The 22-year-old exile Thanasis Veggos (second from the left) in a documentary photo from Xenopoulos’ “The Temptation” performance that he organized together with other exiles (three of them are dressed as women for the needs of the role) is presented by Aris Lupasi’s Instagram channel. The actor was in Makronisos since 1949.
“That year he was sent to Makronisos to do his military service, because of his father’s political beliefs, who was considered undesirable. The unforgettable actor was one of the young people who found themselves exiled on this arid and harsh island where the conditions of destitution, poverty and hunger tested the limits of man every day. There he met people who would define his later artistic path. Among them Menelaos Ludemis, Manos Katrakis, the painter Tasos Zografos and the then student of Architecture, Nikos Koundouros. In those years, Makronissos acquired three open-air theaters, built by the hands of the exiles themselves. With stones broken from the rocky ground, the prisoners erected tents and bleachers for the performances intended for their “ideological reformation”. The plays presented were mainly Greek comedies, skits, songs and reviews, while excerpts from ancient drama were often included. Thanasis together with Koundouros with whom he developed a deep and true friendship, dug, carried stones, set up a tent and built with the humblest means a small miracle. When the first shows started, he went on stage to do improvisations, to imitate faces, to cause laughter in the most difficult time. Koundouros recognized in his look and movement the stuff of a great actor. When later, after the end of the exile, he was shooting his first film “Magic City” (1954), he kept the promise he had made to him in Makronissos and invited him to participate. There, in the stones of exile and through the improvised theaters of Makronissos, the actor was born who would become the symbol of humanity, kindness and humor of the modern Greek”.
Check out this Instagram post.
Source: Skai
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