Three women—Eleni, Vasiliki, and Ioanna—narrate their traumas. The first carries her personal tragedy on a tin nail that grew in place of the old one that blackened and fell off. This nail is her armor, her defense. It will define her; it will provide the solution… Vasiliki lives in a house devoid of air. A child of two troubled parents, she will take life into her own hands when she realizes her underage daughter experiences her own tragedy, enticed by a doll… Ioanna is a teenager born male in a female body. She will soon shed her female nature when, dressed as a boy, she becomes the object of desire for a peer. The ending will be tragic.

The play was awarded the 2001 State Theatre Award.

Authors’ Note: Women’s Luggage – The three heroines carry their suitcases and open them before the audience. Inside are unhealed wounds, untold stories, memories they wish to forget, contradictions and denials, sorrows, pieces of others’ lives they dreamed of but never got to enjoy. They are vulnerable yet determined to experience what was given to them, ultimately paying the cost of choices beyond measure and rule. A tin nail, a strange doll, a knife—these are the gifts/weapons in the battle for justice, redemption, and sacrifice. These are women who existed and exist in Athens and the provinces, in cities and villages, defining the space of their personal suffering among rooms without stigma, workplaces dripping with brine, public restrooms, and discouraging mental landscapes. We loved and cared for them, yet they trapped and frightened us. This painful journey toward their truth became for us a major step toward self-awareness and catharsis.

Director’s Note:
“…fear when you do not feel pain. Pain is not a symptom; it is the beginning of healing…”
(excerpt from The House with the Gifts)

The House with the Gifts is a harsh play, a true play, a work of introspection on family—the family that exists and frightens society, a society that ignores and tolerates this harshness. A realistic play that borders on poetry. Attempting to find a connecting thread between realism and poetry, we explore acting codes that bridge these two fields. The sparse and “harsh” set, influenced by medieval brutality, combined with live music, creates a dystopian family environment permeating Greek society. Theatre must disturb, alter, and change the world; as its advocates… forward for our evolution.