Marika Kotopouli

Marika Kotopouli                                               ΜΑΡΙΚΑ ΚΟΤΟΠΟΥΛΗ
Born in Athens 1887                                       Died in Athens 1954

The Plaza, Number 83

Sculpture by Kleanthis Loukopoulos  (Κλεάνθης Λουκόπουλος)

I never thought I could be anything else but an actress. (1).

It is not easy to encapsulate a woman of Marika Kotopouli’s talent  and character, - and even harder to capture the essence of her impact on the theatre world because we did not have the privilege of seeing  her perform. She was, by all accounts, driven, passionate, and a very savvy business woman. Her personal life was fascinating as well. According to some, she was bi-sexual and, at times, a substance abuser.
Her talent was immense, with a repertoire ranging from Aeschylus to Goethe, to Ibsen, to modern Greek plays. For a time, she had her own theatre in Omonia Square and, in 1936, the Rex Theatre on Panepistimiou Street was built for her troupe. 

Her Life

The Beginning:

Dimitrios Kotopoulis and his wife Eleni had their own theatrical company in the late 1800s and Marika, the youngest of their four children - all girls - was on stage even before she was born. Her mother was in mid performance when her labour pains required a hastier final curtain than usual. All of the Kotopouli girls would become actresses, but only Marika went on to become a theatrical phenomenon.

A small, delicate child with a noticeably deep voice, she grew up on the narrow streets of Metaxourgio in Athens when her parents were not on tour. She recalled that as a child she had to wear all of her sisters’ cast off clothes, a fact which might explain why as an adult she spent a small fortune on clothes, furs and the latest fashion in hats. 

 She was just 7 when she appeared in a review called A Little of Everything (Λίγο απ' όλα). In a segment called “The Demonstration of the Children”, several children dressed as students sang: Today I was not beaten; today I am free.  Down with the teacher, down with the teacher.

Not exactly Shakespeare, but it was a start!

By 1900 she was 13 and already a seasoned performer, having acted in many roles alongside of her parents. From her own perspective, there was no real distinction between the theatre and her life growing up.  In a 2003 tribute, the newspaper Kathimerini wrote: For her the world was divided into two kinds of people – actors on the stage and the others - those who attended the theatre.  

By 1902 she had been signed on by the Royal Theatre. The pitch and range of her voice were apparently quite unique. Bassilis Rotas (Βασίλης Ρώτας) once described it as fast flowing with a cello in the larynx   (γοργοκίνητη με το παλιό βιολοντσέλο στο λαρύγγι). Her diction was perfect. Many times during her career, she would scold actors with the words: When every vowel and every consonant in the Greek language are united inside a word, they have a  consciousness and accord -  and a harmony emerges. (2)

Her stint at the Royal theatre resulted in her becoming both well known and popular with the theatre going public. She had a role in the infamous production of Sophocles’ Oresteia in 1903 when an attempt to introduce more modern Greek into the ancient play, caused a riot in which lives were lost.(3)

As Iphigenia in 1905

Marika  in the early 1900s

And there were other issues...

A fellow actress at the Royal Theatre was Anna Frankopoulou. Every time Thomas Economou, actor turned teacher and then director wanted to use Marika in a role because he considered her the more talented of the two, he had to go up against the theatre management.

When a   frustrated Economou left the Royal theatre, Marika exited as well and  joined her father’s troop in Chalkida.  Economou followed her.  Although 23 years her senior, he was in love. She and Economou started their own troupe: The Thomas Economou Company which played at the Old Variety (Παλαιό Βεριετέ)  Theatre. Her family joined the company but there were often fireworks between her father and Economou over presentation - with Marika awkwardly in the middle.  

