The PEROKE Theater, located in Karaiskaki Square in Metaxourgeio, is the oldest theater in Athens, with a huge history!
It began operating in August 1931, with the staging of the detective operetta ‘‘I Katergara” by Kimon Kapetanakis and Mimi Katrivanou, with the then 27-year-old Vassilis Avlonitis as the protagonist.
A remarkable event that took place at that time, was when during a performance, an assassination attempt was made against Vassilis Avlonitis. Venizelian fanatics attacked him on stage while he was satirizing the politicians of the time. Unfortunately, the bullet found an unlucky stage engineer who died instantly. At the same time, in the basement of PEROKE, the notorious for that time ‘‘Hawaii” operated for several years. It was essentially the first transvestite bar in Athens, which was closed after a murder.
Many decades have passed since then and big names of theater and cinema have paraded on the stage of PEROKE, with expensive productions and crowded troupes. The main feature of the theater was the Revue, with commentary on political and social current events.
During the difficult years for the theater, PEROKE also functioned as a cinema with quality films. In 2009, the PEROKE Theater was taken over by Markos Seferlis, who completely renovated it, thus creating a modern theater, fully equipped with state – of – the – art sound, lighting and effects equipment!
Since then, there have been staged 20 theater productions.