Simon Abkarian
Simon Abkarian
Simon Abkarian (born 5 March 1962) is a French-Armenian actor. Born in Gonesse, Val d'Oise, of Armenian descent, Abkarian spent his childhood in Lebanon. He moved to Los Angeles, where he joined an Armenian theater company managed by Gerald Papazian. He returned to France in 1985, settling in Paris. He took classes at the Acting International school, then he joined Ariane Mnouchkine's Théâtre du Soleil and played, among others, in "L'Histoire terrible mais inachevée de Norodom Sihanouk, roi du Cambodge" ("The Terrible but Unfinished Story of Norodom Sihanouk, King of Cambodia") by Hélène Cixous, and in the "House of Atreus" four-play cycle by Aeschylus. John Rockwell from the New York Times' critic wrote on March 27, 1991 : "But the star of this cycle is Simon Abkarian. Mr. Abkarian takes on Agamemnon, Achilles, a chorus leader, a Messenger, Orestes and, as an almost giddy bonus, Orestes' aged Nurse. These are parts with a huge range, and Mr. Abkarian was master of them all. But the climax of "The Libation Bearers" -- Orestes crazed with madness as the Furies crow in vengeengeful triumph, trying to taunt the corpses of his mother and her lover back to life so he can kill them again, drenched in blood and reeling with madness --found Mr. Abkarian almost unbearably intense".
