Description:
This book presents a new theater play, titled For Three Refrigerators and a Washing Machine, along with a thorough introduction that provides historical context and theoretical framing of the "historic" child adoptions from postwar Greece.
Review Quotes:
"As a scholar and practitioner of drama and theater, I welcome a playscript that is so deeply concerned with modern-day issues of identity and belonging. The playscript takes us back to Greece of the 1950s and to the sense of loss that comes with child adoptions abroad. But it also hits home for being poignantly current and for acknowledging the mental and physical toll that the "historic" adoptions took on young children, unsupported birth mothers, small village communities, and ultimately on an entire country that is still contending with its post-Civil War past." --Maria Frangi, University of Patras, Greece.
"What a rare and unique achievement that groundbreaking, scholarly research comes alive via the creative process in the form of a stage play. Professor Gonda Van Steen has successfully done just that. In Adoption Reckonings, she explains the transformation of her book to the stage through the emotional testimonies of those directly involved in the postwar adoption of Greek children, the first such mass exportation of children in history." --Dr. Mary Cardaras, Founder and Director, The Demos Center of The American College of Greece, Adoptee and Activist for Adoptee Rights.