Nina Rapi

Nina Rapi is a Greek playwright. She also writes short stories and essays.

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. 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.' 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.'

Plays Nina Rapi's first play Ithaka was initially 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.' The play went on to get 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.

Dreamhouse & Dance of Guns followed, both performed at Oval House Theatre at 1991 and 1992 respectively. Lovers was performed, in its short version, at Gielgud Theatre, part of West End Shorts, London New Play Festival 2002. Edgewise had a performed presentation at Gate Theatre in 2013.

In 2010, Rapi's play Kiss the Shadow had a performed presentation at Soho Theatre Studio. In the same year, extracts were performed at the Lyric Theatre Studio; and Southbank Centre as part of the London Literature Festival. Also in 2010, her play Edgewise/Ακροβασία was presented at the National Theatre of Greece, Festival Analogion.

She has since written Άγριες Νότες/Wild Beats produced at Aggelon Vima, Athens, Greece 2014 & 2015. It was published by Sokolis publishers. Her play Angelstate had a performed presentation at Theatro Technis, Athens, Greece, Festival Analogion 2015. Angelstate was also included in the Oberon Anthology of Contemporary Greek Plays, published in 2017. The same year, her play Splinters was performed at theatro Argo in Athens. In 2018, it was also produced at Theatre T in Thessaloniki & at Simpkins Lee Theatre, University of Oxford. It was published by Sokolis Publishers, Athens, Greece

Short stories In 2014 Rapi's collection of short stories State of Fugue/Κατάσταση Φούγκας was published by Kedros Publishers, Athens, Greece. Playing yo-yo at Waterloo Bridge (published in Polari Journal Spring 2011, and then DEKATA, Athens Literary Magazine, Autumn 2012 La Luna (published in 3:AM Magazine Feb. 2009), Scatman (published in Pulp.Net literary magazine, 2008 and then DEKATA, Athens literary magazine, 2010) Foreigner (published in Chroma literary journal, 2004)

Works Full-length plays What reality? (2021) Wild Beats/Άγριες Νότες (2014 & 2015)

Short plays and monologues Splinters: 7 μονόπρακτα (2017 & 2018) Love yeah!/Αγάπη Ρε! (2014) Ms Jones Matters (2010) Gentle Persuasion (2006) Tricky (2001) Josie's Restrooms (2000) Dangerous Oasis (1993) Johnny is Dead (1990) Critical Moments (1990)

Critical writings on Rapi's works Nina Rapi: Angelstate by Amalia Kondoyianni, Diastixo.gr. 2020 Splinters: Intimacy Bruising by Amalia Kondoyianni, 2017 Angelstate: Docile Bodies by George Sabatakakis, 2017 Looking through Gender: Post-1980 British & Irish Drama, Samuele Grassi, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011 (analysis of plays Angelstate, Lovers, Tricky and Josie's Restrooms) Alternatives Within The Mainstream II:Queer Theatre in Postwar Britain, 2007 Dr. Dimple Godiwala-McGowan, Cambridge Scholars Publishing (Ithaka analysed in introduction) Who's Who in Lesbian and Gay Writing, G. Griffin, Routledge, 2002 Putting Your Daughters on the Stage, S. Freeman, Cassell, 1997 (features a chapter on Rapi's early plays) Modern Drama, L.Goodman, Modern Drama, Spring Issue 1996 (analysis of Ithaka) Monologue Plays for Female Voices M. Rose, Tirrenia Stampatori, Italy, 1995 (chapter on the monologue Johnny is Dead)

Featured in Seven Plays by Women (1993)