3-0-1 TRANSPORTS, a play by Elena Penga. (2000)
ACTORS 8: 4 FEMALE & 4 MALE
SYNOPSIS
The play takes place at the entrance of a residential building in Athens of 2000. The entrance is this in-between place, separating the outside world from the homes of the individuals. In this entrance, a concierge, like a modern fate, follows the ins and outs of 7 characters. Two apartments in the building change residents. As the old residents move out, new ones move in. The concierge witnesses the old world moving out and the new world moving in her building. What connects all individual stories is that all people move to change their lives for better.
Two street-wise movers, with the names Feng and Shui, transfer the belongings of these people inside big boxes. The boxes function as memory apparatuses. They open during the play to reveal the kind of baggage human beings collect. Literal objects, and metaphorical ones. Memories, desires, opinions on politics or religion, beliefs.
The issues in the play revolve around the themes of home, movement, immigration, and time. Locating recent changes in contemporary society and lifestyle, the play celebrates the transition from an old, familiar, but fading world to a new and unknown one, that is pregnant with welcoming or not welcoming surprises.
“The play runs like water. The curious thing is that while it seems to be focusing on the first, surface level of the transactions of the 8 characters in passing, the play succeeds in composing the manifesto of post-modern humanity: The people come in terms with a community open to change, they respect the different, they care for the weak, they come to understand instead of judging. The way that these different characters, caught up in the wonderful nothing of a passing moment, a contact without continuation, manage to communicate with each other, transmits optimism.” Matina Kaltaki, Ependitis
PRODUCTION HISTORY
This play was commissioned by the National Theater of Greece, Athens, and played there in 2000.
In Greek it is published by Nefeli Publishers, 2000.
TRANSLATION
It has been translated in Italian by Maurizio de Rosa, and its Italian translation is published by ETPbooks in an Anthology of contemporary Greek plays titled Viaggio nel teatro greco contemporaneo, in 2019.
Photos from the Greek production at the National Theater. Actors: Yvone Maltezou, Nikos Georgakis, Maria Panourgia, Matina Moshovi, Petros Alatzas, Giorgos Kakanakis, Amanda Piperaki, Antonis Spinoulas.
Elena Penga 