Theater
(UN)KNOWN FATHER: The Powerful Story Returns for a Second Season.
A second successful season for the theatrical production that moved audiences and brought forgotten people and events back into the spotlight.
A worn-out suitcase. A young woman arriving as a live-in maid at the home of a world-renowned composer. A relationship that begins with admiration, develops into mentorship and affection, and ultimately becomes a forbidden love story.
This is the story of Alexandra — a woman whose life was shaped by love, sacrifice, social conventions and a truth she was forced to keep hidden for years.
A Life Between “Should” and “Want”
Young Alexandra arrives at the composer’s home carrying a worn suitcase containing everything she owns. In his hands, she gradually places something far more precious: her future.
Fascinated by his brilliance and greatness, she sees him as a father figure, mentor and brother — and eventually as the great love of her life.
Their forbidden relationship begins, but history intervenes.
Following the coup, their relationship is abruptly interrupted. Alexandra is left facing an unexpected pregnancy and a society unwilling to forgive a woman who has stepped outside its rules.
The baby they have together ends up in an institution. On the birth certificate, a single devastating word is written: “illegitimate.”
For Alexandra, it becomes a wound that will follow her for years.
What comes next is a long period of hardship: guilt, escape, silence, a marriage that appears to offer salvation — or perhaps becomes another kind of trap — and, eventually, an adoption.
Her child cannot remain “father unknown.” He must be given a name.
She is advised to do what society expects.
And Alexandra finds herself trapped between everything she should do and everything she wants to do.
In her ears, one sentence continues to echo:
“You were in a hurry… you were always in a hurry.”
But what if she had waited for him?
Would everything have been different?
When the Truth Can No Longer Be Silenced
Around Alexandra stands a closed society that knows how to judge, but has forgotten how to embrace.
Years pass. Her choices become burdens she carries alone, while the truth remains buried beneath guilt and fear.
Then she becomes seriously ill.
She knows she does not have much time left.
And so she makes a decision: she will finally tell the whole story.
Whatever the cost.
The “black caterpillars” that have been eating away at her from within for years finally transform into white butterflies — carrying her truth away into the light.
Her son finally meets his biological father. The two form an unbreakable bond that lasts until the end.
Alexandra gives the one and only interview of her life to a well-known journalist of the time. She speaks openly and without hesitation about everything: her love, her child, her choices, her regrets, her silence and the years she lost.
Her testimony is recorded on a cassette.
The original recording — excerpts of which are heard during the performance — remains hidden for many years.
But the truth always finds its way.
More Than a Biography
(UN)KNOWN FATHER is based on the book of the same name by award-winning author Gogo Fakou-Theodoraki.
The production goes beyond the boundaries of a traditional biography. Alexandra’s personal story becomes a window into a much broader social phenomenon: a closed society where appearances and conventions can outweigh compassion, and where women are often forced to sacrifice their desires, their choices and even their truths in order to conform.
At its heart, the production explores timeless questions about love, motherhood, social judgment, sacrifice and the price of silence.
Theatre Meets Live Music
The author herself, Gogo Fakou-Theodoraki, both wrote and directs the production and takes on the role of Alexandra, bringing her story to life on stage.
Her interview is interwoven with live music and performance by Nikos Theodorakis, who sings live while also portraying himself.
Ioannis Tsilis takes on multiple roles within the production, including that of the journalist who records Alexandra’s extraordinary confession.
The result is an intimate theatrical experience that moves between memory, testimony and live performance — blurring the line between the woman telling her story and the people who are finally ready to hear it.
A Story About Love, Memory and the Right to Tell the Truth
(UN)KNOWN FATHER is a story about everything we are forced to hide, everything we are afraid to say and the choices whose consequences can follow us for an entire lifetime.
It is a story where forbidden love meets social judgment, where motherhood meets sacrifice, and where silence ultimately gives way to liberation.
Above all, it is a reminder that no matter how deeply a truth is buried, it will always find its way into the light.
