Nicosia festival presents the play Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me

One more performance presented by the Nicosia International Festival will arrive this month bringing an adaptation of Frank McGuinness’ play Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me. The Irish dramatist’s play was translated into Greek and directed by Athanasia Karagiannopoulou and following sold-out performances in Thessaloniki and Athens, it arrives in Nicosia on April 28.

On stage, actors Antinoos Albanis, Demetris Marizas and Peter Randle bring the play to life which stands out for McGuinness’s mastery of twists. He manages to build a play about three hostages in a Lebanese cell that is both funny and moving. It begins with the supposed stereotypes of a rude Englishman, a volatile Irishman, and a serious American, and then proceeds to subvert them.

McGuinness touches on many themes: the power of imagination as a survival mechanism, the solace that religion may or may not offer us, but also the endurance of great works of literature. Above all, it is a play about three men of different nationalities who discover themselves locked up in a cell, under the watchful eye of their captors.

Director Karagiannopoulou comments that it is “a story about fear and identity, which dissolves gender boundaries and carefully describes what it means to be human and how you can survive through unimaginably traumatic suffering. The work belongs to our time: An era of rebellions and terrorism but also a redefinition of male behaviour. It’s a story about something that few people know first-hand, but it speaks to what all people have in their hearts.”

Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me

Frank McGuinness’ play, translated and directed by Athanasia Karagiannopoulou. Part of the Nicosia International Festival. April 28. Nicosia Municipal Theatre, Nicosia. 8.30pm. In Greek. www.soldoutticketbox.com. Tel: 22-797979