In 1962, Neophytos Charalambous who lived in Melbourne got engaged to Eleni Georgiou, a girl seven years his junior from Maroni, a small village in Larnaca, Cyprus.

They had never met and had seen each other only in a photo. Eleni would arrive in Australia 18 months later. During this time, the young couple exchanged letters.

Awaiting your Response is the title of the artistic project that aims to bring the story of Eleni and Neophytos back to Cyprus.

Through 134 handwritten letters, their granddaughter and author Kat Kats from Melbourne explores their marriage in an effort to better understand their history and the great issue of displacement that still haunts her grandparents to this today.

Kat in collaboration with theatrical producer Bryce Ives and fashion artist Kyriaki Theodorou, brought to life a project that is partly an artistic creation, partly a treasure hunt and partly an exciting adventure.

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Excerpts from the letters have been placed all over Cyprus, with QR codes to scan giving the public access to an audio file where Eleni and Neophytos read all 134 letters they exchanged, almost 60 years ago.

“After my visit to Cyprus last year, I knew I should at least read my grandparents’ letters,” artist Kat Kats said.

“I had this strange experience of feeling both foreign and local at the same time – that I was thousands of miles away from my home in Melbourne and at the same time at my home in Cyprus.

Knowing the story of my grandparents, I could not but project this feeling in their experience, the parallel was too strong to ignore. So when organisers of the Buffer Fringe Performing Arts Festival in Cyprus announced that the theme for 2020-2021 was ‘displacement’, I took it as a sign that I had to start creating something with the letters.”

Given the uncertainty that surrounded us as a result of the global pandemic, the project underwent several variations and transformations before reaching its current form which is, by far, the most accessible and moving version whilst also proving the safest during COVID.

“Awaiting your Response works in conjunction with this year’s festival, in many ways,” the festival’s artistic director, Ellada Evangelou said.

“It combines time and experience, with the 1960s being creatively combined with 2020.”

“The inability to meet today is also an irony since the characters in the story – Kat’s grandparents -were unable to meet then. The artists participating in our festival are not able to travel to Cyprus today, so they send ‘new’ letters, in the form of works of art and sound as an offer to the city of Nicosia,” she explained.

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The play’s producer and artistic collaborator, Bryce Ives, also notes the passion and relevance to the present that characterise the work.

“One of the enjoyable moments of this process was when Neophytos and Eleni re-read all 134 letters aloud for the first time in 58 years. The research focused on displacement as well as old age and memories,” he said.

“The recording of these conversations in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic had its own dynamic. At a time when the elderly have been marginalised and isolated from the community and family (due to restrictions and anxiety), we took a trip with Neophytos and Eleni, which we now share with various parts of Cyprus.”

Awaiting Your Response began 1 December as part of the Buffing Fringe Performing Arts Festival 2020-2021 in various locations throughout Cyprus.

You can enjoy the readings of all 134 letters by Eleni and Neophytos, along with interviews at awaitingyourresponse.com.