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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 January 2009
The Karaghiozis performance – a shadow puppet form introduced to Greece by the late eighteenth to early nineteenth centuries by its Ottoman conquerors – became hellenized over the century following Greece's liberation from the Turks in 1821 to develop into a form significantly different from its prototype in its plots, stock characters, structure, and themes. A performance which attracted widely-ranging popular support, Karaghiozis took on until recently greater importance than live theatre in Greece both as a cultural reflection and as a viable dramatic medium. Traditionally, the performance opens with a prologue which functions very much like a curtain-raiser. The Greek prologue differs from that of its Turkish forerunner in which the hunchback fool hero's cohort, Haciavad, recites a poem, sings a song, and offers prayers. In the Greek performance, a modern prologue typically includes some combination of the following scenes: Karaghiozis' opening dance, his marching and quizzing of his sons, a quarrel between the rustic Barba George and the palace guard Veligekas, an announcement by Karaghiozis and his sons of the evening's performance, and an extended stock scene of some type (the supposed death and resurrection of Karaghiozis, for example).
1. Preliminary investigation reveals that while Greek players since the 1890s have sometimes been described as falling into certain schools of influence (Memos, Roulias, and Mimaros represent the supposed dominant masters and the Peloponnesos, Attica, and Thessaly the major geographical domains), the language, rhythms, themes, and structures of the Greek performance do not differ significantly according to the master who has most influenced a player or the area from which he originated or in which he performed. While in the prologue to the performance structural discrepancies are visible, they are attributable not so much to master or area as to development within the tradition itself over a period of time (a century and a half), a period during which the prologue passed through various phases. As well, the adoption of a new structural type (a more suspenseful or dramatic historical addition to the dominant comic cumulative and linear structures inherited from the Turkish performance) does not appear to represent the work of merely one school or area, but to have been equally exploited by all, another indication that a more highly generalized and incorporative tradition not only existed but had a determinate shaping influence in terms of structure and continuity from player to player.
2. All scenes considered were selected after study of some 200 printed texts, recordings, tapes, synopses, and performances.
Prologues on tape (all tapes noted are from the Milman Parry Collection, Center for the Study of Oral Literature, Harvard University, 1969): Demetres Mollas, prologues to Kostas Kareklas' performances of Gremala tou Patriarchi and To Kotsompoleio; Kostas Kareklas, To Kioupi, Navagio tou Barba Yiorgo; Ianaros, Markos Botzaris; Vangos, Diakos, Grammatikos; Dinos Theodoropoulos, Fournaris; Vasiles Vasilaros, Ainigmata, Vouleftikes Eklogies, Diavolos Koumparos, Baklaim Koukia; Savvas Gitsares, two prologues to the two-night performance of Katsantonis; Georgos Charidemos, To Fidi; Avraam, Anagnorisi ton 2 Adelfon, To Fidi, Sta Nichia tou Geslampo. (Transliteration as appears in the collection.)
Prologue performances: Athenaios, Manthos, To Lavaro tou 1821 (Athens, 1973)Google Scholar; Charidemos, Georgos, Karankiozes, o Megalexandros kai to Phidi, 0 Karankiozes Xenodochos, O Karankiozes sto Trellokomeio, 0 Kapetan Kissas, Kalos to Aphentiko ap'Exo (Athens, 1973–1974).Google Scholar
Reported prologues: Barba Giannes Vrachales, as reported by Michopoulos, Panagiotes, ‘E. Genesis tou Theatrou Skion kai to Prosopo tou Karankioze’, in Pente Komodies kai Dyo Eroika (Athens: Ermeias, 1972), p. 14Google Scholar (as told to Eleutherios Kelarinopoulos by his master Memos Christodoulos); Barba Giannes Vrachales, as reported by Soteres Spathares and told to Venardos, Sokrates, Me ton Sotere Spathare (Athens: Rodake, 1975), pp. 21–2Google Scholar; Giannes Roulias, as reported by Vlachogiannes, Giannes, ‘Tes Technes ta Pharmakia’, Nea Estia, 34 (1943), 857–8Google Scholar; Giannes Roulias, as reported by Spathares, Soteres, Apomnemoneumata kai e Techne tou Karankioze (Athens: Pergamos, 1960), pp. 184–5Google Scholar; performances of the period, as reported by Giorgios Philaretos, in the newspaper Euvoia, No. 198, 1 November 1879, p. 4 and reprinted by Kokkines, Spyros, Antikarankiozes (Athens: Iridos, 1975), p. 8.Google Scholar
Prologues in printed texts: Mollas, Antonio, Liga ap' Ola, in Karagheuz ou un théâtre d'ombres à Athènes, ed. Roussel, Louis (Athens: Raftanis, 1921)Google Scholar, I; Mimaros, D., O Sior Dionysios Tenoros kai o Karankiozes Primantona, in O Karankiozes (Athens: Ankyra, 1973)Google Scholar, originally published c. 1925–45; Panagiotes Michopoulos, Dollaria sto Dromo, To Kaphenedaki tou Karankioze, in Pente Komodies.
