A pleasant surprise awaits theatre lovers at Porta Theatre, every Monday and Tuesday. In times when comedy – and especially thought-provoking comedy – is on the decline, the show “The Shagaround“, based on the play by Maggie Nevill, is here to offer smiles and at the same time to reflect on modern relationships through the female gaze of the play’s main characters.

Essentially, all the action takes place in the ladies’ toilets of a London pub, just before New Year’s Eve. Five girlfriends capture an “unfaithful” partner, bringing him and the audience face to face with blunt truths, bittersweet humour and a series of unexpected situations. Nevill’s writing. starting with the comic tone and fast-paced dialogue, proves equally inventive when asked to “freeze time,” make digressions from the main conflict, and manipulate modes of Brechtian theater to appeal more to the viewer’s mind. We can, in other words, argue that comedy is the vehicle to realize both a feminist commentary and, as the play develops, an overall look at the relationships of today’s young people who seem to be lost in translation, misunderstanding and cell phone scrolling. This universal final destination of the play will be emphasized by elevating the final image of the play to a scene of almost ancient tragedy.

Since the play is being presented for the first time in Greece, the translation by Antonis Galeos plays a prominent role in the production, as he is called upon and finally succeeds in rendering in Greek all the playfulness of the English language, the insinuating black humour and the slang, making the audience forget for a while that they are watching an English play. The direction of Dimitris Agiopetritis-Bogdanos is also close at hand, who for most of the performance correctly moves his actors, according to the rhythm of the play, on stage and on the set of Marianthi Radou. However, during the “parabasis” of the play one can discern some deliberate inconsistency in the rhythm, creating a momentary confusion for the audience until the development of the second act.

“The Shagaround” by Maggie Nevill is the definition of an ensemble show. But besides that, each character has their own special moments, with monologues or fourth-wall breaks that accentuate our laughter. The well-coordinated team consists of Georgina Liosi, Nancy Boukli, Niki Skiadaresi, Olga Skiadaresi, Lydia Tzanoudaki and Angelo-Prokopios Nerantzis. One is impressed by the comic timing of the thespians, but especially in the case of Niki Skiadaresi, one experiences an artistic revelation, as the talented performer is constantly transformed on stage, passing from the stage of a romantic break-up, to the harsh realizations behind closed doors and her final elevation to a tragic symbol. At the same time, Angelo-Prokopios Nerantzis is a surprise in the “parabasis” of the show, in a provocative play that reveals to us the very nature of the theatrical act. It is extremely significant that the music of the Skiadaresis brothers (Skiadareses) found fertile ground to flourish in this play. The two sisters have managed to create musical-lyrical moments that fit harmoniously into the overall picture, while their problematics about the position of women through the centuries were expressed in the “parabasis” with an allegory that brings them very close to the style of poetic realism.

Comedy and contemporary drama lovers will probably pass the doorstep of Porta Theatre more than once this Christmas!