A comic take on Cypriot reality

Kickstarting the new 2018/19 season at Theatre Dionysos is the play Antio Koproskilla by Frixos Masouras, premiering on Monday.

Directed by Andreas Kyriakou, the play takes place in spring-time Cyprus in 2013 when the economic crisis hits the island the future of the banks is at stake.

And so, a desperate group of artists decides to give its last performance; a bank robbery. Without rehearsals, with no hope of success, but with a lot of guts, six friends are confronted with the scenes in films they grew up with and the scenarios they dreamed of as actors on stage, unfolding live, in front of their eyes.

Their relationships will be tested as the plan does not run smoothly and they have no idea what it is like to be a criminal. “How are relationships formed when a simple everyday person suddenly finds himself with a pistol in hand? Or does the pistol act as a catalyst of truth?” asks the play.

And no this is not meant to be another Casa de Papel plot. In fact, the play is a tribute to the film Reservoir Dogs by Quentin Tarantino, but also to cinematic productions – stations of the 80s and 90s, such as Brayan de Palma, John McCartney and Martin Scorsese.

Wanting to mirror Cypriot reality in a hilarious tragedy, Antio Koproskilla chronicles the events when art and life dangerously collide.

Antio Koproskilla
Theatre performance of hilariously tragic events when 6 actors try to rob a bank amidst the 2013 crisis in Cyprus. November 19-25. Theatre Dionysos. 8.30pm. In Greek. €15/ €12. Tel: 22-818999 & 99-621845

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.