site.btaDocumentary Performance "96%" Presents Fate of Jewish Population of Thessaloniki at Varna Summer International Theatre Festival

The documentary performance 96% was presented at the City Art Gallery in Varna within the framework of the Varna Summer International Theatre Festival on Monday.

The production by the National Theatre of Northern Greece in Thessaloniki, the Schaubühne Theatre in Berlin and the La Hoven Theatre in Madrid tells the story of the fate of the Jews in Thessaloniki during the Second World War. It combines personal stories, historical narrative and stage reflection, with Performance Director Prodromos Tsinikoris defining it as a mixture between documentary theatre and performance, without turning into a lecture. The play is called 96%, because out of 50,000 Jews who lived in Thessaloniki at that time, 48,000 died during the war. Today, the community numbers only about 1,000 people, while 110 years ago the number was almost 200,000.

Tsinikoris, who was born in Wuppertal to a family of Greek immigrants, moved to Thessaloniki in 1999, where he completed his theatre education. He commented that it was a shock to discover that such an essential part of the city’s identity had been completely erased from public consciousness. This lack of historical memory is not accidental, he noted, stressing that over the years, various Greek governments, both national and local, have consciously maintained silence on the topic.

Thessaloniki is often presented only as part of the legacy of Alexander the Great, as always a Greek or Greek-speaking city, while its multicultural past remains in the shadows, Tsinikoris pointed out. Of course, there are people, mostly intellectuals, who know the truth, but this is not a widely shared narrative. Therefore, his motivation to make the spectacle is related to confronting his own ignorance and expanding historical awareness.

Tsinikoris underscored that the most difficult thing about the production was finding the right balance between sounding edifying and not becoming too humorous. Humour, which is a preferred tool for him, manifests itself in unexpected and delicate ways, through dialogue between the actors or in questions to the audience. However, his aim throughout is to feel the weight of the unhealed wound of the city, which has managed to completely destroy the traces of its Jewish past. "When you do a performance like this, you strive to do the right thing by history and by the people who lost their families in Auschwitz, even when you are not sure exactly what the right thing means", Tsinikoris said, adding that the question that concerned him was how it was possible for people to remain ignorant or turn a blind eye when such horrific crimes were being committed around them.