Cyprus Theatre Organisation

Menander, The Girl from Samos (Samia)

For I am the Samian girl / and nowhere in the world / is there another like me / a courtesan and yet honourable.

“A cheeky shot of something fresh” is how the poet Yannis Varveris described the verses he inserted into the extant text of Samia. Misunderstandings, illegitimate children and a happy ending are the order of the day in this play by Menander (342-292 BC), a work of the New Comedy genre.
 
The use of the purist ‘katharevousa’ form of Modern Greek harks back to early-20th-century Athens, while the direction draws upon the 19th-century Greek romantic musical comedy tradition. Song and dance dominate this well-received production by the Cyprus Theatre Organisation, which is returning to Epidaurus once more with the singer Alkinoos Ioannidis among its company.
 
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