This collaboration was not a financial success and, after Marika was pressured by her family to leave, and a difficult economic period ensued. Marika would later muse about the insecurity of actors during that period:  the theatre then had nothing of the economic security that exists today. The sudden switches in our lives were dramatic. It was black caviar... or nothing! ... Have you ever experienced what it feels like to be hungry? I have. (4)

Paris  

Marika left for a four month stay in Paris towards the end of 1906. As it happened, her acting rival Kivelli was also there with her new lover Konstantinos Theodoridis. Both would benefit from their exposure to the Paris theatre scene and both brought new ideas back to Athens.

By this time in her career, Marika had already played in Macbeth, Othello, Electra and a work by  the Greek feminist Kalliroi Parren. Then, in 1908 she took part in the Panathinaia Review, a kind of variety show. Some of her fans disapproved but her participation in these kind of reviews made money and that allowed her to form a second group to perform dramatic plays that were cultural successes but not always money makers.

Stella Biolante
Playwright Gregoris Xenopoulos (Γρηγόρη Ξενόπουλο) had written a short story called Stella Biolante which Marika considered to be just the kind of red meat she needed on stage. It was the story of a young girl in Zakynthos who defied her father by refusing to marry an older man of his choice and instead preferred a young man who had the nerve to ask her, not her father, for her hand in marriage. He locked her in the attic for a year on bread and water (!) and then taunted her with the fact that her young lover, in the meantime, had married someone else. She dies heartbroken.

Quite a pot boiler, but it was not without a real social message in an era in Greece when father always knew best. Xenopoulos did adapt it for the stage  but then presented it in Patras’ Apollon Theatre with her rival Kivelli as Stella!

Never, mind. She got to play Stella in 1909 and it was a success!

In 1910, she was a great success in The New Woman with this little ditty (translated by myself so you get the gist):
 I‘m a modern woman; I’ll whistle and smoke. Each one of us is worth a 10. I don’t give men notice -  I don’t want men or buttons or beads and resign as house keeper and cooking slave! And, just like my husband, I’ll rant and I’ll rave.  (5)

Light weight for sure and pretty tame stuff now, but it would have gone over a treat back then. Musical numbers were one thing where there could be no competition with her rival Givelli. Givelli could not sing.

In comic mode

The truth is that Marika was good at everything she turned her hand to. Her impulse all through her career was to push herself, to risk, and to enter every endeavour with enthusiasm and elan. She was very aware of every bad review and felt such a strong sense of responsibility for a good performance that she apparently suffered first night stage fright before every performance.

Somehow she dazzled in every role. Although she was not pretty, when she was on stage, the audiences fell in love because of her voice, her fluidity of movement, and her interpretation of her role.

                     The Rivalry Between Marika and Kivelli

Kivelli and Marika Kotopouli were the same age and both were very young when they became known to the theatre going public, just into their early teens! Marika was petite, dark, and not at all a beauty; Kivelli was tall, blond and attractive. They were the two actresses whom everyone followed during this era. They even had rival fan groups, partly because of their different acting styles but also because Givelli would eventually support the republican (Venizelist) political faction whereas Marika favoured the royalist cause, this at a time when these labels really mattered. Their rivalry, partly real and partly, no doubt, encouraged by the media, enhanced both their careers, kept them on their toes, and kept their names in the newspapers.  In the early thirties when both were well established, they would collaborate with great success.

Marika and Kivelli with playwright Spiros Melas

Her Politics and Outlook on Life

Her career coincided with the turbulent politics of the era –  the push on the part of Venizelists to get rid of the monarchy and the push back from Royalist supporters who, just as fervently, wanted a king on the throne. And yet, unlike many in this tug of war in the first decades of the 1900s, Marika was not a fanatic. There is a lovely story told of Venizelos visiting her backstage at one of her performances. He was a charmer and so was she.  Apparently they chatted for an hour and finally she called out that he simply must leave because, if he stayed another moment, she might become a Venizelist!

