In this small and welcoming theatre, Greek company Dispostif, brought to London (for one night only) a creative, 60-minute show directed by Konstantinos Avramis and performed in Greek with English surtitles.
Taking place in an upmarket Japanese wine bar, the flat stage contains ten carefully positioned wine glasses, three cardboard boxes, and rods hanging from the ceiling. What limited action there is focuses on the glasses being systematically suspended from these rods.
Tanikō is billed as a social drama combining Japanese Noh theatre with a Brechtian approach to storytelling. It’s a strange combination, but I think it works. At its heart is a Japanese fable that presents a moral dilemma: a mountain community faces a tough decision when a boy falls ill during a journey to get medicine. This story introduces the show and appears repeatedly in different ways.
On stage, we meet three sisters who have been left to run the wine bar by their brother. He is missing, and they face dissent and even attacks from the locals. It is never entirely clear why the women and the wine bar are being targeted, but I got the feeling it had to do with the gentrification of local businesses and the population’s resentment towards outsiders.
The sisters, played by Eleni Niotaki, Marissa Farmaki, and Lina Boti, alternate dialogue throughout, with one often remaining still at the back of the stage while the other two continue their discussions. There is much discourse about how they are dealing with their mother’s declining health as she awaits treatment, and how they face the rising costs of healthcare. Despite the rather melancholy storyline, they deliver some amusing lines and keep the audience engaged while exploring a wide range of themes, including fear, financial pressures, motherhood, unhappiness, and abandonment.
Overlaying the stories of the sisters’ personal lives – such as their mother’s illness and their missing brother – there is the introduction of a mezzo-soprano booked to perform in the wine bar. Colloquially known as the ‘vino soprano’, she eventually appears towards the end of the show, performed by Despoina Goerga, and delivers an engaging aria based on the Noh fable.
As seems to be currently very fashionable in theatre, the set and costumes are entirely monochrome (I’m looking at you, Jamie Lloyd). The black-and-white costumes also include black gloves, and towards the end of the play, the sisters demonstrate stylised gestures reminiscent of traditional Noh theatre performance.
It all sounds a bit bonkers, but the effect is compelling. At its heart are the powerful performances of the three talented actors, and a lot is packed into an hour. I hope that, as a British audience, we didn’t miss too much when the surtitles cut off while the actors kept on speaking.
Thought-provoking, unusual, and interesting.
TANIKŌ
a play about a gentrified wine bar
inspired by the Japanese Nō theatre and the works of Bertolt Brecht
Theatro Technis, 17 November 2025
Presented as part of the Voila! Theatre Festival
