MY MOTHER’S SIN

The performance “My Mother's Sin” by G. Vizyenos, placed already under the auspices of the General Secretariat of Greeks Abroad - Hellenic Republic Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Hellenic Republic Ministry of Tourism and the Greek National Tourism Organization - will be presented for the first time in English. The performance is going to travel around the US in November 2018 and will be presented at universities and a wider audience of Hellenism abroad.

“My Mother’s Sin”, an autobiographical short story written by Georgios Vizyenos in 1883, speaks on forgiveness, guilt and atonement in a confessional manner. The aim of this novel reveals Vizyenos's therapeutic confession beyond Greek borders.

The story's central figure is Annio, a sickly little girl, around whom the plot revolves.

We follow the course of Annio’s illness and the mother's vain efforts to save her, in order to redeem herself from a hidden sin.

With all of her attention on Annio, the mother’s relationship with her three other sons gradually fades. Following the death of her daughter, the mother proceeds to wash way her sadness by adopting little girls, evoking reactions from her sons.

Director's Note

One body both transmitter and receiver of speech, encompasses all the characters, the souls and the voices, of both the living and the dead. One by one each emerges in order for its own voice to be heard. Guided by poetry, rhythm and musicality a static body gradually arrives at a state of conflict with itself. A human enacts the drama, reviving the ancient trauma and gets one step closer to the Platonic A-litheia*.

A-litheia means "Truth" in Greek. α-ληθεια = α (=non) + ληθη (=loss of memory). Α-litheia is the disestablishment of oblivion, the regaining of memory.

On Tour 2018

Harvard University

Yale University

Columbia University

Floridan Palace Hotel, Tampa, Florida

University of Illinois at Chicago