And yet, she was not a conservative; quite the opposite.  She was a rebel and a free spirit who supported women writers, women’s rights, and fought hard for the use of demotic Greek in the theatre well before it became the norm.  Actress and communist party member Olympia Papadouka would say that Marika was not interested in personal beliefs, that she was above factions and ideologies. She would prove this during the German occupation when she used whatever influence she had to protect leftist artists and during the Greek civil war as well when she would save leftist actors from being sent into exile or imprisoned, by claiming them as vital to her acting company.

Apparently she could be a caustic critic, but always face to face.  Anna Sinodinou recounted the time when she was auditioning in front of Marika for a place in the National Theatre Drama School. She had chosen a dramatic speech from Electra. When she finished, Marika said: Are those tears for Electra or because you know your performance was terrible?

The Love Affair with Ion Dragoumis

No story about Marika would be complete without the story of her 12 year affair with debonair diplomat and writer IonDragoumis, a man who had an interesting romantic past of his own. (6)

He encountered Marika before they actually met! He attended a play in Cairo where Marika was performing. It was 1905. He was sitting in one part of the orchestra and Penelope Delta, his former love, was sitting in the same theatre with her husband. The awkwardness of this proximity was erased when Marika appeared on stage. He was thunderstruck by her stage presence and her voice. Who is that voice? He exclaimed. He was enchanted but chose to wait until she was of age to express his admiration in person. They met face to face in Constantinople in 1908 when he was First Secretary at the Greek Embassy there.

The Dragoumis family was a prominent one in Greece (his father was Prime Minister of Greece briefly in 1910) . They were not at all happy about the burgeoning affair – a Dragoumis and an actress!  As their liaison became known, political opponents of his father hinted darkly that Marika was likely selling diplomatic secrets to the Turks or pilfering money meant for the Macedonian struggle, so dear to the Dragoumis family’s heart.

It put Dragoumis in a difficult position, but not difficult enough to end the romance. It turned out to be an affair that neither was prepared to end.  At one point she wrote to Dragoumis: I met you on the same day I was introduced to morphine. I am glad I gave up morphine, but I cannot do the same with you (7)

They never married. Apparently when one did want to, the other did not. They remained lovers until Dragomis was tragically murdered by fanatic Venizelists in 1920.  Marika’s friends hid the news from her for days, they were so afraid of her reaction.

In mourning in Italy after the death of Ion Dragoumis

Georgios Helmi and Marriage

During the period when the Venizelist faction had control in Greece and the royalist  Dragoumis was in exile in Corsica, Marika had met Georgios Helmis, a business man and theatrical entrepreneur.

A year after Dragoumis’ murder, they married and remained together for the rest of her life in spite of the fact that Helmis had a roving eye where women were concerned. They had no children.

She continued to act until she was in her mid sixties. Her final stage appearance was on Syros on March 24, 1953.

Marika and Georgios Helmis

Her Legacy

At an event celebrating her thirty years in the theatre, Marika remarked that all of her 128 theatrical productions whether they were successes or failures  had contributed to her artistic achievement.(8)

She had succeeded and done it her way: She had formed her own troupe in 1908 and again in 1912, had her own theatre in Omonia Square until 1936 until she moved to the Rex Theatre in 1936, which had been built especially for her company.

 

Her Marika Kotopouli Theatre in Omonia, now dust in the wind

 

The Rex today. Its resemblance to the Empire State Building is not accidental

Marika Kotopouli worked with almost all of the theatrical and artistic giants of her era and taught or influenced many aspiring thespians:  actors such as Eleni Papadaki, Katina Paxinou, Elli Labetti, Anna Sinodinou, and Melina Mercouri. In 1921 she was honoured with the Gold Cross of the Order of George I and in 1923, with the Education Ministry’s arts and letters prize.

In 1949, on the occasion of her collaboration with the National Theatre’s Oresteia  under the direction of Dimiitri Rodiri, the cast and crew presented her with a gold medal engraved with the face of her as Clytemnesta.

In 1951, the Marika Kotopouli Award was founded to honour Greek actors

1953: Melina Mercouri receives the award from previous winner Elli Labetti as Marika looks on.

