Yasmina Reza

Yasmina Reza, one of the brightest, most active and internationally acclaimed voices of contemporary French culture, visits Stegi, honoring the institution with one of her rare public appearances. She will talk with journalist and writer Yorgos Archimandritis about her rich career, about theater, writing, her roots that reach out to Russia, Iran and Hungary, as well as her acquaintance with director Roman Polanski and her works’ cinematic adventures.

Her plays, such as “Art”, “Le Dieu du carnage” (“The God of Carnage”), “Conversations après un enterrement” (“Conversations after a Burial”) and many more, have been translated and staged in 35 languages – repeatedly in Greece – offering her international fame and numerous awards: the Molière award twice, the Grand Prix of the French Academy of Theater, and the most important English-speaking awards: two Laurence Olivier Awards and two Tony Awards.

Her works have been performed in the world’s greatest theaters: the Royal Shakespeare Theater, the Royal National Theater, the Berliner Ensemble, the Schaubühne in Berlin, and the Burgtheater in Vienna. A few of them were adapted for cinema, such as “Une pièce espagnole” (released under the title “Chicas” and starring Carmen Maura), but also “The God of Carnage”, which came out a few months ago with the title “Carnage”, directed by Roman Polanski, and which, together with the director, won the Cesar Award for Best Screenplay.

Yasmina Reza, who studied theater and sociology and initially pursued a career as an actress, spent the last fifteen years working on novels, writing fiction books. The most recent, “L’aube, le soir ou la nuit” (released in Greek by Estia Publications) is a biography of Nicolas Sarkozy, whom Yasmina Reza followed wherever he went during his election campaign in the Fall of 2006.

Other books available in Greek are “The God of Carnage” (released in Greek by Estia Publications) and “Desolation” (released in Greek by Psichogios Publications).