“Spyridoules” by Nefeli Maistrali, the performance of the beloved theatre group 4Frontal co-directed by Thanasis Zeritis and Charis Kremmidas, after the Athens Festival in 2023 and a triumphant run at the Tzenny Karezi Theatre, visit Thessaloniki and the Metropolitan Urban Theatre and bring back to the stage the voices of women who were maids and domestic workers in the 1950s and 1960s, fighting for their self-determination.

Drawing on historical documents and women’s narratives of the era, as well as interviews with women who work today as domestic helpers, Nefeli Maistrali delivers an original theatrical work, inspired by the shocking story of Spyridoula.

Using this play as a vehicle and under the Greek and punk sounds of Thrax Punkc, seven actors (Stavros Giannouladis, Tasos Dimitropoulos, Argyro Theodoraki, Katerina Latta, Nefeli Maistrali, Aristea Stafiraki, Eleni Tsibrikidou) give flesh and blood to the story in a shocking way.

Inspired by the true story of Spyridoula

The performance of the 4Frontal group starts from the true story of Spyridoula, a 12-year-old maid, who shocked public opinion in the 1950s.

Nefeli Maistrali’s play and the stage composition of the performance combine elements of documentary theatre, original dramaturgy and contemporary Greek music and seek to introduce to the audience a modern genre that borrows elements from ancient Greek tragedy and brings it to the present day.

At that time, a number of underage destitute girls were adopted by prominent families as “maids” to work as domestic servants in a peculiar situation of modern slavery.

Among them, 12-year-old Spyridoula from Mataranga, Agrinio, who moved to the capital to work in the wealthy house of a couple in Piraeus. For two consecutive years, it was revealed at the hospital, the couple abused her physically and mentally, to the point of burning her with an electric iron on her body and face. Spyridoula, however, found the courage to speak out, breaking the vicious cycle of violence.

A popular idol and source of empowerment for generations of women who suffer abuse and manage to articulate and end it, Spyridoula continues to inspire.

Information

WEDNESDAY 7/5 20.00

THURSDAY 8/5 21.00
FRIDAY 9/5 21.00
FRIDAY 10/5 18.00
FRIDAY 10/5 21.00

SUNDAY 11/5 20.00

Venue: Metropolitan: The Urban Theater, Vas. Olgas 65 & Fleming 2, Thessaloniki (tel. 2311 284 773)

Duration: 90 minutes