Her Death

Marika died suddenly on September 11, 1954. A large crowd followed the hearse from Athens Metropolitan church to the First cemetery where she was buried at the city’s expense. In 1955 the Mayor of Athens agreed that her final resting place should be in the Plaza of the cemetery, an area designated for distinguished Greeks, She certainly qualified but it is interesting that it took until 1955 for a woman to obtain this privilege.  One factor in the decision was Georgos Helmis’ promise to erect a suitable monument  (9) 

Her home at 14 Alekou Panagoulh Street in Zographo has been a museum to her career since 1990. Tel: 21 0777 5950.

Her Grave

In her role as Iphigenia

Plaza, Number 83

The Map

Footnotes:

(1) Καθημερινή Επτα Ημέρες, Αφιέρωμα στη Μαρίκα Κοτοπούλη https://web.archive.org/web/20150621184111/http://wwk.kathimerini.gr/kath/7days/2003/01/19012003.pdf

(2)  ΜΑΡΙΚΑ ΚΟΤΟΠΟΥΛΗ αφιέρωμα στο ΕΣΤΙΝ ΟΥΝ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iawTjruUkxE

(3)  There is an account of this in our entry on Givelli in this blog. While looking at modern Greek history, it has been interesting to me to see how many famous protests in Greece were not about change, but about maintaining the status quo!

(4) Εταιρεία Μελέτη Νέου Ελληνισμού “Μνήμων” τόμος 12ος, Αθήνα 1989 Ελίζα Αννα Δελβερούδη 
(5) «Εγώ είμαι η νέα γυναίκα/ που θα καπνίζω και θα σφυρίζω, η καθεμιά μας αξίζει για δέκα /δε δίνω γι’ άντρες έναν παρά, Δε θέλω άντρες, κουμπιά και χάντρες/ και παραιτούμαι από το νοικοκυριό, /δε θα γυρεύω να μαγειρεύω/ και εις τον άντρα μου θα κάνω το θεριό.»

(6)  Dragoumis’ love affairs are the stuff of legend. It would have been wonderful to do an entry on his first love Penelope Delta, but she is buried in Kifissia!  See: https://www.aixmi.gr/index.php/dragoumhskotopoulh/

(7) http://www.mixanitouxronou.gr/kathe-fora-pou-plagiaza-mazi-tou-eniotha-oti-plagiaza-me-ton-ermi-i-thyellodis-sxesi-tou-iona-dragoumi-me-tin-marika-kotopouli-kai-i-afosiosi-tou-stin-megali-idea/

(8)  Her movie career was short-lived! In 1933, she played in her only movie, the Greek-Turkish production Bad Road, based on a novel by Grigorios Xenopoulos.)

(9)  The mayor was Pausanias Katsotas.  As for the monument, some loved it and some did not. An answer to a letter-complaint from G. Anemoyiannis, who had done some stage settings for Kotopoulis' plays, reveals that her husband had chosen a gold leaf for his wife's monument. It is not there now.

Sources

http://www.ekebi.gr/magazines/showimage.asp?file=142004&code=8512&zoom=800
https://logomnimon.wordpress.com/μαρίκα-κοτοπούλη/
https://web.archive.org/web/20150621184111/http://wwk.kathimerini.gr/kath/7days/2003/01/19012003.pdf
https://anemourion.blogspot.com/2018/02/blog-post_6.html

https://www.kathimerini.gr/1048970/gallery/politismos/8eatro/kotopoylh-papadakh-pa3inoy-sto-e8niko

Kivelli Adrianou

KIVELLI ANDRIANOU                                                  ΚΥΒΕΛΗ ΑΔΡΙΑΝΟΥ

 

Born 1888                                                                Died 1978

Section 14, Number 13

In an era when the prevailing belief was that women should stay home and look after the family, when there was little or no support for women’s education. When advocates like Kalliroi Parren were beginning the struggle for women’s rights in Greece, two women stand out: Kivelli Adrianou and MarikaKotopouli. These two, both titans of Greek theatre, were in the vanguard of liberation as leaders of their own theatrical companies, as free spirits, and as savvy business women. Both are buried in The First Cemetery. This is the story of Kivelli Adrianou, a woman who was so well known when she died that only her first name (also her stage name) was placed on her grave stele.

