Good Guys

Greek Cypriots have been unhappy about Turkey’s EU entry talks.

(Review by Roz Britton at the time of it's first production)

As highlighted in this play, the Greeks are angry that the issue of Turkey’s 30-year-old Cypriot occupation has been ignored during the process. Their anger is conveyed through a witty and original plot. A group of politically active Greek Cypriot actors discovers that one of their troupe is the doppelganger of a Blairite politician who is set to make his maiden speech on Turkey’s EU membership. Worried that his message will ignore the issue of Cyprus, the actors plan to kidnap the man and plant a pro Greek stooge in parliament.
The politics of Good Guys may be a bit hot for some to handle, with its strong anti-English message. For all one might empathise with those who have been forced to leave their country and their homes, the constant snipes at British culture can cause one’s heckles to rise. Yet alongside this heavy political message is a fascinating example of original theatrical art. Writer George Eugeniou has created a delicious cocktail, merging scenes from Othello with a pastiche of the Greek chorus to create an up to the minute political satire.
The one fly in the ointment is that many of the actors, in particular Antonia Schauner, have extraordinarily poor diction, rattling off their lines at thousands of words per minute. That said, Theatro Technis sums up all that is great about London. We are fortunate to be in one of the few cities in the world where we can access the arts from the perspective of such different nationalities.

Burnt Cakes

Blair gets a literary end

(Review by Tom Foot - CNJ)

GEORGE Eugeniou brings us his latest political satire, inspired by Aristophanes’ The Acharnians. And although it was a little hard to swallow, this imaginatively staged tirade against the occupation of Iraq delivers a timely condemnation of the brief history of Blairism.
In the original play, The Acharnians set out to induce the Athenian people to put an end to the Peloponnesian war, which already threatened the destruction of the state, and a year or two later caused its downfall.
It exposed the way leaders fulfil their personal ambition and further their careers even at the cost of thousands of lives.
Bush and Blair provide the modern day parallels in a story punctuated by song and dance. Demos, played by Dean Tunkara – the outstanding talent of the performance – sets out on a personal vendetta against Blair.
His frustration relates the powerlessness felt by MPs during the decision to invade and the disillusionment within the party as the last remnants of old Labour drift away.
The fractured family of the prime minister echoes the divisions within his party. Blair battles with Cherie’s father for the respect of his son Leo whose political aspirations begin to turn.
At first, we see Leo playing war games on his computer with his dad – although he is never allowed to win. But one night he is visited by a spectre of Ali, a boy who lost his arms and legs to a cluster bomb. Leo ripens into a freedom fighter opposing the war and the capitalist hypocrisy his father panders to. This ghost scene certainly had shades of Hamlet. And there are a multitude of other allusions to that playwright – Blair is at once: Caesar, Lear, Macbeth. At one point the play breaks into a few minutes of actual Shakespearean dialogue. “Out, damn’d spot. Out, I say!” cries Blair, his hands red with the blood of Dr Kelly.
Blair’s apparent invincibility presumably drove Eugeniou to write the play. It is Macbeth’s belief in his invincibility that eventually proves his downfall.
There were some scenes that struggled for coherency under the pressures of opening night nerves but all in all Burnt Cakes was a success that is certainly worth a look.

Forza Galileo

Forza Galileo doesn't hold back
Review by Sonia Zhuravlyova - CNJ
IN response to the National Theatre refusing to release the rights to the script of The Life of Galileo, George Eugeniou, the proprietor of the Theatro Technis, decided to write his own play. Forza Galileo is a damning and rambling work, castigating the un-Brechtian behaviour of the National Theatre along with the stingy Arts Council and the government.
Based on The Frogs by Aristophanes, Anna goes to the underworld to seek out Brecht, the author of the original play, and get the rights to his work in person.
But on her voyage, guided by the god Dionysus, she gets more than she bargained for – a horny, disillusioned and apologetic Einstein (John Rety), a raving Joan Littlewood and Galileo taking Brecht to court for slander. George Eugeniou has a sharp tongue and a sense of comic timing.
This is an admirable effort by actors dedicated to their art and with little funding.