The Penal Colony (1970)

Η Αποικία των Τιμωρημένων – Πειραματικό Θέατρο Μαριέττας Ριάλδη

Directed by: Iakovos Kambanellis
Set Design: Vasilis Fotopoulos
Costumes: Kyriakos Katzourakis

A play in two parts, adapted for the stage from the short story of the same title by Franz Kafka. An insubordinate soldier is sentenced to death, and the sentence is to be carried out by a “peculiar” machine that engraves his offence onto his bare body with sharp needles. With this work, Kambanellis broke his silence and returned to public life for the first time since the imposition of the 1967 Dictatorship.

“…From Kafka, Kambanellis borrowed only the title: Colony of the Condemned, which does not fully convey what, in our own terms, might better be rendered as a ‘reformatory camp’ or a ‘disciplinary camp.’ Yet this ‘Colony’ possesses a poetic extension that relentlessly stirs the imagination.”
“…Kambanellis does not imitate. He has grasped—captured through his own sensibility—those signals that are, in reality and quite literally, ‘signs of the times.’ This message of the ‘absurd,’ of excess pushed to the point of the outrageous, is not deciphered like a coded telegram, nor unraveled like an oracle. It is like a flash of lightning within chaos, placing one before the anxiety of a revelation. It is the responsibility of each individual to apprehend the ‘higher truth’ and, through the symbol, to discern the underlying dread.”

Ειρήνη Καλκάνη – ΑΠΟΓΕΥΜΑΤΙΝΗ (Οκτώβριος 1970)

Aspasia (1972)

Ασπασία – Θίασος Τζένης Καρέζη, Κώστα Καζάκου – Θέατρο Διάνα

Directed by: Kostas Kazakos
Set and Costume Design: Vasilis Fotopoulos

Historical drama. The establishment of democracy in Athens, the Golden Age, and the grandeur of the Athenian city-state under the leadership of Pericles. Aspasia, his companion—a courtesan from Miletus, progressive and free-spirited, an emancipated and sensitive woman—stands worthily at his side as adviser, lover, and fellow traveller in his arduous mission, remaining by him until the end of his life.

“I left the performance carrying with me a sense of artistic joy, for I had witnessed both an outstanding Greek work of quality and a superbly realized production… vivid theatricality, intense dramatic power, language consistently rich and resonant… a performance of the kind that, despite the abundance of theatres, we seldom have the opportunity to enjoy.”

Άλκης Θρύλος – περ. ΝΕΑ ΕΣΤΙΑ (Νοέμβριος 1971)

Our Grand Circus (1973)

Το Μεγάλο μας Τσίρκο – Θέατρο Αθήναιον – Θίασος Καρέζη – Καζάκου

Directed by: Kostas Kazakos
Set and Costume Design: Faidon Patrikalakis
Music: Stavros Xarchakos

In 1973, Jenny Karezi and Kostas Kazakos asked Iakovos Kambanellis to write a play for their theatre company. The result was a musical-theatrical work with a message of resistance, destined to become a legendary production in the history of Greek theatre, far beyond the years in which it was first staged. The play is founded on satire and parody, adopting the revue-style structure of a musical performance, with a series of episodic sketches that traverse almost the entirety of Greek history.

“It was something truly great. I feel immensely fortunate to have experienced it. Such a moment comes only once in a lifetime… People and actors became one, and, with the theatrical word as their sole catalyst, both played their roles with an indescribable passion. It was an outpouring—the first—of bitterness, indignation, resolve, longing, mourning, determination, hope. Never before had I seen actors ‘not acting’ in this way, nor had I seen spectators so wholly immersed within the work… The entire performance unfolded as a dialogue of struggle: the text on one side, and on the other the popular applause—which was not applause for the play nor for the actors… and as the performance came to an end, the chant resounded, spontaneous, cathartic, overwhelming: ‘We shall win.’”

