The prisoners at the Women’s Correctional Facility of Eleonas in Thiva performed in a play directed by Greek-Australian Stathis Grapsas in association with Nikos Armenis.
The play’s program said, “The inmates-students will take a bold step and share, with the audience, personal truths from their lives, which they have recorded, processed and shared in a theatrical performance” titled Chrysalithies which in Greek, means golden truths. I title that reflects the play’s aims, and the power of the women inmates who participated in it.
Stathis (as a child in the middle with red pants) in a performance of the Greek Community of Melbourne's Children's Theater. Photo: Supplied
The Greek Community Children's Theatre back when Stathis was young. Photo: Supplied
The Greek Community Children's Theatre back when Stathis was young. Photo: Supplied
Newspaper clippings from Greek Community Children's Theatre back when Stathis was young. Photo: Supplied
The performance was based on texts written by prisoners based on their experiences. The texts were read with lyricism and were dressed in an imaginative plot that highlighted the inmates’ reflections, the complex realities of their imprisonment, and their hope of an emotional escape from the walls they were locked-up in. Amalia Travasarou, who saw the unique play her student Stathis Grapsas directed, said the performance was “impressive and well presented, and brilliantly accompanied by music”.
Travasarou said that the discussion at the end of the play “was very emotional for both the inmates and the audience”. She reflected on the essential messages of the play. She said she was impressed by the “love and sisterhood between the inmates”, who, as they said during the play’s epilogue, “the only thing that people need to feel happy and safe is love.
All people, free and incarcerated alike.”This was not the first time a play like this was performed inside a Greek prison, as Stathis Grapsas directed a similar work for the Men’s Prison of Avlona. Grapsas received his first acting lessons as a young member of the Greek community in Melbourne. During this time, he participated in Travasarou’s afterschool acting lessons at the Children’s Theater that she had established in the late 1970s; Grapsas was only ten years old when he tested the acting waters under her guidance.
Grapsas continued his education in Melbourne, first studying business and marketing at RMIT and continuing at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. However, when he returned to Greece, he focused on his acting skills by studying at the Kostas Kazakos Drama School. He subsequently moved to the United Kingdom, where he studied at the Royal National Theater.
Since 2000, Grapsas has been working as an actor, director, and teacher, mainly in Greece, Canada, the USA, and – of course – Australia. He has developed an impressive expertise in working with people at corrections facilities worldwide.
