Still Life (Paralimni)

The New Stage of THOC presents the play by Emily Mann, "Still Life", directed by Korais Damatis.

Still Life examines the effects of the Vietnam War on middle America. In the play, three people -- Mark, a veteran; Cheryl, his wife; and Nadine, a friend -- sit on chairs and make statements to the audience about their own lives and relationships. There is almost no interchange between them.

Ten years after Vietnam, Mark is haunted by one atrocity, the nature of which is not revealed until this play's closing minutes. One of his obsessions is to show photos he took in the battle areas of his friends (some now dead, including his best buddy), of Vietnamese children and of other victims of war. The pictures are projected on a screen behind his chair.

Mark's wife, Cheryl, has moved on from her days of pot and flower-power and now longs for security and a nice home for her son and yet-unborn child. Though victimized by her husband's violent tendencies, she is more frightened of being alone for the rest of her life. She is revived by the love of their child, and the prospect of a second. When Cheryl married Mark she was a sexual innocent, but now her incomprehension of her husband has become disappointment. "There was a time when a man would confess to me 'I'm a jerk' at a private moment, and I would smile sweetly and try to comfort him. Now I believe him."

Nadine, soon revealed to be Mark's mistress, is an older woman with an acid wit who is finding her veneer of cynicism cracking up. She is a woman who has managed to survive the horrors of a marriage break-up and alcoholism, an independent feminist with a belief that through understanding we can "come out on the other side." At last finding herself, she defines sophistication as "the inability to be surprised by anything." She understands Mark and sees him as an artistic individual who is far better for her than the drunken husband she has divorced. Yet always under the cheerful surface she is a compulsive worrier, living and working for her children.

Translated by: Nikos Savatis

Actors: Andreas Tselepos, Ermina Kyriazi, Christina Christofia

(in Greek)