Elena

The drama Elena at the Teatro di Villa Torlonia, directed and performed by Elena Arvigo, is based on the poem of the same name - inspired by the mythological character of Helen, Queen of Sparta, emblem of the eternal feminine - written by the great Greek poet Ghiannis Ritsos (1909-1990), which is part of the collection Fourth dimension. Considered Ritsos' masterpiece, this collection was written during the long years of detention in the concentration camps of the military regime "of the colonels", which with a coup d'état took power in Greece from 1967 to 1974.

Through the metaphor of mythology in fact, in his work Ritsos denounced the dramatic reality of a country closed in the grip of a harsh system, managing to elude censorship. Fourth dimension is a text that has as its main themes the war and the solitude of man; the form chosen by the Greek poet is that of the monologue in verse addressed to a visitor who remains a silent presence on the scene (perhaps a figure of the poet himself), with whom Elena, now very old, of an indefinable age, reflects on the passing of time that overwhelms everything and recalling, between memories and disillusionment, the ancient splendor.

Ritsos therefore, through his theatre-poetry reinterprets the myths, freeing Elena from her character crystallized in time, giving her back the possibility of being a different character, less distant from us. A character that Elena Arvigo with her interpretation, manages to make her own, giving it back to us in all its humanity. 

With the participation of Monica Santoro – flute and singing.

Photo credits: Alessandro Villa