Κώστας Καλατζής – ΣΕΛΙΔΕΣ ΗΜΕΡΟΛΟΓΙΟΥ (Ιούνιος 1973)

“Bravo to you, I.K.! How much joy, beauty, and emotion your pen has once again bestowed upon us! (…) I truly admire your ability to create vivid characters and striking images. You inhabit the very skin of your heroes, breathe life into them, and present them with such authenticity that you compel the spectator, quite literally, to experience them—to suffer or rejoice alongside them, to participate, in short, in the action. Yet this time you are almost exuberant in meanings and images! Attempting a sweeping retrospective of our nation’s history—antiquity, Byzantium, Ottoman rule, 1821 and its aftermath, the Asia Minor Catastrophe—you succeed, without demagoguery or shallow sentiment, in conveying the pulse of events and in underscoring the nobility, generosity, and courage of our long-suffering and often betrayed people, who, through the creative forces they harbor within, do not vanish through the centuries, despite the adversities that befall them time and again.”

Γ. Παράσχος – ΕΜΠΡΟΣ (Ιούλιος 1973)

“Quite rightly, Mr. Kambanellis sought to locate his authorial aim within ‘Minor History.’ (…) The episodes drawn from the margins of history are more popular in character and more suited to be accommodated within the realm of satire. (…) I fear that, both in the writing—and even more in the staging—the principle prevailed that the audience must be ‘guided’ in order to understand. (…) Despite our reservations, we welcome Mr. Kambanellis’s return to a popular, substantive theatre.”

Κ. Γεωργουσόπουλος ΤΑ ΝΕΑ (Ιούλιος 1973)

The Broad Bean and the Chickpea (1974)

Το Κουκί και το Ρεβύθι – Θέατρο Αθήναιον – Θίασος Καρέζη – Καζάκου

Directed by: Kostas Kazakos
Set and Costume Design: Faidon Patrikalakis
Music: Stavros Xarchakos

A work composed of nineteen self-contained scenes/episodes, in a style similar to "Our Grand Circus". Through these episodes, it comments on the absurdity of the authoritarian state and the practice of censorship, while also referring to the rise of Nazism in Germany.

This new work by Iakovos Kambanellis could be described as a theatrical cocktail incorporating elements of revue, musical theatre, ethographic drama, and “happenings,” set within the living space of the popular courtyard—an environment always so dear to its author. What stands out are its aims toward a social satire, built on symbolic correspondences, topical resonance, and flashes of intellectual brilliance.

Άγγελος Δόξας – ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΟΣ ΚΟΣΜΟΣ (Ιούλιος 1974)

Our Enemy, The People (1975)

Ο Εχθρός Λαός – Θέατρο Αθήναιον – Θίασος Καρέζη – Καζάκου

Directed by: Kostas Kazakos
Set and Costume Design: Antonis Kyriakoulis
Music: Mikis Theodorakis

A theatrical work of political and social critique.

I.K.: “The play begins in the middle of 1964 and ends on the night of 21 April 1967. The raw material of the work—which is a comedy of tears—is a selection of events that unfolded in the intervening period. The reason I ‘hastened’ to engage with that period is that I find many troubling similarities with the present. Similarities which, I believe, must serve as a ‘warning’ to us.”

“…What Mr. Kambanellis attempted is bold. First, he dared to bring recent political events to the stage; second, he dared to take a personal stance on those events; third, he dared to go against the current of political coexistence; fourth, he dared to adopt a position of political polarization; and finally, he dared to transfer the events directly onto the stage, particularly ‘the words,’ without overt alterations. The magnitude of this boldness is evidenced unmistakably: strong reactions already from a segment of the press, and above all, the stunned silence of the audience witnessing the work.” “…The audience’s numbness is, at the very least, a profound political lesson for me. We still fear the bogeymen we have been taught for centuries to regard as symbols.” “…Espionage and surveillance have become so pervasive in our times, and terror so effective, that I fear the average bourgeois is ready to invent them, solely to justify the existence of his hidden refuges.” “…He dared to strip bare the institutional and political myths (regardless of whether one agrees with his political stance or not) before a bourgeois defense built on secrecy.”

