“With the Closer it’s like fast-tracking relationships,” admits Natalia Swift. The 29-year-old actress sweeps the stage as Alice in Patrick Marber’s multi-award-winning play, which was adapted to the cinema by Mike Nichols and is now presented at the Chora Theater directed by Dimitris Agiopetritis-Bogdanou. “Every time I play this role, I realize how unexplored the universe of love remains. Like an unsolved mystery, which everyone approaches in their own way.”
Your heroine says: “I fell in love is the stupidest excuse in the world.” Do you believe the same?
No, I don’t believe that love is an excuse. It is a necessity in order to get closer. It is a call for human contact and tenderness. It is an occasion to feel unique emotions, but also to learn how to keep a relationship over time.
How do you keep a relationship alive?
With mutual concessions and when you are not satisfied with the superficial approach. Especially when love does not become an end in itself. That’s when you live fictitious relationships – we all have such an experience to tell. You know, the most important thing for me is to love yourself first. It sounds graphic, but it is very true. This show is like shouting to you that the “closer”, that is, the approach, must first be done with yourself and then with others.
How do you see relationships today?
I feel like there is an intensely opportunistic element to relationships today. Everything is quick and easy, which is scary for those looking to connect meaningfully. On the other hand, I believe that especially young people of my age see things more freely and without guilt. They don’t live with taboos, they won’t be easily spent and they won’t be afraid to suffer to learn.
Does “forever” exist?
My parents have been married for forty years and are still truly in love. My grandfather, who was English, had come to Athens after the Second World War, fell head over heels in love with my grandmother and they spent a lifetime together. And I believe in the lightning and the eternal together. My own family has proven this to me.
Are you in love with your work?
Fiercely. You have to love it a lot to do it, if you consider how many disappointments and frustrations it involves. I was lucky to have the great Giorgos Michalakopoulos as an uncle, who in his own way made me love the profession of an actor, appreciate and respect it.
Roles you fell in love with?
I recently finished shooting for Vassilis Kekatou’s feature film which will be released soon. There I play a woman who falls in love with women. It was tremendously interesting, because the role touched a personal side of me, in the sense that in my own life I can be equally attracted to a man and a woman. Love in my universe is about people, not genders.
“The role touched a personal side of me, in the sense that in my own life I can be equally attracted to a man and a woman.”
If your job ever stops fascinating you, what else would you do?
Either I’ll open a bar or I’ll go to my summer house in Argolis to plant tomatoes!
Books you would recommend to a lover?
The Excerpts of Roland Barthes’ Love Speech and anything written by Matsi Hatzilazarou.
What would you like to disengage from in the future?
From feeling inadequate and deceiving the world. I would like not to underestimate my worth.
Closer, directed by D. Agiopetritis-Bogdanou, is staged at the Chora Theater (Amorgou 20, Kypseli, tel. 210-8673945).
Cast: M. Leventogiannis, V. Papadopoulou, N. Swift, S. Stamoulis.
Presale: more.com
2024-02-15 15:16:00