Nina Rapi

Nina Rapi (Greek: Νίνα Ράπη) is a Greek-born, London-based, award-winning playwright and short story writer. Rapi is also the Editor-in-chief of BRAND literary magazine, which she founded in 2006.

Style and themes

Rapi's writing focuses on power, desire and freedom. In an interview with The Scavenger she described her core themes in her latest trilogy of plays (Angelstate; Reasons to Hide; Kiss the Shadow) as being surveillance, censorship and power on the one hand, with intimacy, resistance and freedom on the other.^[1] In a more recent interview with Samuele Grassi, and regarding her aesthetic approach, she says: 'The place from which I write is very intimate and personal but the situations/dynamics, characters and stories I create are fictional and often intellectually worked out (the mental and the emotional are for me closely inter-linked.' & 'I do often use different media on stage, not only videos but live music and choreography...Text is of course primary.' ^[2] Lizbeth Goodman analysing Ithaka, Rapi's first play,writes: 'It is this concept of transformative progressive freedom that provides the key to Nina Rapi's first play Ithaka, a play that looks at the darker side of sexuality...' & 'Ithaka explores the concept that individuals are constantly subconsciously attracted to conflict and domination...Most important, Ithaka is a dark comedy – surreal in some aspects, bizarelly "realistic" in others. The tone of the piece is strikingly irreverent.' ^[3] Samuele Grassi, analysing Rapi's more recent work (Angelstate, Lovers, Tricky, Josie's Restrooms) writes of 'Rapi's use of a multi-layered structure...focusing on freedom and/or desire as freedom.'^[4]

Plays

Nina Rapi's Ithaka was first performed as a staged reading in 1989 at Riverside Studios by the Women's Theatre Workshop. Dimple Godiwala referring to Shadow,one of the key characters in the play, wrote: 'Shadow is where we begin to recognise the depths of sexuality (and otherness) we all possess...To invite an introspection which rests on the shadowed self we need to recognise that our sexualities, however they may have been moulded, are based on a certain opacity of self.' ^[5] The play was described as ‘theatrically inventive, often surreal, witty and funny’ by David Hunter; then literary manager of Bush Theatre, London.^[6] The play went on to become published in Seven Plays by Women, Aurora Metro, winner of the Raymond Williams award,1991; and to win Best Play Award at BITS Theatre Festival, Pirani, India, 1995.^[7]

Many of Rapi's plays since then have been critically acclaimed; The Guardian described the 1993 production of Dangerous Oasis as 'inspirational'; and What's on as 'sensitive...powerful...excellent.',^[6] Time Out wrote of Dreamhouse (1991) as 'Atmospheric and economical. Highly commendable new work.' & of Josie's Restrooms (2000) as 'nipple gripping'. While the critic Eleftheria Raptou wrote of Edgewise (2010) 'Nina Rapi creates her own fascinating, multi-layered world and brings to light the social, existential and ultimately political impasse of a society in total, protracted crisis. Our crisis.'^[6]

Rapi's most recent production Kiss the Shadow had a performance presentation at Soho Theatre Studio and extracts performed at the Lyric Theatre Studio; and Southbank Centre as part of the 2010 London Literature Festival. When reviewing the play, Diva magazine said, 'Rapi elegantly explores the conflicts between state and individual, between private and public actions and between freedom and responsibility. It's dense, provocative and often very witty...It's exciting to see new theatre from one of London's most under-rated writers.'^[6]

Short stories

Rapi states that her first love was short stories^[1] and in recent years she has returned to the form. In 2006 she had a collection of short stories entitled Nine Traces in a Circle published: nine stories set in a Greek border town. She is currently working on a new collection funded by the Arts Council, "Light and Shade".^[8]

Works

Full-length plays

• Kiss the Shadow (2010)
• Edgewise (2010 & 2003)
• Reasons to Hide (2009)
• Angelstate (2006)
• Lovers (2001)
• Dance of Guns (1992)
• Dreamhouse (1991)
• Ithaka (1989)^[9]

Short plays and monologues

• Ms Jones Matters (2010)
• Gentle Persuasion (2006)
• Tricky (2001)^[10]
• Josie's Restrooms (2000)^[11]
• Dangerous Oasis (1993)
• Johnny is Dead (1990)
• Critical Moments (1990)

Short stories

• Playing yo-yo at Waterloo Bridge (published in Polari Journal Spring 2011,^[11] and then DEKATA, Athens Literary Magazine, Autumn 2012^[11]
• La Luna (published in 3:AM Magazine Feb. 2009),^[12]
• Scatman (published in Pulp.Net^[13] literary magazine, 2008 and then DEKATA, Athens literary magazine, 2010)^[11]
• The Moment You Slipped (published in Tell Tales Volume Three, 2006)^[14]
• Nine Traces in a Circle (Collection: Thaemon Press, Athens, 2006)^[15]
• Foreigner (published in Chroma literary journal, 2004)^[16]
• Light and Shade (published in Greece in Print, 2001)^[17]

Critical writings on Rapi's works

• Queer Crossings: theories, bodies, texts, edited by Silvia Antosa, Mimesis 2012 (interview with the author and analysis by Samuele Grassi of plays Angelstate, Lovers, Tricky and Josie's Restrooms) ^[18]
• Looking through Gender: Post-1980 British & Irish Drama, Samuele Grassi, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011 (analysis of plays Angelstate, Lovers, Tricky and Josie's Restrooms)^[11]
• Alternatives Within The Mainstream II:Queer Theatre in Postwar Britain,^[19] Dr. Dimple Godiwala-McGowan, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007 (Ithaka analysed in introduction)
• Who's Who in Lesbian and Gay Writing, G. Griffin, Routledge, 2002^[11]
• Putting Your Daughters on the Stage, S. Freeman, Cassell, 1997 (features a chapter on Rapi's early plays)^[11]
• Modern Drama, L.Goodman, Modern Drama, Spring Issue 1996 (analysis of Ithaka)^[20]
• Monologue Plays for Female Voices M. Rose, Tirrenia Stampatori, Italy, 1995 (chapter on the monologue Johnny is Dead)^[21]

References