“Now, give me a word, any word, and I will show you how the root of that word is Greek.”
These were the immortal words of late actor Michael Constantine, playing patriarch Gus Portokalos in the 2002 global hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding. After a further two films in the series – and a wealth of other titles under her belt – the movie’s writer and main star, Nia Vardalos, is about to get even more acquainted with the Greek language.
Having won acclaim for her moving, yet funny stage show Tiny Beautiful Things, based on Cheryl Strayed’s book, Vardalos is taking the play — which first premiered at New York’s Public Theatre in November 2016 — to Greece. Vardalos will not only co-direct her play at the Pallas Theatre in Athens in May, but also perform in Greek for the very first time.
Euronews Culture caught up with Vardalos to talk theatre, grief, language, and what it means to come home.
Euronews Culture: I imagine that many of our audience will know you better for your work in cinema, but I would love to hear about what draws you to theatre.
Nia Vardalos: I grew up in Winnipeg, Canada, and my parents took me to everything — the opera, the ballet, small plays, film festivals. I knew early on that this is what I wanted to do. I did tons of theatre before Second City in Chicago led me to think about TV and film. And so between films, I go back and I do theatre, which is largely enraging to my agents, because, of course, they just want me to go and do another film!
What was it about Tiny Beautiful Things that made you want to adapt it for the stage?
NV: It came from a beautiful collaboration. I was looking for something to do with Thomas Kail — he’d offered me a Broadway show years ago, but I turned it down because my daughter had just started kindergarten. Later, he gave me Cheryl Strayed’s book and said, “I think this is a play.” And when I read it, it opened up both old wounds and new possibilities. I’d never adapted a book or played a role like this, and it was daunting and terrifying, which usually tells me I’m in the right place creatively.
And now you’re bringing Tiny Beautiful Things to Athens, and performing it in Greek! How does that feel?
NV: It’s terrifying and exciting in equal measure. My co-director — who’s also my partner — heard me approving international productions in other languages and asked, “Why not Greece?” So we’re doing it. It’s the first time I’ve ever performed in Greek. I’ve woken up in a cold sweat, sometimes I go, “Why am I doing this?” But, I’ve always wanted to elevate my Greek to get better. And, you know, what, is there a better vehicle than pushing yourself to perform a play? But we only speak Greek at home now, which has helped a lot.
Bringing it to Greece, did you have to adapt the play at all in terms of the language and context?
NV: I asked Spiros (Katsaganis) to have free reign with the material because I don’t believe in monitoring art. I said: “You’re a lyricist, do the beautiful thing that our language has, which is metaphor and explanations.”
It was really an interesting process. For example, Cheryl Strayed says that her mother’s last word to her was “love”. In Greek, that’s agápi, but we needed to make it an active verb. And that became just a wonderful discussion. Ultimately, Spiro created a beautiful translation.
What’s your process like when preparing for a play?
NV: I break it into pieces and work on each section daily. I run lines constantly—even when I’m filming, I repeat all the characters’ lines, not just mine. I need the words to feel true in my body. It calms me. Even after we opened Tiny Beautiful Things in New York, the director, Thomas Kail, came to the theater early one evening for something, and found me in the theater again, still running lines. It’s just what I do.
Does performing in Greece feel like a full-circle moment for you?
NV: It is. It’s a heady experience. And it’s one that I’m going to have to remove myself from emotionally in order to be able to do the piece without bawling my eyes out all the way through it. I remember when we filmed My Life and Ruins at the Parthenon, I had puffy eyes because I was overwhelmed.
The history that is in our genes, in our DNA is just ever present in my thoughts. And it’s just going to be amazing to look out at a fully Greek audience. And, you know, I’m a very emotional person — I’m crying right now! It’s going to be great.
And every audience is different, you never know what’s going to happen. Something so incredible happened in New York one night. In fact, the New York Times wrote about it. At one point in the play, I say, three years later, I’d be standing in a field not far from that yard sale, holding the ashes of my mother’s body in my palms. I was looking right out at the audience and, you know, you don’t really see eyes or faces, but you see the shapes of people. And when I said that, a woman involuntarily said, “Oh my God”. She just reacted with grief, and then instantly felt shamed by her outburst. It happens, and of course, none of us on stage were affected. But what I saw was so moving — I saw these jaded, tough New Yorkers reach forward and put a hand on her shoulder. She later wrote to me and told me she’d lost her mother one year before.
That’s incredibly moving. Has the play changed how you think about grief?
NV: It’s making me realise often that everyone has a secret. People walk around and you bump into them and they’re not exactly pleasant, but everyone has something. They’re carrying loss and grief and yearning and wanting and debt and so many things. So, it’s made me much more aware.
Do you have any more European projects in the pipeline?
NV: Yes, I have three films in the pipeline that could easily be filmed in Europe! I’m just so happy when I’m there. If anyone reading has a tax credit in their country — let’s make a Christmas movie! I’m serious — DM me!
Do you have a dream project you haven’t done yet?
NV: Yes, I’d love to be cast in something I didn’t write. I like to play things that I’ve never done before. I’d like to do a musical movie. Again, you know, it’s just something I didn’t write. It is a gift that I get to write and create my own work, but often people think I don’t want to be in their thing or that I’ll try to rewrite it. But I will not change a period when I’m cast in something I didn’t write!
Any Greek films or music you’d recommend to our readers?
NV: Yes! Suntan is a beautiful Greek film — a comedy until it’s not. Think Parasite, but Greek. And I love Anna Vissi — she’s a pop legend. For My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, I insisted on using only Greek music from the moment we “land” in Greece. The studio let me do it, and I’m so grateful. By the way, the whole film was shot in Greece — we recreated the Portokalos kitchen and even Chicago airport in Athens.
One last, possibly contentious question… are you having a frappe or a freddo espresso?
NV: Freddo espresso metrio (with medium sugar). I actually think I’m a vastly polarising person when it comes to my freddo espresso, because I don’t use a straw… I like to put my whole face in… I look like a cat!
Tiny Beautiful Things opens at Pallas Theatre in Athens from 16 May. Check out the video above for extracts of the interview.