Her Life

Kivelli was born in 1884, or 1887 or was it 1888?  This last date is the one on her grave monument. The year of her birth is not the only mystery surrounding her life. Myth and rumour would always swirl around her. A poor shoemaker named Anastasios Adrianos and his wife Maria adopted her, and there are two accounts of how that happened.  One story has Maria finding her abandoned. Another has it that Maria discovered her at a foundling hospital and immediately fell in love. When Kivelli became famous, another rumour circulated that she was the love child of Greece’s King George.

  
Her step mother Maria claimed that, when found, she was wearing a cross engraved with the name Kivelli. This name is best translated into English as Cybele who in mythology was the great mother goddess of the Phrygians. It was an apt name for a woman who became a goddess to her many fans!

 After this humble beginning, life got better. Maria Adrianou worked in the home of the well off lawyer Demitrios Leonardos. Having lost his own son, he took an interest in Kivelli and he and his wife helped to raise her. She grew up in the Athenian district of Agios Pandeleimenas with the economic support of the Leonardos family and attended the excellent Hill School in the Plaka.

Kivelli at a young age in her garden

Perhaps their intention was that she pursue a conventional career. At one point she was sent to a milliner to learn the hat trade. But it was already too late. As her step mother said, she already had a ‘devil’ inside her telling her that acting was a much more alluring choice. Kivelli had been taking speech lessons from the well known Markos Sigalas and, in a recital of Mr Sigalas’ students in 1901 at the Parnassos Society (1)  Givelli shared the first prize.

That very same year she enrolled in the Drama School of the Royal Theatre. Her timing could not have been better. The school had been funded by the wealthy merchant Efstratios Rallis and had just opened its doors the year before as had the Royal Theatre itself. This impressive edifice at 22 Agios Constantinos Street was designed by Ernst Ziller and the king was its patron. It was an ambitious project because Greece was in financial difficulties at the time, but the theatre was meant to be a showcase, an important cultural vehicle for disseminating the brand of patriotic Hellenism that the Greek elite were so intent on promoting at the time.

It is still there but became the National Theatre of Greece in 1932

A Small Digression on the Royal Theatre and the Issues facing Theatres at the Turn of the Century 

According to this cultural model, all roads must lead back in an unbroken line to ancient Greece. Therefore, it was considered imperative that any ancient Greek play presented was to be in its original form, a form of Greek not understood by the majority of citizens at the time.  When in 1903, katharevousa phrases were inserted into a prose rendition of Aeschylusʼ Oresteia at the Royal Theatre, a riot ensued. It was fomented by an irate university professor who considered such efforts traitorous. His students stormed into the theatre during a performance and in the resulting melee, at least one person was killed and several wounded. The rioters did not necessarily represent the public at large. Many had been happily attending performances for two weeks prior to the attack.

The Press, of course, avidly covered the riots.

This cultural divide between conservatives and want-to-be progressives was the backdrop for Kivelli’s entry into the theatre world. The Drama School itself was short lived. It was closed just months after its inception; many considered it too risqué! Being an actress was not quite respectable. (The Royal Theatre itself would close its doors in 1908 because of lack of funds, but that is another story)

Happily for the young  Kivelli, a new type of theatre was emerging at the same moment:

 The New Stage (Νεα Σκηνη)  1901-5

The concept had originated in Berlin at the Free Theatre which had began promoting works that had  previously been censored or considered too avant garde. The movement spread in Europe and appealed to the Vienna based writer Constantinos Christomanos (Κωνσταντίνος Χρηστομάνος). When he returned to Greece, his aim was to persuade other like-minded intellectuals to join him in a new and modern venture. Under his aegis, that the New Stage came into being in 1901 and was endorsed by luminaries such as Costis Palamas, Pavlos Nirvanas, and Grigoris Xenopoulos.

