Amore’s house of sleeping beauties
The Amore Theater, known for its high-quality and often provocative productions, opens the spring season on its central stage with Yasunari Kawabata’s «House of Sleeping Beauties.» Written in 1961 when Kawabata was 62 years old, the play looks at the onset of old age and ultimately, the end of the physical capacity for sex through a story of people who, unable to form relationships, are left with nothing. Kawabata, the first Japanese novelist to win a Nobel Prize for Literature (1968), often explored the role of sex in society and people’s private lives. Tinged with nostalgia, his works combine modernist trends with a surreal imagery that draw parallels between the elegance of older norms and the more violent modern quests for identity. Kawabata was born in Osaka in 1899 into a prosperous and cultured family, but a succession of deaths in the family at an early age left him bereft of a normal childhood. After the deaths of his parents, Kawabata moved to the country and lived with his blind and infirm grandfather – a figure who virtually became an obsession in the young man’s life. After graduating, in 1924, from Tokyo university, where he had studied literature, Kawabata and a group of like-minded counterparts founded the journal Contemporary Literature, a publication in which they challenged realism and advocated the neo-sensualist movement. His first literary success came in 1925 with the novella «The Izu Dancer,» the story of his own infatuation with a young dancer. Kawabata married in 1931 and moved to the old Samurai capital of Kamakura, where he began studying historic texts. The Second World War left him relatively unscathed, though his experiences resulted in the celebrated 1948 work, «The Snow Country.» He wrote his most respected work, «The Sound of the Mountains,» in 1954 and by the early 1960s was touring the United States, lecturing at universities. By this time, Kawabata was socially active, joining forces with other Japanese artists to condemn the Cultural Revolution in China and to promote young Japanese artists. In 1972, Kawabata committed suicide but left no note by way of explanation. «The House of Sleeping Beauties» relates the story of a 67-year-old man, Eguchi, who joins the club of the House of the Sleeping Beauty, a brothel in effect, where young women, under the influence of sedatives, are at the disposal of old men. Eguchi’s experience with the young women revives his memories and with them, his sexual desires. However, rather than presenting the character as a lecherous old man, Kawabata shows a chaste man who desires life and examines the concept of alienation both from society and from the self. The Athens performance of «The House of Sleeping Beauties» is directed by Thomas Moschopoulos. In the production, he gives a modern interpretation to Kawabata’s text, broadening the scope of the play from its focal point on Eguchi to make a more general comment on the concept of alienation. The sets and costumes for the performance have been designed by Lilly Pezanou, the lighting is by Lefteris Pavlopoulos and the music by Nikos Platanos. Cast members include: Pericles Albanis, Dimitris Asteriadis, Ieronymos Kaletsanos, Alexia Kaltsiki, Akylas Karazisis, Nikos Kefalas, Maria Kehagioglou, Marilita Lambropoulou, Argyris Xafis, Ioanna Pappa, Amanda Piperaki, Nikos Hadzopoulos and Iro Hioti. «The House of Sleeping Beauties,» at the Amore Theater, 20 Prigiponison, Polygono, tel 010.646.8009, every Wednesday-Saturday at 9.15 p.m. and Sundays at 7 p.m. The premiere is tonight.
