ΝIKI, TONIGHT AT THE PARTY (2022)

Τheatre Fournos

14.05.2022 – 05.06.2022 & 01.10.2022 – 30.10.2022

Niki, Tonight at the Party is based on Party at Elisabeth P.’s House by Niki Triantafyllidi, reimagined through Roula Pateraki’s dramaturgical adaptation for a single performer. Transforming the original polyphonic text into an intimate theatrical monologue, the production unfolds as an excavation of the artist’s inner world, where memory, archetype, and transformation converge. Through an immersive audiovisual environment, the performance traces a journey across the personal and collective unconscious, while the figures of Elisabeth, Maxim, and Alice emerge as shifting identities through which the protagonist confronts the deepest layers of existence. Conceived as a tribute to the multifaceted artistic legacy of Niki Triantafyllidi—an acclaimed actress, writer, director, translator, and recipient of the Marika Kotopouli Award—the production reflects Maldoror’s commitment to preserving cultural memory, revisiting major voices of Greek theatre, and fostering interdisciplinary artistic practice.

Director’s Note

It is customary to refer to great women actors as “ladies,” a distinction that is rarely made for great male actors. I feel that calling Niki Triantafyllidi a “lady” does her an injustice, because Niki Triantafyllidi—like other distinguished actresses of the Greek and international stage who bear the title Dame—is simply a great actor. I deliberately use the masculine form rather than saying great actress because, regrettably, I believe that for some time yet it will register more readily in the minds of my contemporaries.

Triantafyllidi wrote an award-winning play. She directed it herself and performed it herself. After her death, I have the feeling that everyone fell silent around her. Or rather, that everything fell silent. It was deeply moving for me when a young actress with a strong artistic identity and many talents sought out Triantafyllidi’s play in order to perform it. In doing so, she also asked me whether I could help her with this excavation.

The play was generously entrusted by Triantafyllidi’s daughter, Zoi Triantafyllidi, so that it could be adapted into a one-person performance. My task was to try to discern, within the multifaceted torrent of words of a true genius, the elements that might shape the inner workings of a psychological mechanism capable of reflecting Niki Triantafyllidi herself. Following the dramaturgical adaptation of the original text, the project is now entrusted to the actress Nana Papadaki, who possesses all the physical and emotional qualities needed to bring it fully to life.

— Roula Pateraki

Press / Reviews

Roula Pateraki’s directorial orchestration gives the narrative vivid visual form with both strength and sensitivity. Together with its rich interplay of light and shadow, it creates a compelling sense of metaphysical interiority.”

“Nana Papadaki embodies this multifaceted figure with a temperament worthy of the breadth of the many-talented personality of Niki Triantafyllidi—a great actor, writer, and director.”

“The production’s exceptional audiovisual environment and digital design are the work of director and visual artist Avraam Papavramopoulos.”

“Niki, Tonight at the Party, in Roula Pateraki’s dramaturgical adaptation and direction, with Nana Papadaki in the leading role, is a powerful psychological portrait—a profound study of the existential cry of the human condition.”
— Zoi Toli, enetpress

“Roula Pateraki moves beyond the conventions of ‘traditional’ directing, creating a choreographed theatrical experience in which emotion prevails alongside all the elements that made up the ‘enigma’ of Niki Triantafyllidi. The text is heard with clarity and force, conveying its full interiority and poetic quality, enhanced by the audiovisual environment and digital design created for the production by visual artist Avraam Papavramopoulos.”

“With the appearance and vitality of a nymph, Nana Papadaki delivers a tour-de-force performance, at moments making us feel we are watching the author herself communicating her thoughts, rather than a fictional heroine.”
— Thodoris K., sinwebradio

“Roula Pateraki adapted the work for a single performer through a profound exploration of the central character’s inner life, brought to the stage by Nana Papadaki.”

“Nana Papadaki’s outstanding performance is framed by a rich audiovisual environment created by director and visual artist Avraam Papavramopoulos.”
— Manolis Polentas, I Avgi

“In the play I witnessed the harrowing transformations of a psyche longing to connect but unable to do so, observing the world from a distance while at the same time surrendering to it through roles and through suffering—dignified suffering, deeply internalized, as a form of self-awareness.”

“The narrator fragments herself—the self she signs as ‘Niki of Rhodes,’ to whom beauty, fragrance, thorns, fragility, and transience are ascribed. Actress Nana Papadaki embodied these qualities to the fullest in her performance. […] In the production I experienced something extraordinary in the final moments. The ending was so sudden and devastating, with its final powerful lines accompanied by music, that the audience remained transfixed, unable to applaud. Like me, they seemed unwilling to disturb the echo and the weight of those last words, which marked the narrator’s final passage—her passage into the ultimate role of stillness, one that needed no name. […] Ultimately, the direction deepened the work’s introspective and metaphysical dimensions, creating an atmosphere of enchantment rich in lucid symbolism. The text—profound and razor-sharp—shone with irresistible force; every word landed with absolute conviction, sending a shiver through the audience. Nana Papadaki portrayed this multifaceted protagonist with strength and dynamism, sensuality and emotional intensity. At Niki’s party she had invited all of her selves, and the gathering evoked a secret supper.”
— Katerina Kazolea, Fractal

Production Credits

Text: Niki Triantafyllidi
Dramaturgical Adaptation & Direction: Roula Pateraki
Performer: Nana Papadaki
Assistant Director: George Zorbas
Audiovisual Environment & Digital Processing: Avraam Papavramopoulos
Lighting Design, Set & Costume Concept: Roula Pateraki
Production Manager: George Zorbas
Set Construction: Thanasis Thalassinos
Radio Spot: Spyxad / Advertising Solutions
Theatre Manager: Myrto Kamvysi
Technical Manager: Apostolis Tsatsakos
Promotional Photography: Thodoris Stabelos
Photography Assistant: George Tsimpidis
Performance Photography: Katerina Tzigotzidou
Graphic Design: Yannis Vergitsis
Press & Communications: Marianna Papaki, Nondas Douzinas (Cont Act)
Production: Maldoror non-profit company