Christomanos rented the former Omonias Theatre in the square of the same name just a few steps away from the Royal Theatre which had just signed on Marika Kotopouli, the actress who would become Kivelli’s greatest rival.  

Maria Kotopouli

The New Stage presented productions by the likes of Ibsen, Chekov, Goldini,   works which were being introduced in Greece for the first time.  It stressed naturalism to its productions, emphasized scenery and costume as an important element of the plays, and heightened the role of the director. The idea was to promote new Greek playwrights writing in demotic Greek. During its four years of life, the New Stage  attracted wonderful talent: Angelos Sikelianos (Άγγελος Σικελιανόs), Mitsos Marat (Μήτσος Μυράτ), and Theonis Drakopoulou  (Θεώνη Δρακοπούλου).

 It was at the New Stage that Kivelli made her debut - in the balcony scene of  Romio and Juliet.  She was just 14! She quickly became the theatre’s greatest attraction, and played in Euripedes’ Alcestis,  Sophocles’ Antigone, and many modern works. Kivelli had charisma off the stage as well.  Like so many men in her life, Christomanos was smitten; he sang her praises to all and sundry and would refer to her as his theatrical muse – quite an accolade for a teenager!  

Kivelli during the years she acted at the New Stage

Her First Marriage

Fellow actor Mitsos Marat (1878 -1964) fell passionately in love with Kivelli  and, although she apparently did not return the favour, she did agree to marry him in 1903. (She would have been 19, 18, or possibly 15!)  He was 25.

Murat as a young man looking rather Oscar Wilde -ish

   

  Their son Alexandros was born in 1905. 1906 saw the birth of their daughter Miranda. During this time, the New Stage closed its doors; it had not met its investors’ expectations

After the birth of Miranda, Givelli suffered from puerperal fever and almost died. She was still under 20. This near-death experience made her decide, as she put it herself, to really live her life (να ζήσει τη ζωή της). Shortly thereafter she met wealthy merchant Costas Theodoridis  (Κώστας Θεοδωρίδης).  Flirtation led to passion and, when Theodoridis suggested going to Paris together, Kivelli abandoned her husband and children and followed him. A great scandal ensued. 

Handsome Kostas Theodoridis

 Newspapers were full of the ‘elopement’’ of Kivelli.

 “The day will come when she will pay you with the same coinage” asserted Murat darkly to Theodoridis.

 The Second Marriage

During their stay in Paris, her daughter Aliki was born.

Kivelli at the time of her relationship with Theodoridis

Exactly when she divorced Murat and married Theodoridis is not known but the birth of her daughter was likely the driving force.

 In 1907 she was ready to brave any negative press and return to Athens.

The Prodigal Returns

 Upon her return, she appeared in Jules Renard’s Carrot Top, taking on a male role.  In this play, she managed to endear herself to audiences and all her sins were forgiven!   

During 1907, Kivelli began her own theatre company under the directorship of Theodoridis who handled the legal and business aspect of the troupe. Her role as Nora in Ibsen’s   A Doll’s House – a play that was very daring for the times – was a great success. 

Kivelli as Nora From 1908 the writer Grigoris  Xenopoulos (Γρηγόρης Ξενόπουλος) worked together with Givelli and wrote one successful play after another for her: at least one play a year until 1925!  She also worked with Pantelis Horn. She had become a fixture in the theatre world.

Grigoris Xenopoulos

In Carrot Top

Kivelli Versus Kotopouli

Givelli and Marika Kotopouli were the two stars whom everyone followed during this era and it is likely that their competition encouraged each of them to strive for their best performances. A rivalry like this was a publicist’s dream; it enhanced their careers and kept the newspapers busy.

