did they learn on this five-day odyssey?
How do we cope with the loss of a loved one? Do the rituals of mourning help? And is there any prospect of an afterlife? These questions were buzzing in my brain after seeing a wordless 70-minute show, Goodbye, Lindita, in a converted factory in Athens. Conceived and directed by Mario Banushi, the 24-year-old son of Albanian immigrants, the production was part of a five-day showcase organised by the National Theatre of Greece and I felt I was witnessing the emergence of an exciting new talent.
Banushi’s play is highly personal: it was prompted by the image of his dead stepmother “surrounded by people saying goodbye” and by the death of his father three days later. But what we see on stage is a strange mixture of the mundane and surreal.
