CAFÉ REBETIKA! is an important show for our time.


According to the United Nations, over 30 million people are refugees, displaced either internally or externally from their homelands. The number of refugees, asylum seekers and others trying to escape a brutal existence is rising worldwide. With rising sea levels and other disastrous effects of global warming, the numbers of displaced will soar. 


Based on true stories, CAFÉ REBETIKA! is conceived to stimulate discussion and address these contemporary issues through the powerful lens of allegory.

The urgency of reaching out, of empathising, of getting on the inside of other cultures and accepting people from them gets stronger every day.

Co-authors Stephen Helper and Thomas Papathanassiou explore their own alienation and displacement as first and second-generation migrants, respectively. 



We welcome you to share your story. Do you or your relatives live displaced from your own homeland or culture? How are you surviving? Do you have a family connection to the Armenians and Greeks forced out of Asia Minor in the Great Catastrophe? Do you have a Turkish connection? We would love to hear from you. Please let us know if you would like to connect with others.


{click here to Share Your Story}

CAFÉ REBETIKA! is not about guilt, is not about blame. It is about people who are strangers to us when the lights come up for the first time and family to us by the curtain calls. It is not about how they are different from us, but in fact, how they are the same. It shows how the smallest of kindnesses can be the most profound acts. It shows how defiance of oppression is a source of human dignity. Through empathy, we show our understanding of someone else. Through it, we set each other free from fear and live in peace.