Tuesday, March 13, 2007

A short play

This can be the sketch for a short play-
It is about amateurs: people in power, people in surprise and people in blindness.
The place: a building of administration- the huge reception hall like a covered atrium. Security guards in brown. Huge frames with prior and current royalties. Let the light be plenty, because of the time of the day, it is 2:20 afternoon, and everything will be accomplished within 40 minutes. -Second interior: a partly worn out office of the Head of the administration. On the tea-table, small glasses of tea, with considerable amounts of sugar.
The persons: A small group of old ladies from Greece, all with interesting signs of having kept thrones of noteworthy authority in their lives, marked over their faces. Let us say- full professors. A man in power, wearing a beautiful silk tie, relaxed by habit and profession- can be an ambassador. Another man in power, tired with black circles under his eyes, with an almost whispering voice. Can be an academic. A somewhat younger guy, in a gray suit, trying to be pleasant to all except himself. Can be a puppet.
The story: The delegation arrives a bit early, trying to make as much time as possible, since the host kept for the previous few days deminishing the time of the meeting. The host comes late. Only the panicing secretary tries to keep things going, apologizing every three minutes. The task is to offer competent young people opportunities to continue their postgraduate studies or research in Greece, in fields that could be decided during this meeting. Soon they discover that there is no interest. Something is mentioned about the difficulty of the language. And if the the studies are following the european standards. Ignoring the fact that the particular country is part of the EU since 1980, so that it is self-evident that it complies with the set standards. During the last five minutes, the key person, a clever academic, arrives, but it is late already. Everything is postponed, till further notice. (Thank God my other scholarship program is not affected by the mock epic.)
Scene: "I have watched the development of Greek Studies since day 0, and I have to mention that if we collaborate with 4-5 embassies, yours is among them. We are thankful.": It is something said so frequently that becomes what we call in literature locus classicus. Three ambassadors have heard it already. Memory is a tyrant, and this is why it gets weaker with time. What we consider a curse, may be a blessing.

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2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

It is a hopeless place.. it really is.. Isn't there any other way by which the greek delegation would be convinced to come back again? I mean how could they decide on their own that no one is inetersted...
Luma

3:07 PM  
Blogger Vass said...

ummm! ana 3aref?? on an official level, these things are decided by the response of the hosting institution.

3:40 PM  

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