Mihalis Mitrousis
One evening close to Christmas, the tree, having seen the splendidly trimmed Christmas trees standing in the windows of nearby houses, and longing to be as beautiful as they are, begs the boy to trim it too. But the boy has neither ornaments nor money to buy any, in fact he has nothing. How can he make this withered, shriveled tree look beautiful, there in the middle of a filthy, freezing pavement? And yet this night will prove to be a very different night from every other. It will be a night when dreams come true, a night of enchantment and magic.
Anna is the Jewish daughter of a Spanish mother and a Greek father. She has returned to her family's house in Greece after many of her friends and family members have died over the years. Although she came back to the house in order to sell it, things begin to take a different direction: The house itself, the furniture and other equipment in it seem to become alive for Anna, recalling images of her past, her beloved parents and her friend Max, who once gave her shelter from the raging policemen when she took part as a photo journalist in a political demonstration in Berlin. Anna changes her mind: When some rich, ignorant American couple wondering about if they should buy the house asks for the swimming pool (while the Mediterranean is half a mile away), she simply doubles the charge, and finally puts the "For sale" plate into the garbage can.
Nicolas is a shepherd. He is around twenty years old, thin and spirited. Constantina is eighteen years old. Constantina fell in love with Nikolas the very first time she saw him with his lyre at the bull sacrifice ritual. She entered the whirlpool of ecstasy and became his lover. Their relationship was clearly physical, all other things were setting them apart. Constantina decides that they should break up. "We come from different places and head in different directions", she says. When she finds out that she is pregnant, she does not tell Nikolas.
The comedy was written and played at the end of the 5th century BC, at the end of the Peloponnesian War, a time of decline of the Athenian Republic. Aristophanes, on the occasion of the political situation in his country, tries to help his fellow citizens by presenting this comedy. Dionysus and his slave Xanthias, with the instructions of Hercules, go down to Hades looking for a poet, who will bring his city out of the impasse in which it has reached. After the poetic struggle between Euripides and Aeschylus, Dionysus chooses the latter to save Athens and they leave Hades together.
