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Gethsemane by David Hare
T
he Cyprus Theatre Organisation (THOC) pre-
sented the play
Gethsemane
by famous English
playwright David Hare from April until June, with
parallel shows in Larnaca, Limassol and Paphos.
The play, which premiered at the National Theatre
of London in 2008, examines the involvement of
the media and business world in politics.
The main characters of the play are the Interior
Minister, her teenage daughter, the country’s
Prime Minister, a journalist, a public servant and
his ideologist professor wife, and the Prime Min-
ister’s ruthless “associate”, who secures financ-
ing for the party.
It is an ingenious and exquisitely provocative story
on the merciless world of politics, which pushes
one character after the other into their own personal
“Gethsemane moment”.
Direction: Aliki Danezi-Knutchen
Translation: Eri Kyrgia
Set design: Kiki Pitta
Costumes: Stelios F. Stylianou
Movement: Alexis Vasiliou
Music: Giorgos Christodoulides
Editing: Manolis Dounias
Lighting: Stavros Tartaris
Live video design: Evripides Dikeos
Actors: Margarita Zachariou, Alexandros Parisis,
Marios Konstantinou, Varnavas Kyriazis, Elena
Papadopoulos, Niki Dragoumi, Christina Christo-
fia, Andreas Koutsoumpas, Neoklis Neokleous.
The play
Gethsemane is a corruption into English of two
Hebrew words “Gat” and “Shmanim”, meaning
“the place where olive oil is pressed”. It most likely
originates from the olive groves and oil mills that
existed in Israel.
According to the New Testament, the Garden of
Gethsemane, on the side of the Mount of Olives in
Jerusalem, was where Jesus Christ went to pray be-
fore His ordeal on the cross of Calvary. The Bible
says that Jesus was troubled and overwhelmedwith
sorrow, to the point of sweating drops of blood.
Three times Jesus prayed that if it were possible
the cup of suffering would be taken from Him, but
that the will of the Father would nevertheless be
done. It was in Gethsemane that the suffering of
Jesus began – his betrayal, arrest, trial and pillory.
It was there that he received the Judas kiss, before
being arrested by Pontius Pilate’s troops, the rabble
and the Pharisees.
In the words of David Hare, Gethsemane is when
you experience a ‘night of doubt’, but decide to
carry on. You don’t give up.
