Fotos Politis

Born in Athens in an academic environment, Politis was the son of Nicolaos Politis, a professor at the University of Athens, who was considered the father of Greek folklore studies and cultural traditions, while his younger brother, Linos Politis, also a professor, taught modern Greek literature. In 1906-1908 he attended classes at the Athens Odeum’s (conservatoire) drama school and received the second prize in a drama competition with his play The Vampire.

At the end of 1908, he left for four years to study law in Germany. During this time and parallel with his law studies, he took courses in philosophy, being deeply influenced by German idealism. He was also influenced by the ideas of the Austrian-Jewish director Max Reinhardt, who staged ancient Greek tragedies, which Politis followed closely, as well as most of the new ideas that disseminated from the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna, the most important German-language acting school. It was the time when the role of the director began to become as prevalent as that of the playwright and the protagonist.[1]

In early 1913, Politis was drafted, because of the Balkan Wars and had to return to Greece to enlist.

After returning from the front, he begins his first reviews with a byline in January 1915, in the daily Nea Hellas (New Greece), which was supporting Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos. Until his early death in 1934, he wrote 1103 reviews in various newspapers, like Politeia (The State), Eleftheron Vema (Free Tribune) and Proia (Morning).

Apart from his columns in the daily press, he collaborated from 1927 with Costis Bastias' newly published literary review Ellinika Grammata (Hellenic Letters). There he joined the closely knit ideological circle of the magazine, consisting of Costis Bastias (publisher), Yannis Apostolakis, Politis' older first cousin, mentor and later professor of literature at the University of Thessaloniki, Alexandros Delmouzos, prominent educator and proponent for the instruction of demotic Greek in the school system, K. Th. Demaras, Greece's foremost scholar on the Greek Enlightenment and later professor of Modern Greek Studies at the French university Paris I - Sorbonne Panthéon, and George N. Politis, Politis' elder brother and the magazine's top book reviewer. The circle supported the "demotic" (vernacular) language, Greek cultural traditions, German idealism, closely linked to the Enlightenment and was critical of rampant nationalism and communism.[2]

In 1918, Politis participated in the founding of the "Hellenic Theater Co." by the Society of Greek Playwrights. The playwright Miltiades Lidorikis presided over the new company, with the poet Pavlos Nirvanas, the stage director Spyros Melas and Politis on the Board. Politis was further appointed professor with the Company's Drama school. He soon starts the translation in modern Greek iambic verse of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex and chooses one of Greece's greatest actors, Aimilios Veakis, whose memorable performance as King Lear at the Royal (National) Theater of Greece in 1938 has remained indelibly written in the history of 20th century Greek theater, to appear in the homonymous role. Under the direction of Fotos Politis, Oedipus Rex opened in the old 19th century neoclassical theater "Olympia" on Academias Street. The performance became a milestone in the revival of ancient tragedy, with the ideas of Max Reinhardt often evident, in the interpretation of the play. Politis was acclaimed as a director, the tickets were sold out, while the prominent reviewer Marios Ploritis wrote of "The first face to face confrontation with the interpretation of ancient drama".[3] The Greek stage director and historian of the theater Mitsos Lygizos observed about the contribution of the "Hellenic Theater Company" that:

It was founded to put a stop to the ridiculous parodies, desecrations and clownery of Sophocles, Shakespeare and Ibsen by various theatrical companies of the time.[4]

In 1925, when the Greek Actors' Union decided to create the "Professional School of Drama", Politis was appointed professor of repertoire and acting and from 1927 he started staging performances. Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (1927), Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman (1928), the 17th century Cretan religious drama Abraham's sacrifice (1929), etc. He also tried his first open air performance of ancient tragedy, Euripides' Hecuba (1927), with Greece's famous actress Marika Kotopouli and her troupe, in the all marble Panathenaic Stadium, build in the 1890s for the first Olympic Games of modern times. The stage director Alexis Solomos described the performance, as the most renowned Hecuba of the interwar period.[5]

