Greek vocal icon Marinella, center, sings “Children of Greece,” a song once sung to Greek soldiers as Italian and German forces invaded the country. As they endure hard times today, Greeks are turning to theater that shows triumphs over adversity in the last century.

Thanks to National Public Radio for this story from Athens, where several Raxa Collective members have family and friends who attest to the tough times there. The story is interesting because it is counterintuititve to us, with no offense to those who appreciate musicals, that this form of theater has proven so popular at such a time as this. It is not what we might have first thought up as an antidote for tough times, but who are we to argue with effective salves:

It’s a full house at the 2,000-seat Badminton Theater in Athens. On stage is a musical about the singer Sofia Vembo, whose warm contralto voice comforted Greeks during World War II.

The song that is bringing the audience, mostly Greeks in their 60s and 70s, to tears and applause is called “Paida Tis Ellados, Paidia,” or “Children of Greece.” Sofia Vembo sang it to Greek soldiers as Italian and German forces invaded the country.

On this evening, it’s sung by 75-year-old Marinella, the platinum-haired icon of modern Greek music. She’s joined by a young cast in 1940s dresses and military garb.

In the audience, a young, green-eyed dermatologist named Fiori Kousta is passionately singing along.

“This song gives me hope,” she says, “because it reminds me that Greeks have been through much worse than what we’re going through today. We may have the same enemies — the Germans — but watching this, I think we will fight and emerge victorious again.”…

…The musical sold more than 90,000 tickets, nearly as many as another production, on the life of Mikis Theodorakis, Greece’s greatest living composer.

Americans will remember Theodorakis for his bouzouki-inflected soundtrack to the 1964 movie Zorba the Greek.

But for Greeks, he is the composer who memorialized the country’s greatest poets, including Nobel Prize winners George Seferis and Odysseas Elytis, by setting their verses to music.

And he’s also the resilient fighter who fought decades of political repression.

“He was in exile for so many years, he was in prisons, but he followed his dream,” Adam says. “He did what he wanted to do through very difficult situation. This is today a very huge example for people to say, OK, we are facing very bad situation, but let’s do something about that.”

Voices Of Past Victories

Adam’s latest musical, “Marinella Meets Vembo,” honors Sofia Vembo, a woman who overcame poverty, sexism and war to become the country’s voice of victory during and after the Second World War.

Vembo died in 1978, but her voice still inspires Vasso Sambarti, a retired civil servant. She came to the premiere with her daughter, Fiori Kousta.

As the cast croons the finale, “Panta Mazi” (“Together Forever”), a song about unity in hard times, the audience sings along. Mother and daughter clap and chair-dance, their faces bright with joy.

“I can barely go out anymore because I’m so down,” Sambarti says. “Everywhere you go, in the supermarket, or for coffee with your friends, all you hear about are stress and worry. All you see is deflated people.”

Like many Greeks her age, she’s worried about paying bills on a dwindling pension and the prospects for her daughter in an economy that’s hemorrhaging jobs.

“But these songs, at least they give us a little cheer,” she says. “They let me escape, even for a little bit.”

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