Thodoris Abazis is both the director and composer of this musical version of Victor Hugo’s masterpiece, which returns to the Marika Kotopouli Stage for a second season. The man who laughs is much more than the stormy romance it seems; indeed, the authority of Hugo’s writing makes it a deeply political work, turning a love story into an examination of the excesses of power and how repugnant its true face is.

Early 18th-century London is a highly structured aristocratic society with strict boundaries between the classes. Wealth and a high position in the hierarchy give rise to arrogance. The impoverished, weak-willed people are terrified, with no appetite for resistance and frequently no hope. In this cruel environment, Gwynplaine, a young man whose face has been mutilated into a permanent grin, experiences a pure, true love for a blind girl, Dea. But fortune has the strangest of games in store for him, and once he is in a position of power, he dares to stand up for himself and comes face-to-face with the callousness of the powerful.

Recorded narration: Thanasis Papgeorgiou (Greek) and Rigas Axelos (French).