3. See Hobhouse, John C., A Journey Through Albania and Other Provinces of Turkey in Europe and Asia, to Constantinople, During the Years 1809 and 1810 (Phila.: M. Carey and Son, 1817), I, 159–60.Google Scholar
4. Philaretos, in Euvoia, 1 November 1879, p. 4.
5. As quoted in Venardos, , Me ton Sotere Spathare, pp. 21–2.Google Scholar See also the prologues to Vangos, Grammatikos and Diakos, on tape.
6. Spathares, , Apomnemoneumata, pp. 184–5Google Scholar; Vlachogiannes, , ‘Tes Technes’, 857–8.Google Scholar
7. See Michopoulos, prologue to Dollaria.
8. Quiz scenes considered include those of the following plays:
On tape: Demetres Mollas, prologue to Kareklas' Gremala; Georgos Charidemos, To Fidi; Ianaros, Markos Botzaris; Savvas Gitsares, Katsantonis; Avraam, Anagnorisi, Sta Nichia; Kostas Kareklas, Navagio tou Barba Yiorgo; Dinos Theodoropoulos, Fournaris; Vangos, Diakos, Grammatikos; Vasiles Vasilaros, Ainigmata, Vouleftikes Eklogies, Diavolos Koumparos, Baklaim Koukia.
Performance: Georgos Charidemos, O Megalexandros.
9. Dressing scenes considered include those of the following:
On tape: Vasiles Vasilaros, Vouleftikes Eklogies; Vangos, Grammatikos (the Karaghiozis scene).
Printed texts: Manos, Kostas, O Karankiozes Pharmakopoios, in O Karankiozes, ed. Ioannos, Giorgos (Athens: Ermes, 1971)Google Scholar, I, originally published c. 1930; Panagiotes Michopoulos, To Kaphenedaki, in Pente Komodies; Moustaka, Giannes, O Karankiozes dia tes Vias Giatros, in O Karankiozes Parastaseis Autoteles (Athens: Ankyra, [1945])Google Scholar; Mollas, Antonio, Liga ap' OlaGoogle Scholar, in Roussel, I (the Karaghiozis scene).
Reported scenes: Giannes Roulias, as quoted by Bires, Kostas, ‘E Leventia tes Roumeles: To Elleniko Laiko Theatro’, Nea Estia, 61 (1957), 665Google Scholar; Giannes Roulias, as reported by Spathares, , Apomnemoneumata, pp. 186–7.Google Scholar
10. Moustaka, Giannes's Karaghiozis Way of the Doctor (c. 1945)Google Scholar provides us with a concise example of the Barba George dressing scene, confirming in its basic parts the earliest instances (c. 1896) of the scene
Barba George: Aunt Paulaina, where are you? Come on, then, take the trunk keys and gather my things a little bit, I tell you. Give me the cap with the ribbon, the one with the green, red, yellow ribbons, the blue ones that I got at the festival at Tatarla for seven ten-drachma pieces. Come on, now, give me also the new skirt with the forty-nine patches, my clogs, the Russian leather ones; give me my pouch, too, and don't leave out the lye, the rue herb, the stone of the three brothers, the bat bones, the small mirror, the large-tooth comb, the flint-stone, the mother's milk, the sour milk, and a little mustache wax; in case there isn't any wax for the mustache, give me a little black polish, it makes no difference. Tell Giourgoula, Demetroula, though he's bombed out of his mind, to attend to the goat, that devilish one, so she doesn't fall into the sown field and do damage to the vegetables, because I am going to hit the road there to the marketplace where that thief Karaghiozis gives me notice he's marrying and I'm delivering the butchered meat to the wedding so we can celebrate and a little dancing so we can shake out our clog shoes.
11. Blessing scenes considered include the following:
Printed texts: Markos Xanthos, O Gamos tou Barmbagiorgou kai o Karankioz.es Nyphe, in O Karankiozes, ed. Giorgos Ioannos, I, originally published c. 1924; Kontos, Giannes, O Karankiozes kai oi Treis GambroiGoogle Scholar, in O Karankiozes (Athens: Ankyra, 1973), originally published c. 1925–45; Moustaka, Giannes, O Gamos tou Karankioze, in Neai Parastaseis Karankioze (Athens: Asteros, [1945])Google Scholar; Mollas, Antonio, Liga ap' OlaGoogle Scholar, in Roussel, I. In the four plays, of 40 possible uses of the ten formulas, they appeared 29 times; only 8 additions occurred, 6 of them in one play, that of the highly individual player Antonio Mollas who, nevertheless, still used 8 of the formulas.
