Municipal and Regional Theatre of Agrinion - Thodoris Gonis

The Fallen Dervish
Αn encounter between Papadiamantis’ hero, Oedipus and Giannoulis Halepas

The Fallen Dervish, the “mendicant, hearthless, nomadic, evicted, roofless” Turkish friar of Papadiamantis’ short story, is forced to leave the all-night kapheneion “opposite the Theseion” that “fateful” evening. Cold and sleepy, he takes out his ney and plays to warm himself up. Suddenly (in the stage version) planets appear before him, heroes from Athens’ history, each with his own story and his own song: Dimitrios Kambouroglou, “the madman of Athens”, Antigone leading Oedipus, Giannoulis Halepas bent over the clay perfecting his sculpture of “Oedipus and Antigone”. When he was carving his famous Sleeping Maiden, and before his mental illness got the better of him, Halepas disappeared one evening in Theseion. No one ever found out where he was that night or what happened to him. “This world’s a sphere and it’s turning”…


“Precise, an observer of the paradoxical, profoundly investigative and idiosyncratic in his use of language”, the character of Alexandros Papadiamantis (1851-1911) was inspired by Thodoris Gonis.


A Hellenic Festival & Municipal Regional Theatre of Agrinio co-production.