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It all began with a man that pretended to walk.

Aspasia Kralli, the little girl watching this man, was amazed when she first saw mime Jean-Louis Barrault simulating a stroll in the film Les Enfants du Paradis, by Marcel Carné and Jacques Prévert. And so, after studying law, she managed to escape her parents’ supervision, heading to Paris to study acting.

Having the good fortune to work with Marcel Marceau, one of the biggest names in mime, was down to chance, and Aspasia’s nationality: “Marceau loved Greece and its civilisation, and knew very well that the art of mime originated from Ancient Greece.” This fascination was passed down to Aspasia, and when she returned to her country, even though she started off as an actress of verbal theatre, she ended up “creating plays which had no words and a complete dramaturgical essence.”

Years later, Aspasia Kralli and her Theatre of Silence have stayed true to master Marceau’s wishes to draw a bridge between the tradition and future of Greek tragedy, acting in numerous international mime festivals where they have presented several adaptations of myths, such as Medea of Silence, Hades in a Room, or Pentheus Suffering, but also other, more contemporary plays, such as Naughty Class and Love Bites, which were “very successful in Athens.” In Macau, the Greek collective will be staging Seeking Oedipus at the Macao Cultural Centre, and the first evening will feature a special talk between the audience, two intellectuals, and a playwright at the end of the performance.

The much-revisited story of Oedipus who, in a phrase, kills his own father and marries his mother, might be a cliché for all Westerners, but how will Asian audiences react it? “The Oedipus myth is so timeless and the Theatre of Silence so simple and direct in its narration that the audience, regardless of their background or origin, will be able to comprehend the story and be moved by it,” Aspasia argues. First, because Chinese people, “with their own ancient and abundant civilisation,” are strongly influenced by myths. Then, the Oedipus myth is also underlined by universal issues that connect to any human being, be they Greek or Chinese. “Is Man responsible for his own choices? What is this that defines his fate? Does fate exist or does Man create it with the choices he makes according to his character? To what extent is the way someone was brought up responsible for his character? Do a parent’s sins torture a child forever?”

In Seeking Oedipus, Aspasia Kralli brings together several versions of the myth, blending Sophocles’ tragedies Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone with Euripides’ Chrysippus, which develops the backstory of the curse, referring to the original “sin” of the family. “All Greek tragedies are based on very important myths. Thus, the Oedipus tragedy is based on the myth that narrates the story of the Lavdakides family,” the playwright explains. “The curse of the Lavdakides family starts when Oedipus’ father, Laius, falls in love with his young student, Chrysippus, and (…) rapes him. Young Chrysippus then commits suicide. After Chrysippus’ death, Laius and his descendants are doomed. So, as you can see, there is more than one version of the Oedipus story.” Aspasia points out that she always devises plays based on “the original myths and not on the written tragedies, because the myth doesn’t have written dialogue and is more open to interpretation.”

But what is the relation between mime and ancient tragedy? The Greek director starts by explaining that in ancient tragedies there were dialogues, but the dramaturges never spoke scenes of violence like murder, suicide, or rape on stage. “The role of announcing these events was given to the chorus, the messengers, or the shepherds in the play,” a role that, intriguingly, belongs to Aspasia Kralli herself: she plays Tiresias, a sinister mystic that tries to warn the heroes of the myth about the destiny that awaits them. “In ancient tragedy,” she continues, the characters could never utter the words of those violent acts, because they would be ‘unbearable for the viewer.’ That’s when the art of mime steps in, and ‘these images, actions, and feelings of the characters are expressed through the actor’s bodies in silence,’ thus reducing the intensity and impact of emotions.” You know what they say: an image is worth a thousand words...