See also, Dinos Theodoropoulos, I Vavelonia, on tape.
12. Announcement scenes considered include those of the following:
On tape: Vasiles Vasilaros, Ainigmata.
Printed texts: Markos Xanthos, Ta Epta Theria kai o Karankiozes, E Metamorphosis tou Karankioze, in O Karankiozes, ed. Giorgos Ioannos, II, originally published c. 1924; Moustaka, Giannes, O Karankiozes, ta Epta Theria kai o Megas Alexandras, O Karankiozes kai ta Tria Ainigmata, in O Karankiozes (Athens: Ankyra, 1973)Google Scholar, originally published 1925–45; Panagiotes Michopoulos, O Megalexandros kai to Katarameno Phidi, To Stoicheiomeno Dentro, in Pente Komodies.
13. Other possible scenes for study include the following: the five articles of hunger monologues (see Panagiotes Michopoulos, O Kapetan Maurodemos, in Pente Komodies; Antonio Mollas, Liga ap' Ola), the Barba George boat scene (see Xanthos, Markos, O Karankiozes Ploiarchos, in Ellenikon Theatron tou Karankioze, Athens: Saravanos-Vouneseas, 1924Google Scholar; Giannes Moustaka, O Karankiozes ste Zounkla, in O Karankiozes Parastaseis Autoteles), the calling out of the hut scene (see Michopoulos, Panagiotes, Astrapogiannos kai LambetesGoogle Scholar, in Pente Komodies; Markos Xanthos, O Karankiozes Karavouniares, in Ellenikon Theatron tou Karankioze), the quiz for a job scene (Kostas Manos, O Karankiozes Pharmakopoios, in O Karankiozes, ed. Giorgos Ioannos. I; Kontos, Giannes, O Karankiozes kai oi Treis Gambroi, in O Karankiozes, Athens: Ankyra, 1973Google Scholar; Markos Xanthos, O Karankiozes Phournares, in Ellenikon Theatron tou Karankioze), the lost watch or wallet scene (Xanthos, Markos, O Karankiozes KaravouniaresGoogle Scholar, in Ellenikon Theatron tou Karankioze; Barba Giannes Vrachales, in his prologue as reported by Spathares in Venardos, Me ton Sotere Spathare).
14. Lord, Albert B., The Singer of Tales (1960; rpt. New York: Atheneum, 1965), p. 97.Google Scholar
15. History plays considered include a sample of 20 plays, covering 13 players over a period of 50 years, 1918–73.
On tape: Ianaros, , Markos BotzarisGoogle Scholar; Kareklas, Kostas, GremalaGoogle Scholar; Vangos, , DiakosGoogle Scholar; Avraam, , AnagnorisiGoogle Scholar; Gitsares, Savvas, KatsantonisGoogle Scholar; Antonaros, Antone, Mavros tin Anatolis.Google Scholar
Dictated synopses: Mollas, Antonio, ‘Le Persécuteur des Grecs’, ‘L'Ennemi des Chrétiens’, ‘Le Héros Katsandonis’Google Scholar, in Roussel, Louis, Karagheuz, II, dictated in 1918.Google Scholar
Printed texts: Mollas, Antonio, O Katsandones, in O Karankiozes tou Mollas (Athens: Dele, 1925)Google Scholar; Manos, Kostas, O Eros Katsandones (Athens: Vouneseas, 1930)Google Scholar; Moustaka, Giannes, O Karankiozes kai o Kapetan Androutsos, O Karankiozes kai o Kapetan Tromaras, O Karankiozes kai o Kapetan Gres, O Karankiozes, e Kyra Phrosyne ki' o Ale PasasGoogle Scholar, in O Karankiozes Parastaseis Autoteles; Michopoulos, Panagiotes, Astrapogiannos kai Lambetes, O Kapetan MaurodemosGoogle Scholar, in Pente Komodies; Xanthos, Markos, O Athanasios Diakos kai o Karankiozes KandelanaptesGoogle Scholar, in O Karankiozes, ed. Giorgos Ioannos, II; O Kapetan Gres, in O Karankiozes, ed. Giorgos Ioannos, III; Giannoules, D., O Karankiozes kai o Gero Drakos o Souliotes, in O Karankiozes (Athens: Ankyra, 1973), originally published c. 1925–1945.Google Scholar
Performances: Athenaios, Manthos, To Lavaro tou 1821Google Scholar; Charidemos, Georgos, O Kapetan Kissas.Google Scholar
