Philip Glass buys a loaf of bread

by David Ives
by the Atonal group

Trotsky, with an axe lodged in his head, dies in… variations. Three apes write… Hamlet. Philip Glass buys a loaf of bread and a couple falls in love, while they ignore the wrong things said each time the ringing of a bell signifies that their date starts over. This is the performance staged by the ‘Atonal’ group, directed by Sophia Marathaki, co-produced by Theatro 104. The performance consists of four one-act plays by contemporary American playwright David Ives: ‘Sure Thing’, ‘Variations on the Death of Trotsky’, ‘Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread’, and ‘Words, Words, Words’.

David Ives is well known for having penned ‘Venus in Fur’, while we were also acquainted with him in Greece through ‘Don Juan in Chicago’. There have also been performances of his one-act plays on Athenian stages.

These four one-act plays, comedies and dramatic comedies, flirting with the Theatre of the Absurd, were written between 1987 and 1993, and, along with another two – a total of six – were presented for the first time together under the general title ‘All in the Timing’ in 1993 in New York – off Broadway. Despite some time having passed since these texts were a hit, their current performance is anything but outdated. Marathaki’s imaginative direction – justifying her reputation – coordinates an exceptionally well rehearsed and harmonised theatrical quartet with virtuosity. Four actors rose to the occasion with the required solemnity to bring about unforced comedy and to help the audience reach a deeper reading.

This is an exceptional exercise in style, exactness and rhythm, a performance-parody of the New York intelligentsia, shedding light on the absurd and the limits of human reason. It may even remind some of you of early, good Woody Allen.

Project contributors
Translation: Emilia Alexandra Kritikou
Director: Sophia Marathaki
Dramaturgy: Eleni Triantafyllopoulou
Sets: Constantinos Zamanis
Costumes: Vasiliki Syrma
Music: Vassilis Tzavaras
Movement: Briseida Solomou
Lighting design: Sakis Birbilis
Assistant director: Leda Koutsodaskalou
With: Fotini Papachristopoulou, Konstantinos Papatheodorou, Giorgos Syrmas, Sophia Marathaki