On Friday October 18, the Melbourne Theatre Company will host a play reading of a new work, ‘The Greek Word for Funeral’.
Written by George Lazaris and directed by Bridget Balodis tells the story of a family reuniting to mourn their papou and the only thing more stocked than fridge are the resentments.
As the spanakopita defrosts, three generations will be transformed by the brutal honesty only family can serve.
It’s described as My Big Fat Greek Wedding meets August: Osage County, and stars Petra Kalive, Katerina Kotsonis, Maria Mercedes, Maria Theodorakis, Steve Mouzakis, Eb Papanastasiou, Olivia Charalambous and Tony Nikolakopoulos.
The three-act tragicomedy shows us the Greek-Australian family dynamic in a fresh take, celebrating and commiserating the bonds of family.
Lazaris, a Melbourne-based director and playwright, has a strong interest in reframing the canon through cultural and queer lenses.
“I am the product of a beautiful history of migrancy to this country. My family background is Greek and Cypriot, with both of my grandmothers being born in Australia,” Lazaris said in an interview with Melbourne Theatre Company.
“With both sides of my family having been in the country for over 100 years, I have a not-actually-that-unique perspective of grandmothers who speak in strong Australian accents, follow the AFL, love their Haighs chocolate and can’t get by without the Sao biscuits they grew up with.”
Because Lazaris’s family have been in Australia for generations, their story is much different to the commonly found second and third generation Greek Australians.
“I want to tell a new generation of migrancy story, one where the migrant community had been established long enough that we could start talking about what it means to hand down the traditions of a place that had moved on from those traditions.”
“I want to tell a big, messy, multigenerational story about people who look like my community, where instead of sole stereotypes we’re allowed to be different and imperfect, kind of awful and very very funny.”
Before now, ‘The Greek Word for Funeral’ had never been read by a Greek Australian, and Lazaris finds it “surreal” to be around a big group of Greeks reading the play.
“To now be surrounded by an inspiring community of Greek-Australian performers, giving perspectives and context and their own points of view on a play I mostly wrote by speaking the lines aloud to myself at my laptop is a little surreal in the best way.”
More information and tickets can be bought on the Melbourne Theatre Company website.
