We inaugurate the second cycle of STAGED READINGS FOR ALL 2025, this time in collaboration with a group of artists from France and Belgium, and co-organized with the Association Konstantinos Graham (Paris) and Aparsis Editions (Athens). Continuing our "Theater, Literature, and Society" productions which began as a pilot project in 2024 in collaboration with writer and Theater Critic Maro Triantafyllou (who proposed the authors and works) and presented works by Greek authors Mitsos Kasolas, Spyros Tzokas, and Maria Tzardi, this initiative also continues to build the exchanges that have begun with international artists from our first year of operations.

RESTARTING THEATRE, LITERATURE AND SOCIETY

«Θέλω να γίνω Άγγελος / Je veux être un Ange

/ I want to be an Angel»

by Konstantinos Graham

WEDNESDAY, 26 FEBRUARY 2025

20.00 at RESTART THEATER ATHENS

a tri-lingual production in Greek, French and English organised by Restart Theater Athens, in collaboration with a group of artists from France, Greece and Belgium, and co-organized with the Association Konstantinos Graham (Paris) and Aparsis Editions (Athens)

Part of a research-based workshop process at our Athens studio (between 20 February - 1 March 2025 process) involving guest artists—musician Norma Jordao (FR), composer Philippe Blanchard (FR), director/writer Marc Moreigne (FR), translator Aïda Karanxha (FR), visual artist Laurent Trézegnies (BE) —and, from the Greek side, director Angeliki Kasola, musician Rigas Diplas, and actresses Irini Mela and Anastassia Politi, we jointly present in public a trilingual theatrical-musical STAGED reading based on the work of young Greek-American poet and rapper Konstantinos Graham (1997 – 2017). His texts and poetry were collected, translated, and edited by Anastasia Politi, Konstantinos Graham's mother, that formed the trilingual book I Want to Be an Angel / Je veux être un Ange / Θέλω να γίνω Άγγελος who also authored the testimonial book Konstantinos Graham: My Life Next to You (Editions Aparsis, 2023)

STAGED LITERATURE READINGS 2025

the INTERNATIONAL POETRY COMPETITION Konstantinos Graham Poetry Prize – Prix de poésie Konstantinos Graham

restart theater athens supports:

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS 15 APRIL 2025

did you know?

the production

«Θέλω να γίνω Άγγελος / Je veux être un Ange / I want to be an Angel»

by Konstantinos Graham

Texts: Konstantinos Graham, Anastassia Politi
Stage Direction: Angeliki Kasola, Marc Moreigne
Music: Philippe Blanchard, Rigas Diplas
Piano: Norma Jordao
Visual Research: Laurent Trézegnies
Translation Advisor: Aïda Karanxha
Technical Direction: Stavros Chasiotis
Social Media: Bilio Mourgela

Photography: Vassileios Dragoumanos

The recorded voices of Konstantinos Graham and Julie Ward are heard

Performed by: Irini Mela (GR), Marc Moreigne (FR),
Anastassia Politi (GR, FR, EN)

Introduction by the critic and author Maro Triantafyllou

Organized by:
Restart Theater Athens
Co-organized by:
Association Konstantinos Graham (Paris), Aparsis Editions (Athens)

Konstantinos Graham is no longer with us.

In his short time on earth, he left behind some beautiful writings—his thoughts on life and literature, his existential concerns, and a great poem in which he captured his anxieties, hopes, bitterness, and expectations.

A musician, actor, and poet, he was (for those who knew and loved him, he still is) a being full of ideas, clever and radiant. A highly promising and extraordinarily sensitive young creator, who, had he lived longer, would have amazed us with his work.

Konstantinos also had—how could it have been otherwise?—social and political concerns. Those who carefully read the book, where his mother, Anastasia Politi, actress and director, lovingly gathered his writings and many photographs of him, will come to know a wonderful young artist. Alongside his own writings, you will read the heartbreaking text by Anastasia, where, without exaggeration or sentimental ease, she recorded the story of her child and shared with us her soul—the anguished soul of a mother who saw her child fade away in her arms."

Maro Triantafyllou

Konstantinos Graham (1997 – 2017)

A young Greek-American rapper and actor who lived until the age of twenty between Paris, Montpellier, and California, with frequent visits to Greece—the last one in Tinos in 2016. He wrote songs and poems in three languages, read Plato, Epicurus, and Gandhi, studied the saxophone, and recited in French the lyrics of Pavlos Fyssas, Mattia Eckar, and Andreas Empirikos.

Konstantinos contributed to the documentary-theatre performance: "Pavlos Lives, Greece Resists," dedicated to Pavlos Fyssas, which was presented at the Antoine Vitez Municipal Theatre in Ivry in 2016 by the artistic group Irinna. As an actor-narrator, he participated in the performances: "Gypsy Poem" and "Song of Light," staged by the artistic group Compagnie Erinna in Montpellier in 2017.

In his writings, Konstantinos sought roots and meaning in life during the era of globalization, set against the backdrop of family breakdown, romantic disappointment, social injustice, and encounters with troubled youth. He searched for childhood innocence and the transcendence of limits. He expressed a thirst for love and freedom, for a sense of sacredness regardless of religion, within a relentlessly cynical world that creates suicides.

"Every now and then / De temps en temps / Πότε πότε"
is a trilingual poem by Konstantinos, which won the international poetry competition for young people aged 18-25, Mattia Eckar 2017, and was published in the “Anthology of Young Writers – Volume 9” by the Academy of Montpellier in Southern France, edited by Marie Gola.

Konstantinos Graham (1997 – 2017)

Irini Mela

Actress

Anastassia Politi

Actress, writer

Maro Triandafyllou

Writer / Theatre Critic

Aïda Karanxha

Literary translator / Interpreter

meet the artists

Angeliki Kasola

Stage Director

Philippe Blanchard

Music Composer

Norma Jordao

Musician/ performer

Rigas Diplas

Music Composer

Laurent Trézegnies

Visual Artist

Marc Moreigne

Director/ author