'The Dinner'

by Leah Vitali

Directed by Alkis Kritikos
Set, costumes and lighting designed by David Burrows

with:

Monica Meleki
Petros Karatzias
Manolis Michaelides
Eleni Kaoulla
Paraskevi Anastasiou
Thanasis Drakopoulos
Kyriakos Tsaggarides

at The Municipal Theatre, Larnaka, Cyprus for Skala Theatre

opened February 22nd 2003

This was a return to Cyprus after designing 'Tartuffe' in Nicosia in 1997 also with director Alkis Kritikos. The seaside town of Larnaka was a contrast to the capital city and provided an enjoyable working environment. It was a more closely knit, supportive community with many townspeople eager to support the project.

I sent the designs for the play via email, a temporary web page and fax before my only visit a week before the show opened. Happily the same workshop team which had built the set for 'Tartuffe' were responsible for 'The Dinner' and it all fell into place smoothly enough. I worked on the six costumes during the week and, as this
was a modern-dress production this mainly entailed shopping with each actor.

I'd enjoyed designing the furniture, particularly the three legged chairs with the serpent tails and zebra skin seats. The perspex table top, with its frosted centre, allowed for dramatic up-lighting through the debri of glasses at the play's tragic conclusion - the rape and murder following a drunken after-dinner game which goes out of control. Leah Vitali, the author, came over from Athens with her husband for the first night. This was only the second production of the play earlier running successfully in Athens for two years.