Kostas Georgousopoulos (July 1975)

Characters for Violin and Orchestra (1976)

Characters for Violin and Orchestra (The Faithful Man, The Woman and Lathos, The Panegyric, The Man and the Frame)

Art Theatre – Karolos Koun

Directed by: Karolos Koun
Set and Costume Design: Savvas Charatsidis
Musical Supervision: Rinio Papanikola

A Composite Work Consisting of Four One-Act Plays: The Loyal Man, The Celebratory Speech, The Man and the Portrait,The Woman and Mr Mistake At the Characters for Violin and Orchestra …individual passions and private stories take precedence. All the characters are drawn from political figures and events of the period. The political backdrop emerges through these four stories, bruised and distorted by the subjective way in which the protagonists confront both the events themselves and the broader state of affairs.

“For the first time in modern Greek theatre, dialectic becomes a true theatrical event. Here, it is not merely a masterful one-act play that has been written, nor a resounding speech that touches the realm of great poetry—it is also the most complete essay in modern Greek sociology. This, indeed, is political theatre.” (On the one-act play The Woman and Lathos)

Κώστας Γεωργουσόπουλος – ΤΟ ΒΗΜΑ

Our Lady of Dollars (1977)

Η Παναγία των Δολλαρίων – Θίασος Τζένης Καρέζη, Κώστα Καζάκου, Γιάννη Φέρτη

Διασκευή από το έργο του Garson Kanin Born Yesterday (1946)
Σκηνοθεσία: Κώστας Μπάκας
Σκηνικά – Κοστούμια: Αντώνης Κυριακούλης

Kambanellis shifts the action both in time and place, retaining from the original play its characters and their relationships. Using the mores and personalities of the American establishment as a pretext, he fashions a political satire that targets those people for whom money is the only god, and who place nothing above it—not even human life itself.

“…This work, which so realistically portrays the manners and characters of everyday American society, touches upon a vivid and delicate aspect of American life and the people who make up a large part of the populace—people who worship only money and place nothing above it, not even human life itself. Kambanellis renders this picture superbly; the characters possess truth and credibility, and the dialogue—often so blunt—provokes laughter.”

Περσεύς Αθηναίος – ΗΜΕΡΗΣΙΑ (Ιούνιος 1977)

“…Kambanellis adapts Kanin so freely that one might say he has written an entirely new work. Retaining the original characters and relationships, he has the latitude to convey a multitude of ideas under the guise of a temporally and geographically shifted setting. Ultimately, he has crafted a light, piquant, and straightforward political satire, with all the proper ingredients and just the right dosage.”

Κώστας Γεωργουσόπουλος – ΤΟ ΒΗΜΑ (Ιούνιος 1977)

The Four Legs of the Table (1978)

Τα Τέσσερα πόδια του Τραπεζιού – Θέατρο Τέχνης – Κάρολος Κουν

Directed by: Karolos Koun
Set and Costume Design: Savvas Charatsidis
Musical Supervision: Rinio Papanikola

A dramatic comedy in two parts. The story traces the course of an upper-class Greek family throughout the twentieth century. The father has been trapped for years in a state of aphasia, completely cut off from his surroundings. The members of the family—an elderly aunt and seven siblings—struggle to resolve the delicate issues that define both their familial bonds and their business partnerships. Relentless intrigues and ferocious disputes erupt incessantly among them as they vie to secure control of the major industrial enterprise of which they are the heirs.

“…He must have been in a moment of exceptional creative exhilaration when he wrote The Four Legs of the Table. A work of a single breath, this masterful comic-tragic social satire possesses a rare architectural precision and a torrent of ingenious verbal and technical inventions.”