Fotos Politis' contribution to the theater and literary criticism was indeed of significant consequence. He introduced a theatrical standard, when he first entered the world of the theater, much more demanding than what was currently in use. He fought against hastily prepared productions that were then prevalent, the miserable repertoire based on the "french boulevard", and the authoritative ways of the leading actors-managers, who in no way wanted to collaborate with the new and upcoming stage directors. He supported the struggle for the Demotic Greek language to prevail, the strict adherence to the texts without unwarranted alterations, the European avant-garde movements in the theater, which he knew quite well, and the stage director's predominance, as the foremost head of the artistic creation, who interprets the playwright, and with his baguette conducts the actors, set designers, costume designers, musicians, choreographers, to bring about the desired result. As University of Athens professor of theatrical studies Katerina Arvaniti has written:

Politis was a prominent director with whom ancient tragedy was recognized as a unique theatrical form. He laid the foundations of the National Theater's tradition.[15]

The establishment of a theatrical tradition is not a simple matter, especially one that has to do with the founding of a venerable institution like Greece's "National Theater". Usually, many decades, if not centuries like the Comèdie Française, are required. Politis' persistence for hundreds of exhaustive rehearsals now becomes clear. The singular teaching of elocution in the manner required by Greek tragedy, the rhythm of the performances, the movement and gestures of the ancient chorus and the performers with detailed sketches by Politis of their every stance, as seen in his prompt books (Regiebuch), something that Reinhardt did in great detail. But also meticulous directions to the actors for the sounds of the performance (cries, footsteps, banging), that combined with the music created an acoustic whole, the directions to set designer Kleovoulos Klonis expressing the spirit of the production, something that Klonis, familiar with the European avant-garde, would interpret with his expressionistic, bulky, architectural cubes and his Jessner stairs,[16] and to modern painters like Spyros Papaloukas and Fotis Kontoglou who worked on the sets, as well as directions for lighting and special effects. All these together create the complicated puzzle, which today gives us the opportunity to better understand the great stage director Fotos Politis' wonderful productions.

The theatrical tradition that Fotos Politis created at Greece's National Theater, was continued after his death in 1934 by Costis Bastias and director Dimitris Rondiris. The following year, Bastias became director of repertoire, a new institution for that time, and wrote a 68-page report setting down both the theoretical principles of a National Theater and the specific plays that should be staged from the ancient theater, Elizabethan theater, classical theater, contemporary theater and avant-garde theater, with a critical analysis of each. Theater reviewer Costas Georgousopoulos, who also teaches at the Department of Theater Studies at the University of Athens and discovered the report in 1991, wrote:

A most important document concerning our theatrical studies, which establishes that the natural stages for ancient tragedy are the open-air theaters of antiquity and further substantiates a theatrical point of view, almost avant-garde, whose influence is only realized today.[17]

On the other hand, Dimitris Rondiris, who had studied at the Reinhardt Seminar and had worked as an assistant to Max Reinhardt at the Salzburg Festival,[18] when Reinhardt was director of the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, had been recalled to Athens by the Board of the National Theater to become assistant director to Fotos Politis. After Politis' death, he succeeded him as prime stage director of the National Theater, and after World War II became its director general. Rondiris, with Bastias, continued the tradition of the National Theater, enriched it and added their theory that the tragedies of the ancient Greek poets are staged only in the open air theaters of antiquity, for which they were written, and not in the closed Renaissance theaters. This is a view that had not been adopted by Fotos Politis.

From 1935 until April 1941, when the Axis Powers occupied Greece, the tradition, as well as the fame, of the National Theater grew by leaps and bounds, with Bastias becoming director general (1937), and the passing of a new law that gave him the authority to act more or less independently, despite the existence of a dictatorship, and Rondiris, perfecting his exhaustive teaching methods and his unique staging inspiration. The National Theater became a huge organization with its actors, directors, set and costume designers, musicians, dancers and a whole operatic company that was added and began its performances in 1940, The National Opera of Greece. The major emphasis of Bastias and Rondiris was the revival of ancient Greek tragedy with performances throughout Greece and abroad. One of the most renowned was the first performance of ancient tragedy since antiquity at the theater of Epidaurus with the Electra of Sophocles in 1938.

