Tales from the rug

	Thomas Papathanassiou, Looming the Memory. Photo Antonios Baxevanidis

Dimitri Tsahuridis speaks to a performer in a one-man show with many stories to tell and is happy to report they are not boring.


After observing artistic endeavours Down Under for two decades, I can declare the two subjects which get on my nerves before sending me to the republic of tedium (which borders with the kingdom of boredom). One is the construction of dramatic narratives, films, plays or television around dysfunctional characters. It is too easy to see where the trouble of a chain-smoking asthmatic may come from; dah!

The other is much closer to home. When I hear of another artist, exploring, returning or escaping his Greek, Albanian, Bengali or Touareg roots, I want to deport them to the banana republic and leave them there forever.

Now, you can understand how happy I would have been to consider the work of Thomas Papathanassiou. Yes, he is another homecoming Aussie Greek. As we are from the same village (Perth actually, but you know what I mean), I had to see his work because I think our parents know each other. Now, unhappy am I to admit the major irritants I was mentioning with absolute certainty only a paragraph ago would need to be reassessed.

This is an accomplished, original and appealing performer with great storytelling skills. We saw his work most recently at this year's Antipodes Festival, where he presented his one-man show, Looming the Memory.

The story begins in the cellar of a house in a Greek village, where an old woman whispers to herself as she weaves on her loom. On the other side of the world, her grandson tries to understand his life as he unravels the family stories passed down to him. He grows up in Australia, with memories that don't make sense. He travels back to Greece to visit his family and to see if his memories live there. Along the way, he uncovers the darkness of his family's past and is forced to confront his perception of what home means and where he actually belongs. Looming The Memory is a theatrical journey into myth and memory, where 15 characters, one of whom is a chicken, are brought to life in an honest, sensitive, painful and often comic 60 minutes of theatre. Conceived written and performed by Thomas himself, this show explores the influence family stories play in shaping who we are.

We spoke with Thomas as he was preparing to bring the same act back to life, seven years after its first realisation. Later this month, the New Voices Project, a curated week of theatre by emerging Melbourne artists, will be staging his work.

Having studied theatre in two respected academic institutions, the WA Academy of Performing Arts and the Victorian College of the Arts, and having performed in numerous productions ranging from Shakespeare to musicals, he is a performer who understands drama and acting.

Thomas starts from a position of acceptance for all storytellers.

"We all have stories to tell, and they are all relevant. We must believe that. In sharing our stories, we re-evaluate ourselves and our place in the world. There is always something to learn. We must then move forward, otherwise we become stagnant, stuck, stifled.

"These ideas are the core of Looming the Memory. It is an attempt to tell some stories, and strives to break down the stereotypes that surround certain cultures, uniting and resonating in people from all walks of life, and ultimately giving insight into how we view other people, the world and ourselves."

Even though he has written 'a few other things,' this is his major work, to date. Looming the Memory has been a long time coming growing in wisdom along the way.

It began its life as a monologue in 1998.

"After unsuccessfully trying to find a suitable audition piece for a theatrical adaptation of a Greek novel, my flatmates at the time suggested I write my own, based on my experiences of growing up Greek. Although I was not cast in the production, the seed had been planted for a show. This two-minute monologue about my grandparents and memories was extended to a 15-minute piece, shown later that year during an evening of new work showings at the PACT Theatre in Sydney. The next instalment was in 2004, when I revisited the piece during my post-graduate studies at VCA. By now it became a 30-minute piece with an intricate set, expanding on the themes of memories and grandparents, to include family stories and identity. In 2005 for the Antipodes Festival, a newer approach to its presentation was tried out. Now, stripped of set, making it easier to tour, I was relying on the ancient tradition of storytelling to explore the concepts of ancestry, identity, home and the way memory systems work."

Still, is there anything that can be new or attractive when Australian Greeks are revisiting their stories? It may be our world and one we know well, but I could not think of one instance, after say the first Iraq war, where this re-presentation was not embarrassing. I can sense you cringing, hoping I do not start naming all those occasions of embarrassment, when a continuum of three millennia is reduced to some unemployable wog-boys and girls.

"I have been looking around to see how we are represented culturally in Australia. I was sick of seeing the stereotypes that surround the Greek culture, the way Greeks speak or act, being embedded in the Australian psyche."

Wanting to create a show that was more candid and realistic, Thomas Papathanassiou discovered he was being more truthful, by telling the stories Greeks themselves have to tell. He believes by doing this, by returning to old stories and tales, he produced "a universal show, speaking across many cultures or age groups."

The only prop he uses on stages is a rug his grandmother gave him when in Greece.

"When I looked at it closely there were buttons on it and clothing tags. I thought if peoples' clothes are in here, then their stories are in the rug. This made me think that this rug serves as the memory keeper; in this rug of memories are the people from my family's past."

That is the innovation of the show even if the idea of a person living with their hearts in two countries is one which, a generation or more after the age of immigration, is still felt by many. It is one those reading these pages are aware off even if they do not share its emotional relevance. This time they could see a wonderful version of this story and many others in one of the three performances of Looming The Memory, from 26-28 October at the Gasworks Theatre in Melbourne's Albert Park. For more information call 03 9699 3253.





"We all have stories to tell, and they are all relevant. We must believe that. In sharing our stories, we re-evaluate ourselves and our place in the world."