Άλκης Μαργαρίτης – ΤΑ ΝΕΑ

Daddy War (1980)

Ο Μπαμπάς ο Πόλεμος – Θέατρο Τέχνης – Κάρολος Κουν

Directed by: Giorgos Lazanis
Set and Costume Design: Damianos Zarifis

An ancient-themed comedy in six scenes and an epilogue, based on the historical episode of 305 BC, when the Macedonian general Demetrius the Besieger laid siege to Rhodes. The siege transformed the peace-loving Rhodians, devoted to trade and commerce, into formidable warriors, ultimately leading to a truce and a negotiated settlement.

“Fresh, lively, witty, stinging just enough and in the right way. A comedy that lightly treads on political satire without weighing it down: the very essence of the genre. A stylish allegory, a theatrical subject expertly crafted, and, above all, clever dialogue.”

Τάσος Λιγνάδης – Η ΚΑΘΗΜΕΡΙΝΗ

The Way… (1987)

“One-Act Play or a Tableau.” Written in 1949 under the original title "Siloam". Its central theme draws on the still-vivid memories of the author’s experiences during his imprisonment in the Mauthausen concentration camp. It is a dramatization of Chapter 29 of the prose work Mauthausen, entitled God in the Separate Barrack.

"... to an entirely different atmosphere and style is "The Way…" by Iakovos Kambanellis. Here, the inquiry broadens and transcends the confines of individual characters and the conflicts of everyday life, confronting human beings with the great questions of existence and death, their responsibilities toward the collective, and the necessity of certain rules and moral values in their decisions and actions. The mode of expression itself—that is, the theatrical writing—abandons established forms in order to explore new horizons: freer, more abstract, and more sharply defined, qualities that have come to characterize contemporary theatrical language and expression.”

Vaios Pangourelis (Preface to the staged reading of the play in April 1977)

The Invisible Troupe (1988)

Ο Αόρατος Θίασος – Εθνικό Θέατρο – Κεντρική Σκηνή

Directed by: Giorgos Michailidis
Set and Costume Design: Savvas Charatsidis
Music: Thodoros Antoniou

"The Invisible Troupe" is the story of a compromised bourgeois couple, married for twenty-five years. In the couple’s bedroom at night, we remain with them until dawn, witnessing in staged reenactment what each of them experiences separately—their inner journey through the night until morning. Everything that unfolds on stage is made up of remorse, guilt, tolerance, symbolic murders, unfulfilled loves, arrogance, and humiliations. Yet the compromise is complete and final.

It is clearly a work of maturity and truth, written with mastery, in which the “klafsigelos” of the modern human soul has wandered far and wide—recalling Homer—and now returns to a devastated “inner” Ithaca, inhabited by ghosts of memory, tyrannical shadows, and other creatures of the night. The Cavafy-like essence of the work is not confined to its title; rather, an authentic Cavafian tone permeates the entire text, as the characters suddenly become aware of the “walls” that have risen around them, isolating them from real life.

Λέανδρος Πολενάκης – Η ΑΥΓΗ

“If Kambanellis truly surprises you, it lies in his ability to depict a new world—the plankton of the social soup of our postwar mixed-bourgeois schizophrenia… The bitter and unbearable conclusion of Kambanellis’s work, which will unsettle many, is precisely this: the surplus of hatred is the very force of our society, which survives by swallowing its nightmares and feeding on its own guilt.”

Κώστας Γεωργουσόπουλος – ΤΑ ΝΕΑ

“In theatre, many kinds of ‘success’ can be noted. Some relate to the audience’s response, while others—more ‘secret’ and personal—relate to the act of theatrical creation itself. The former carry greater weight for the ‘present’… but the latter signify far more for the ‘eternal’… Such a success was achieved by modern Greek theatre—and personally by Kambanellis—with his new work The Invisible Troupe… A ‘success’ of CREATION, a ‘success’ of DEVELOPMENT.”

Βάιος Παγκουρέλης – 24 ΩΡΕΣ