At first, the Theater traveled to other Greek cities, like Patras and Thessaloniki. Then Greek architect Constantine Doxiadis designed a traveling theater with trucks and buses that could be set up anywhere and covered the whole country. It was named Arma Thespidos (The Chariot of Thespis). In 1939, the main company of the National (Royal) Theater traveled abroad for the first time. It began with Alexandria and Cairo in the spring and after returning to Athens left again in June and July to perform Sophocles' Electra and Shakespeare's Hamlet, at Oxford, Cambridge, London, Frankfurt and Berlin carefully balancing the two sides which by the end of that summer would be at war.

The Theater's "Grand Tour", as it came to be called among theatrical circles, was a great success both in the U.K. and in Germany and was rated as equal to the Comédie-Française and the Moscow Art Theater. Concerning Dimitri Rondiris' stage direction the reviewers wrote that he surpassed the wildest dreams of his teacher Max Reinhardt, while Richard Prentis noted:

The Greek acting of Hamlet the other night came off magnificently. It found not a new world but an old one —the world of Shakespeare.[19]

The News Chronicle's Henry Bean wrote: "Hamlet in modern Greek —a new way of doing Shakespeare to end all new ways" and commented about the Electra that: "It takes many years in perfecting the difficult technique of the spoken chorus".[20] And W. A. Darlington noted in the Daily Telegraph: "The most impressive performance of the Electra that I have seen".[21] But in the end, after the performance of the Electra at His Majesty's Theatre, the venerable The Times of London wrote:

The success of the Greek Royal Theatre, of which last night's performance gave proof, not as an organization only but as an artistic project, is in great measure due to the man, himself a dramatist of high rank, who has long watched over its fortunes and is its Director-General. London, having had opportunity to enjoy the fruits of his work, may now express gratitude to him as an ambassador of his nation's art, for certainly in no country has the stage owed more to the energy, enthusiasm, and connoisseurship of a single man than the Greek stage owes to M. Costis Bastias.[22]

Post mortem recognition of Fotos Politis, as well as his successors and students.

• Arvaniti, Katerina, Η αρχαία ελληνική τραγωδία στο Εθνικό Θέατρο (Ancient Greek Tragedy at the National Theater), vol. I, Θωμάς Οικονόμου - Φώτος Πολίτης - Δημήτρης Ροντήρης (Thomas Oikonomou - Fotos Politis - Dimitris Rondiris), Athens 2010. ISBN 978 960 211 9174.
• Bastias, Costis, "Φώτος Πολίτης" (Fotos Politis), periodical Evdomas, June 20, 1931. Reprinted in: Costis Bastias, Φιλολογικοί Περίπατοι (Literary Promenades, Conversations with 38 authors), pp. 134–141, Kastaniotis Editions, Athens 1999. ISBN 960-03-2577-4.
• Bastias, Costis, "Fotos Politis dies yesterday", daily Ι Kathemerini, December 4, 1934.
• Bastias, John C., Κωστής Μπαστιάς — Δημοσιογραφία, Θέατρο, Λογοτεχνία (a biography), (Costis Bastias — Journalism, Theater, Literature), chapter 17, "The National Theater I — The Fotos Politis Era (1930 - 1934), pp. 183-210. Kastaniotis Editions, Athens 2005. ISBN 960-03-3969-4.
• Gouli, Eleni, "Πολίτης Φώτος" (Politis, Fotos), in the Λεξικό Νεοελληνικής Λογοτεχνίας (Dictionary of Modern Greek Literature), Patakis Editions, Athens 2007. ISBN 978-960-16-2237-8.
• Lygizos, Mitsos, Το νεοελληνικό πλάι στο παγκόσμιο θέατρο (Modern Greek theater next to world theater), vol. B, Athens 1980.

• "Tsimiskis" (a tragedy), review Νέα Ζωή (New Life), Alexandria, Egypt, pp. 49–109.
• "Karagiozis the Great" (satirical play), Athens 1924.
• Fotos Politis, Επιλογή κριτικών άρθρων (A selection of reviews), vol. I & II, Theater reviews, vol. III, Literary reviews. Edited by Nicos Politis, Ikaros Editions, Athens 1983.