The theatre going public split almost evenly into avid fans of blond, tall, and beautiful Kivelli or fans of short , dark, and mesmerising Kotopouli! This rivalry had a political dimension. Kivelli was a Venizelist; Kotopouli was a royalist at a time when these words aroused strong passions. They found themselves involved in a small civil war in which their every move was interpreted as a battle reflecting the divisions in Athenian society itself. Both camps were armed with critics, spies, and armchair generals. At times they even premiered the very same play on the same day!

Back to 1908  

In 1908, her long suffering first husband, Mitsos Murat, made a move that disturbed Kivelli greatly. He married Chrisoula the sister of Marika Kotopouli and he joined Marika’s theatre company! Many saw his decision to marry as the hallmark of a very sophisticated revenge.

1916:  Kivelli, the First World War and the National Schism:

In 1916, Kivelli supported the Venizelists’ wish to join the allies, against the German leaning King. This resulted in her banishment from the stage for a time. She went into a short exile in Paris where she became acquainted with Venizelos who was himself in temporary exile. Of course rumours flew of an affair between the two. Rumours always flew around Kivelli.

Then: 1920  and Chios

Kivelli, along with Theodoridis and their troupe went to Chios Island for three performances. On the opening night, the island’s then governor, Georgios Papandreau, went backstage to congratulate the star. This encounter was to start the chain of events that led to marriage number three.  Kivelli decided to remain on the island. She and Papandreau became inseparable. Theodoridis returned to Athens and immediately moved out of their home.

It happened that quickly. Georgios and Kivelli were the same age and believed they were true soul mates. Their relationship blossomed in spite of the fact that Papandreau’s wife had given birth to their son Andreas on Chios only the year before. (2) If this were a play instead of real life, I would be tempted to call this segment “Chaos in Chios”. Of course, it would be a melodrama.

Georgios Papandreau, Aliki, Kivelli, and Pandelis Horn on Chios

 

‘’If I had never met Georgios, I would never have known what love was’’ Kivelli claimed . When asked what had attracted her to Papandreau she replied that they both knew the works of Gripari off by heart. Georgios Papandreau was not a handsome man, but he was a poetic one, apparently wooing women with poems – just not always the same poem and not always the same woman.

In the following years, Kivelli concentrated on Papandreau and on her two daughters, Miranda and Aliki, who were both starting careers in the theatre.

The couple did not marry right away. In 1923, Georgios had become the Minister of the Interior in Greece and was weighing the political cost of asking his wife for a divorce. His subsequent arrest and exile in Naxos by a new regime in Athens may have come at an opportune moment in the sense that it put his marriage dilemma on the back burner for a time.  

But, in 1927, Kivelli was pregnant and that forced his hand.   He wrote to his wife asking for a divorce. Meanwhile, he and Kivelli went to Switzerland in the hopes of keeping her pregnancy a secret. Their child, Georgios, was born on the 26^th of June, 1927. The birth certificate had the correct name of the father but listed his wife Sofia as the mother since she was still Papandreau’s legal wife!

Back in Greece and the 1930s

Although Venizelos and Papandreau, who was by then Education Minister, had promised Kivelli a theatre to be built in Klathmonas Square in central Athens, it never happened because the funds could not be found. So, in 1931, when her rival Marika Kotopouli suggested that they put on a production together with each of them in starring roles, the idea appealed.  The play was Mary Stuart  and offered two juicy starring roles, that of Mary, Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth. Against the advice of both her husband and of Venizelos, she and Marika joined forces that year and again in 1934.

Kotopouli, Kivelli and playwright Spiros Melas

But because Papandreau was insistent that she not continue her career, Kivelli retired from the stage except for a 1942 appearance in a Spiros Melas play produced by her daughter Miranda’s company.

