SHOW ME A HERO by Carol Kaufman Segal

             

Show Me A Hero, written by Willard Manus, is making its world premiere at the Brickhouse Theatre in North Hollywood.  The play is about two real people, Alexander Panagoulis (1939-76), a Greek politician, and Oriana Fallaci (1929-2006), an Italian journalist, author and political reviewer.  When living in Greece, Manus was intrigued by Panagoulis when he first heard about him.  After reading a story about him being interviewed by Fallaci, he wrote Show Me a Hero about their love affair, fictionalizing their names.

            

In 1974, following the collapse of the military dictatorship in Greece, Luisa (Lisa Robins) came from Italy to interview Petros (Ilia Volok).  He had become famous for fighting against the military dictatorship that had taken over in 1967 and was arrested after his failed attempt to assassinate the dictator on August, 1968.  During the interview, Petros becomes very emotional in relaying his years of pain, torture, and deprivation to Luisa.  He finds her easy to talk to and she, in turn, finds him to be a real hero.  Very quickly, they fall in love.  Thus begins their amorous romance.

When they are together it is quite obvious that Petros and Luisa are very much in love, but she is not free to spend all of her time with him.  She still has a job to do and must leave Greece, periodically.  However, after each assignment is finished, Luisa returns to Petros.

Petros is not a man who can sit back without wanting to fight for what he feels is right. He has decided that he must seek out the perpetrators who were involved in overthrowing the Greek government.  Despite the warning of his friend Dimitry (Rico Simonini) and the woman who loves him, he is fixated on finding those who tried and succeeded, for a while, in taking over and ruining the country he loves.  Sadly, this time he pays for his unsuccessful attempt with his life.

            

I was simply mesmerized throughout this one act play, not only for the work by Willard Manus, but by the emotional and truly phenomenal performances by Ilia Volok and Lisa Robins.  I also have to give credit to Rico Simonini for his small, but important role as well.  This world premiere production was scheduled to play at the Brickhouse Theatre in North Hollywood through March 29.  I am hoping it will be able to return, and if and when it does, I highly recommend it.

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