The program “Take Your Time“, hosted by Prokopis Agelopoulos, welcomed historian and author Kostas Katsapis and actress Lili Tegou to the studio, on the occasion of the theatre production “You Left on the ‘Patris’”, staged at Angelon Vima Theatre.
The play is based on the book Australia – Ten Stories by Dr Kostas Katsapis and is directed by Margarita Dalamanga Kalogirou.
On 14 December 1959, the legendary ship Patris of Chandris Lines connected Greece with Australia for the first time. With a crew of 250 and carrying 1,000 passengers—Greeks who each “left on the Patris” in search of a better life in a distant land—the ship became a vessel of hope and migration.
From 14 December 1959 until 1979, when the Patris passed into other business hands and ceased operating this route, tens of thousands of Greeks from every corner of the country arrived in Australia aboard this ship. They lived in Greek neighborhoods, built Greek communities, worked, prospered, and carried with them both the time-honored values and the shortcomings of their homeland, through their personal stories.
Seven of these stories have been brought to the theatrical stage, where their protagonists come alive at Angelon Vima Theatre. The stories are true; the names are fictional.