All during her years with Papandreau, Kivelli’s finances were handled by her second husband, Costas Theodoridis and she led a very comfortable life. She was even able to help Georgios’ son Andreas (a future prime minister of Greece as head of the PASOK party) during his studies in the United States.  Theodoridis was not just a faithful accountant; he was, by all accounts,  a good and loving father to all four of Kivelli’s children.  

The War and the End of Love

In 1943, Kivelli and Papandreau escaped Greece for the Middle East where he joined the government in exile. They returned only after the Germans had withdrawn in 1944. But the once great love affair was well and truly over. Georgios had a roving eye, and she was 56, fine for a man in those days, but hard on a woman.  She would return to her home in Kifissia and he would make his home in Kastri, continue his political career, and take up with Chilean singer Rosita Serano.

They never divorced.

On Her Own but Not Alone

On her own again, Kivelli co-operated once more with Marika Kotopouli. At the time Kotopouli’s company was readying the French comedy Les Enfants d’Eduard in which Kotopouli was to star.  Marika did all she could to persuade Kivelli to return to the stage. At the last minute, she did in the role of mother Denise. It was 1950;  Kivelli was 62 years old but her public were still loyal.

In 1953 she appeared with the National Theatre in  one of her most popular roles in Xenopoulos’ The Secret of Contessa Balerena. She also performed in two cinema productions. (3)

She continued working until 1965.

In November 1968, Georgios Papandreau died. It was during the military dictatorship in Greece. Although the government made the expected offer (he had been Prime Minister of the country on three different occasions) to bury him at public expense, Kivelli rejected the overture as a protest and took on the funeral costs herself. His funeral occasioned a huge public protest against the regime.

Kivelli died in 1978. She was surrounded by her four children, three grandchildren, 6 great grandchildren and 5 great-great grandchildren. She chose to be buried apart from Papandreau. In a way, it seems fitting and, not just because they had been separated for so many years. It was a way of stating, in no uncertain terms, that she was very much her own woman.

Kivelli at home with family members

The Map

Footnotes

(1)   The Parnassos Society was begun in 1865 as a society to promote culture and by 1890 was housed in a glorious neoclassical pile that is still there on Karytsi Square in central Athens. It is worth a visit. The society is still going strong too.

(2)  Andreas Papandreau would become the leader of Pasok and Prime minister of Greece. His relationship with his father was precarious- no doubt due to the affair with Kivelli and the abandonment of his mother, Sofia.

(3)  For a detailed description of her works in English see

https://kyveli.eu/%CE%B4%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%83%CF%84%CE%B7%CF%81%CE%B9%CF%8C%CF%84%CE%B7%CF%84%CE%B5%CF%82/%CE%B5%CE%BA%CE%B4%CE%B7%CE%BB%CF%8E%CF%83%CE%B5%CE%B9%CF%82-%CE%B5%CE%BA%CE%B8%CE%AD%CF%83%CE%B5%CE%B9%CF%82/

Sources

1. Κυβέλη: Μια γυναίκα με πάθη του Γεωργίου Σαρηγιάννη (26/06/ 2010)

https://www.tanea.gr/2010/06/26/lifearts/culture/kybeli-mia-gynaika-me-pathi/ .
2. Το Ρόδο της Μοίρας, https://kyveli.eu my footnote on the langiage riots- the Oresteia,
3. Ζευγάρια που έγραψαν την ιστορία της Ελλάδας, της Λένα Διβάνη, εκδόσεις Πατάκη
4.A Program on Givelli in Greek: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=747&v=Mt1mG5xhb68&feature=emb_title
5. The voice of Givelli: https://www.flogasport.gr/40-%CF%87%CF%81%CE%BF%CE%BD%CE%B9%CE%B1-%CE%B1%CF%80%CF%8C-%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%BD-%CE%B8%CE%AC%CE%BD%CE%B1%CF%84%CE%BF-%CF%84%CE%B7%CF%82-%CE%BA%CF%85%CE%B2%CE%AD%CE%BB%CE%B7%CF%82-%CE%B1%CE%BD%CE%B4/