- Adam's Apple,
- 2017
- 2 female
Playwright: Pela Soultatou
- Eri, with the help of her mother, Eva, is preparing for her bachelorette party. The following day, she is to marry the wealthy, elderly Herr Miltenberger, a Swiss businessman who has decided to spend the final years of his life under the Mediterranean sun. As the preparations unfold, the razor-sharp dialogue between mother and daughter, charged with tension and irony, gradually reveals the two women’s motives behind what is clearly a marriage of convenience. Eva is a mature, attractive and celebrated dancer; Eri, by contrast, is a young woman who goes largely unnoticed — a former drug addict, unemployed and unsuccessful, crushed beneath the weight of her mother’s powerful personality as well as that of her three not-so-devoted friends. The first to arrive is Artemis, a successful manager at a multinational corporation. Eri poisons her with apple juice. As Artemis writhes on the floor, Eri explains what has driven her to murder: despite possessing wealth and power, her friend had trampled on Eri when she was at her most vulnerable. Once the first friend has been eliminated, Aphrodite arrives — the beauty of the group. She drops dead after eating a poisoned apple pie made with apples picked from Eva’s garden. Aphrodite had once slept with Michalis, the only man Eri had ever truly loved and had a relationship with. While waiting for her third friend, Melpo, a distinguished poet, Eri receives a phone call saying that she probably will not be able to attend the party. Eri’s disappointment and anxiety intensify until the poet finally appears — only to steal Eri’s words. Eri offers her apple liqueur and, as she watches the poison take effect, speaks to her about the “gift” Melpo had paraded like a trophy and used as a means of seducing the philhellene Miltenberger. Once all three friends are gone, Eri delivers a harrowing monologue addressed to her mother’s empty dress. Her mother, after all, is a figure inseparable from the three dead women. Eri attributes their deaths to choking: Adam’s apple lodged in their throats.