Greek Music Blues
Rebetika is a style of Greek music born in the 1930s. Director Stephen Lloyd Helper rediscovered this style of music in an old record store, and with the help of Thomas Papathanassiou, he wrote the play Cafe Rebetika.
The story is driven by the music, and tells the socio-political story of Greece in the 1930s. For most Greek people, this time represents a wound in their history as a lot of people died and lost their land. The story is set in a hash den where musicians, anarchists, refugees, communists, and manges gather. They turn to hashish and heroin to block out their tragic past, but the story does have a happy ending and speaks to the power of art and music to sustain a people and their culture. Papathanassiou compares Rebetika to the history of American blues, when displaced people have taken their art forms with them.