2023-10-13 20:45:00
I was prepared to have the conversation in English or French, but my interlocutor on the other end of the line surprised me by answering me in fluent Greek. There was no trace of a foreign accent in his speech. “I imitate the Greeks, I listen to how they speak and I try to say them in the same way”, explains Gilles Décorvet, professor of Philology at the University of Geneva, storyteller, literary translator and self-taught actor. The reason for our conversation is theatrical performance “The representation of the Trial of Socrates”, in which he plays the ancient Greek philosopher. The work is based on Plato’s text, fundamental to Western thought, “Apology of Socrates” and is presented in ancient Greek, teaching the recitation of an ancient text and directed by Dimos Avdeliodis. “I was almost certain that ancient Greek would act as a deterrent for most people. I thought that few people would come to the theater, some crazy people maybe, but in the end the hall was full. In Geneva we played three times and the reaction of the public was more than touching”, says Décorvet about the reception of the Swiss public to the project of the Municipality of Abdeliodi, last November.
“Of course, their eyes were focused mainly on the supertitles, however I think that the “Logic – Music” method that the Municipality has invented with the pauses, with the emphasis on specific syllables and words “passes” in the square. There is musicality, rhythm, the director manages the text like a score,” he emphasizes. His own interest in the ancient Greek language is due to a family tradition, as both his father and grandfather studied ancient Greek texts and passed on their love to him. “When I was a child and later as a teenager, I dreamed of becoming an archaeologist. Greece, Cyprus, Egypt exerted a special attraction on me. Of course, I had not known your country, this happened in 1979, when I made my first trip to Greece. It was the revelation of a new world for me, I was fascinated by the light, the atmosphere.”
He returns to Switzerland, starts learning new Greek and in 1989 makes the decision to move to Greece, spending one year in Thessaloniki and four in Athens. You changed your mind, I’m teasing him. “I lived the Greek reality, so I also got to know its negative sides. Life in Greece is quite difficult, especially in the cities, and I realized relatively quickly that many things are far from ideal. And certainly the discussions around the tables are not all highly philosophical… But Greece did not shrink in me.”
I lived the Greek reality, so I also got to know its negative sides – but Greece did not shrink in me.
In the auditorium
I ask him if he finds similarities between teaching and acting. “In auditoriums, students don’t applaud after class and rarely wait for you at the exit to say congratulations or thank you. On the other hand, teaching requires some theatricality, you have to capture the attention of your audience there as well. Even as a professor, I am somewhat of a theater artist.” In both cases the audience must be mentally available, willing to listen to what you have to say, I comment. Do the teachings of Socrates apply to us as a society? “I think that the spectators who come to these shows are prepared for what they will watch. They love philosophy, the ancient Greek world, theater. I understand it from their body posture, their reactions. Although they know that Socrates will be sentenced to death, they are disappointed with the outcome of the trial. But regardless of our own performance, what these texts deal with are timeless, they remind us that neither money nor the body count, what counts is the soul and the search for self-knowledge and that it is worth even dying for such principles ».
He even emphasizes that even today Socrates would face the same outcry for his views. “Such people in every era find their trouble, they are isolated for their “dangerous” ideas and many times they are condemned. What he supported was disturbing and still is.” Although his hero in terms of clothing brings to mind a homeless man and his accuser, Melitos (played by Markos Palaios), a lawyer of our time, it is difficult to imagine him among us. “I don’t know if he would have a cell phone, I guess he wouldn’t belong to the “revolutionaries” of Facebook… I think he would be more like the “crazy” of the village. He would go back to the streets and urge us to leave the unimportant things and think about the value of our life.”
21/10, STUDIO new star art cinema, 33 Stavropoulou Street, Athens. The performance will be presented in ancient Greek, with supertitles in modern Greek and English. Teaching recitation of an ancient text and direction: Dimos Avdeliodidis.
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