- Pontus: Tearful Eyes,
- 2017
Playwright: Tania Charokopou
- Based on true events, this dramatic story unfolds during the final three days of the genocide of the Pontic Greeks in Trebizond. Throughout the play, a narrator guides the action through its historical context, while a Pontic ensemble performs music, dances and songs, sometimes joyful and sometimes sorrowful. Elenitsa has been in love with her Turkish neighbour, Ember, since childhood, and he feels the same way about her. His father, however, forbids him from asking for her hand in marriage, as religion, culture and the hatred between their two peoples stand between them. The young couple continue to meet in secret. Grigoris, a hardworking but poor young man and a friend of Elenitsa’s brother, wants to marry her. She does not return his feelings, despite pressure from her mother and brother. When the massacre begins, the family are inside their home. Just as they are preparing to hide in the basement, Ember’s father arrives and shelters them in his own house. Elenitsa’s grandmother, however, delays leaving as she gathers family heirlooms to take with her. Before long, she is trapped by the flames. Elenitsa rushes back to save her, but she is too late. Turkish attackers enter the house. She fights, kicks and strikes out in an attempt to escape, but one of them kills her… Grigoris finds her dead and, weeping, places her body in the arms of Ember, who has arrived too late to save her…