Dimitris Samolis: Humor I needed many times to endure difficult situations

‘ I have fallen victim to verbal abuse because as a boy I did not play ball, I preferred to hang out with girls,” said Dimitris Samolis interviewed Kathimerini’s “K” and Vlasis Kostouros. The well-known actor spoke of his own theatrical creation, Strakastrokes, a monologue to intimidation. As he pointed out, the character of the project is very similar to him and to what he went through as a kid. So you wrote a monologue that focuses the “saint” Greek family and bulling. What made you want to talk about it? I started writing freely and sideways, until this hero was born before me, who in a way resembles the child I was. I haven’t experienced the extreme bulling that tells the play, but I remember falling victim to verbal abuse because as a boy I didn’t play ball, I preferred hanging out with girls, singing and acting. In my thought later came the story of Vangelis Yakoumakis, as well as stories of friends who grew up in the claustrophobic province and experienced intimidation. All these thoughts I put on paper, eventually making a story that I see can touch everyone separately, every man who has felt invisible and unacceptable to family and society, trying to find his true self. While you’re telling a painful story, you do it with enough humor… That’s how I am in my life. Humor took many times to endure difficult situations, so it became like a twist inside me and I ended up talking about harsh things with humorous meaning. It was like I put on an armor once, which I’ve been able to part with lately. Thank God.