"Equally established in the modern Greek consciousness is Karagiozis, both as a genre (the Greek version of shadow theatre) and a character (the eponymous protagonist, and the archetype of the Greek temperament). The genre constitutes an example of authentic folk art shaped through the ages and, despite its frequent omission from theatrical historiography, rooted in national identity. On the μπερντές, which is a white, illuminated sheet of fabric, we see Karagiozis’ shack on the left (the West) and the Pasha's Seraglio on the right (the East); the narrative time is supposedly the Ottoman occupation, broadly speaking, whereas the place is totally undefined. There are about fifteen stock characters, whose puppets are two-dimensional figures made of papier mâché, hardened leather, or plastic; the action is developed linearly and on-screen (no flashbacks, flash-forwards, or parallel stories), usually representing the events of one day, and the form is always dialogic (there is no narration). Behind the screen, the performer (καραγκιοζοπαίχτης), either alone or with his assistants, manipulates the puppets and creates their voices. Usually it is he himself who constructs the sets and the puppets and writes the script. Musicians or recorded music accompany the show, which starts with a σέρβικος and ends with a καλαματιανός......"
See also: REPERTORY OF GREEK SHADOW THEATRE [KARAGIOZIS] IN PATRA IN THE INTERWAR PERIOD (1922-1940)ΤΟ ΔΡΑΜΑΤΟΛΟΓΙΟ ΤΟΥ ΘΕΑΤΡΟΥ ΣΚΙΩΝ ΣΤΗΝ ΠΑΤΡΑ ΚΑΤΑ ΤΗΝ ΠΕΡΙΟΔΟ ΤΟΥ ΜΕΣΟΠΟΛΕΜΟΥ (1922-1940)
"Karaghiozis [or Karagkiozis /Karaghiozis] is a form of shadow theatre denoting strong Hellenic identity. It originated from the Ottoman Karagöz. The transformation of the ottoman ancestor into a popular Hellenic symbol took place in Hellenic cities (especially those of Athens and Patras) at the end of the 19th century. The assimilation was achieved through the creation of various stock characters (around 8-10) who embody regional or class types of Hellenes, and through the representation of national and regional manners.The theatre of Karaghiozis articulated, in a way that was often grotesque and seemingly absurd, the dreams and the ideas of lower-class people for more than fifty years. Its acme coincided with the transition of Hellas from its traditional agricultural character to a modern semi-bourgeois country. The decline of the genre began in the early 1950s and was concluded in the 1970s. The tradition is still carried on by contemporary puppeteers, yet the context that had created that unique form of theatre has disappeared.
Karaghiozis is mostly an oral type of theatre, though the impact of written culture is significant. During the fifty years of its development it presented several hundreds of plays. Those plays formed part of a collective puppeteer tradition in the same way as the stock characters of that theatre did. Each puppeteer may have added a new element or made some changes but no-one owned a play. It should be noted that, due to the oral form of the ‘texts’, each play has attained as many versions as the number of its performances. Most of the plays were comic but several of them had serious themes drawn from history and social life. The intrinsic aspect of Karaghiozis theatre is that, while it ridiculed the values of the established civilization, at the same time it propounded nationalistic ideals and venerated Orthodox religion."
Mavi Boncuk |
SHADOW THEATRE AND THE GREEK “KARAGIOZIS” SOURCE
Light, shadows, human figures made of paper, a thousand little stories. From the theatrical rituals of the Far East and ombres Chinois to the cheerful spectacle of Karagiozis, the story of the Greek Shadow Theatre is a long fairy tale, unfolded on a white sheet…
First there was darkness, then light came. Ever since, the alternation of day and night punctuate the sense of time. Still, even in daytime, when light prevails, darkness is there in the form of «shadow».
A «dark» threat, impossible to wipe out, defeating the sunlight. In the glimpse of their own shadow, an elusive reflection of their body, the people of antiquity sense the duality of their own existence, corporeal and spiritual, body and soul. In this duality lies the hope that death is not an irreversible loss. The soul, the «immortal» shadow immigrates to Hades, the Kingdom of the underworld. Indeed, it is not a coincidence that, in most mythologies, the shadow takes on metaphysical connotations, articulating people’s superstitions, their fears and hopes.
It is precisely these fears and hopes that Shadow Theatre, one of the most ancient forms of art, comes to dramatize. In so doing, it is perceived as a means to contact the underworld, enacting a religious ritual.
Shadow Theatre is believed to originate in the Far East, first recorded in the Indian Mahabharata. In fact, the extremely long arm of the Greek shadow figure Karagiozis may be associated with the Indian view of the sacred, according to which the spirits’ long arms symbolized strength and beauty. Similarly, the Chinese Shadow Theatre also had a religious character. Its earlier figures were still, non-anthropomorphic, with long nails and beaks, so depicting the souls of the dead. In fact, the legend has it that this type of theatre emerged out of the desperate wish of Chinese emperor Wu to contact his deceased wife, a wish that came true when the royal priest conjured up her spirit in the form of a shadow, behind a thin and dimly-lit ricepaper wall. In its mature form, Chinese figures take a human shape, become mobile and reach unprecedented technical perfection and aesthetic standards.
The shift from religious to secular shadow theatre occurs much later, as the genre crosses the Chinese borders and becomes a popular spectacle in the Ottoman Empire. Its central figure is Karagiozis, in Turkish meaning “black eyed” (Kara göz). His figure dominated both the Turkish and the Greek shadow theatre scenes, though there are different accounts speculating on Karagiozis origins- some linking him with the Turkish and some with the Greek theatre tradition. A convincing version associates the figure with the 19th century Greek merchant Mavromatis (black eyed in Greek). After having lost his fortune in China, this imaginative merchant successfully adapted the Chinese shadow theatre tradition to dramatize the Greek reality of the Ottoman times, through satire and comic exaggeration.
THE GREEK KARAGIOZIS
As poor as a church mouse, fibber, hump-backed, ill-favoured, ever-starving and jobless, a cheerful and witty little scamp with subversive amoralism and disrespect to any authority, Karagiozis came to represent the spirit of the Greeks. There is an impressive affinity with ancient Greek comedy, particularly with Aristophanian characters, in Karagiozis’ comic dialogues full of puns and obscenities, in his critical comments on social inequality and in his satirical references to the Turkish occupation.
The first Greek Karagiozis play is recorded in mid-19th century Nafplion, then capital of the newly founded Greek State, and was unfavourably received. The intellectuals of the time looked down upon it, as a low-class, low-taste popular spectacle, weak in plot and performance.
At a later stage, the genre puts aside its provocative obscenities, tightens up its structure and dialogue and develops new characters inspired by the experiences of the Greeks at the time. In the hands of talented shadow theatre artists, Karagiozis’ performance reaches new aesthetic standards, such as bigger and clearer screens, coloured figures and more naturalistic figure movements.
Following the social and cultural developments of his time, Karagiozis reaches his mature stage, around the 1940s, as a cunning petty bourgeois. New themes, plots and characters enrich the spectacle, along with new scenic elements and live music. Shadow theatre’s audience expands to include bourgeois and intellectuals, who have come to appreciate Karagiozis as an authentic form of Greek tradition. As ethnologists argue “Ordinary people do not perceive Karagiozis as something of exotic interest, as the educated bourgeois does, nor do they see it, along with the petty-bourgeois, as mere fun. For ordinary people, Karagiozis is their “daily bread”, representing the essence of their very own living culture”.
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