Review: IN SEARCH FOR ATTIK at Thessaloniki Concert Hall

Attik's mythical Mandra is being set up once again. IN SEARCH OF ATTIK is a musical about the life of the Greek composer, singer and songwriter Kleon Triandafilou, better known to his audience as Attik. Born in 1885 in Egypt, he moved to France in 1907 to study. There he wrote approximately 300 musical pieces for piano, opera and balle. Then in 1930 he came to Greece, where he settled and opened the famous 'Mandra of Attik'. He had been running the place for ten years when it closed and four years later, in 1944, Kleon took his own life by overdosing in sleeping pills.

The show first opened in 2012 and now 6 years later it is back again for more people to travel back in time and experience the feeling of living during the time Mandra was alive. The production was really expensive, which made it a great risk but one that finally paid off, since people showed great interest in it.

I saw the show at the premiere of the tour at Thessaloniki Concert Hall. The technical issues that day where too many. The microphones did not work properly, there were mistakes made with the costumes etc. However the cast worked extremely good as a team and the chemistry between them was so admirable that they managed to save the performance and distract the audience from paying attention to technical stuff. The only thing I did not like was the length of the performance. It lasted over three hours, which I found extremely tiring. In my opinion there were scenes not necessary. Had these been excluded from the show it would have been so much better and easier to follow.

As far as the cast concerns, Katerina Papoutsaki was amazing. She has a beautiful voice and great dancing qualities. I also loved Nandia Kondogeorgi, who is always excellent in my opinion. Hilarious and moving, she never disappoints. Akis Sakelariou (mature Attik) was penetrating on stage. The rest of the cast was also great with the highlight being Mrs. Zozo Sapountzaki who at 85 years old was an explosive presence on stage. I had never seen her perform before and I was genuinely shocked!

Overall, I have to say that being really young and not knowing many things about Attik and his work they managed to send me back to 1930s. While this show is identified as a musical, I would say it is a production that focuses on entertaining people with old beloved songs.

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