"When I go to a country as a guest, like now when I come to Athens, I have a very personal feeling: I feel honored, that they recognize me and I am moved. It's been twenty-five years since the last time – and it was for a holiday in the islands. Especially in Greece, which is the center of the civilized world, it is even more important for me to show my work, which is also my first".

Anies Zaoui, the French writer of Tunisian origin, director and actor, which will be in our country on the occasion of the staging of the play "Kitchens and accessories" co-written with Jean-Pierre Bakri, is on the other end of the phone line.

"For me, art is all of these together and I don't think I can separate them. The theater, where i started, it led me to writing. Now I know that a project is completed on stage – it is very difficult to read the theater… Writing remains my most personal part, the most independent. You don't need anyone to write. Only yourself. Plus it's something you carry everywhere. I am free when I write. you know", says, "I have a theory and I parallel the different species with the ages of man. Acting makes me a kid. The writing, adult…». As for the cinema, whom she also loves, admits that it is an art more "dependent" on external factors.

The 49-year-old creator, who divides her time and life between the board and the big screen, he's got, among other things sign the film adaptation in – well-known film in Greece – "Smoking/No smoking" by Alain René, based on works by Alan Eckborn. Zawi has won awards and accolades, as well as a nomination for an Oscar for foreign language film. Specifically, the 2001 she was a candidate, along with Bakri, for the film "Le gout des autres", about the socio-cultural differences of a group of people. With her directorial gaze, full of humor and sensitivity, the same film was warmly received in France, winning over viewers, which reached four million, as many Cesars as he received that year.

With "Kitchens and accessories" he deals with the subject of celebrity. "A subject that", as she says herself, "it keeps coming back. This is because the power that celebrity offers is enormous. And I'm not referring to Andy Warhol's few minutes of fame, but in the one that has duration and of course great power". In the play it all starts when a couple organizes a dinner party at home to honor an old friend who is now very famous. Everyone is wondering who this celebrity guest is, if they knew him before he became famous, if he hides secrets he hides. And while all this happens around the table, the actual plot seems to develop into…. kitchen.

Anies Zaoui is at the same time a woman with a strong public political and social discourse. In his French election 2012 had come out in favor of Martine Aubry, while participating in forums about foreigners and their problems, as well as issues of art. She recently adopted two children 5 and 7 years from Brazil, because as she has stated herself "I never felt the biological need to have children. In addition, I find it unbearable to read in biographies of women whether or not they have children"…

THE IDENTITY OF THE SHOW

"Kitchens and fittings" by Anies Zaoui and Jean-Pierre Bakry. Directed by Antigoni Amanitou. They interpret: P. Vogiatzis, L. Giannaridou, P. Bed, M. Polymers, Al. Sotiriou. Scenography by Kostas Velinopoulos. Lighting Yannis Drakularakos

WHEN & WHERE

Theater Point (Harilaou Trikoupi 4, Kallithea) Every Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday at 21.15.