Vasistas - Argyro Chioti

Apologies 4 & 5
by Efthimis Filippou

“The man approaches the examiner and bows before him, raising his right hand: A, If swimming pleases me, may I never again dive into waters of translucent blue. If I enjoy strolls in the park, may the trees fall and block my path. I will be honest. If I am not, I am not worthy to be here before you tonight”.


The new work from Efthimis Filippou uses a condensed, lyrical idiom to essay a wander through the inner geography of two people. Based on real events, the result is a biographical poem for the stage. An informal hearing. A ritual of self-definition.


Its protagonist, a judge with supernatural powers in whom elements of an examination marker, a police detective and a psychoanalyst come together. Two defendants are brought before him of their own free will: a woman and a man. Of their own volition, they are examined in the presence of a five-member Chorus of jurors—the stakes: their social exclusion or inclusion. A total immersion in the minutiae of their lives thus far; a moment of reflection and redefinition. The fundamental issue: which of the two will manage to get themselves inducted into the female Jury-Chorus and serve as the trial’s witness and ultimate judge? As the two ‘defendants’ square up to their memories and re-examine the defining moments of their lives, the Chorus observes and intervenes with polyphonic songs from Corsica and elsewhere in the Mediterranean.