Lena Kitsopoulou

Lena Kitsopoulou was born in Athens in 1971, according to her publisher Metaixmio and the Greek book database Biblionet; one French theatre programme gives 1976. She trained as an actress at the drama school of the Art Theatre Karolos Koun (Θέατρο Τέχνης) and graduated in 1994. She then acted in classical and modern plays and in films. In 1997 she won the Best Actress award at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival for Dimitris Athanitis's film No Sympathy for the Devil.

Writing soon became as important to her as acting. In 2006 the publisher Kedros brought out her first collection of short stories, Νυχτερίδες (Bats), which received the debut author award of the magazine Διαβάζω (Reading). Since then she has worked mainly as a writer and director. She also writes for newspapers and contributes stories to anthologies, such as a 2013 collection of stories about the Greek economic crisis.

Her plays have been translated into English, French, German, Spanish and Polish and presented in London and Berlin as well as in Greece. She also performs as a singer. Her 2015 story collection Το μάτι του ψαριού (The Eye of the Fish) was shortlisted for the Greek State Prize for Short Story and Novella in 2016. She lives and works in Athens.

Kitsopoulou's stories are short and direct. Νυχτερίδες and the later collections Μεγάλοι δρόμοι (Great Roads, Metaixmio, 2010) and Το μάτι του ψαριού show ordinary people who seem to live among us but meet loss, frustration and death. Reviewers point to her clipped sentences and to surreal, sometimes bleak touches. Two stories from Μεγάλοι δρόμοι were adapted for the stage.

Her best-known theatre text began as a novella. Μ.Α.Ι.Ρ.Ο.Υ.Λ.Α. (Kedros, 2009) is about a 37-year-old woman who decides to change her life, or rather the world. Each letter of the title begins a word in her bitter, comic "philosophy of life". In 2009 the National Theatre of Greece staged it as a monologue, directed by Kitsopoulou and Maria Protopappa, who played the woman; in 2011 the production travelled to the Piccolo Teatro in Milan. On stage the woman talks to the audience, to herself and to everything around her, in a flood of bittersweet, sarcastic and funny words.

Her plays often take Greek history and myth as a starting point. Αθανάσιος Διάκος – Η επιστροφή (Athanasios Diakos – The Return, Athens Festival, 2012) takes its title from a hero of 1821. Aoustras or the Hardness (National Theatre, 2011) and Little Red Riding Hood – The First Blood (Onassis Cultural Centre, 2014) followed other paths. In July 2023 her staging of Aristophanes' Σφήκες (Wasps) at the ancient theatre of Epidaurus sharply divided critics.

Kitsopoulou's texts are still on Greek stages and shelves. In 2021 Μ.Α.Ι.Ρ.Ο.Υ.Λ.Α. returned to Athens at Theatro Zina, directed by Dimitra Dermitzaki with Kitty Paitazoglou in the role, and in 2025 Metaixmio reissued both Νυχτερίδες and Μ.Α.Ι.Ρ.Ο.Υ.Λ.Α. The National Theatre's digital archive keeps photographs, programmes and press cuttings of the 2009 production. For a Greek task, open that archive record and read the title letter by letter. The whole monologue is adult literature, not A1 reading, so borrow only its form: one person speaking to the audience. Write your own three-line monologue: Είμαι η Μαρία (I am Maria). Μένω στην Αθήνα (I live in Athens). Μιλάω για τη ζωή μου (I talk about my life). Then read it aloud.

• Before her first book, she won a Best Actress award at the Thessaloniki film festival in 1997.
• The title Μ.Α.Ι.Ρ.Ο.Υ.Λ.Α. looks like a woman's name, Μαιρούλα, but each capital letter stands for a separate word.
• In March 2011 the National Theatre production of Μ.Α.Ι.Ρ.Ο.Υ.Λ.Α. was performed at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan.
• Her play about Athanasios Diakos won the 2013 International Authors' Prize at the Heidelberg Stückemarkt in Germany.