INFERNO, PURGATORIO, PARADISO To 9 April.
London.
INFERNO, PURGATORIO, PARADISO
by Romeo Castellucci.
Barbican Theatre (Inferno, Purgatorio), Silk Street Theatre (Paradiso) To 9 April 2009.
Posted by : Carole Woddis on April 7, 2009 – 15.15 London
Inferno) Barbican Theatre: 2-3 April.
7.45pm.
Runs 1hr 30min No interval.
Paradiso: Barbican (Silk Street Theatre) To 9April
Every 10 mins from 1pm -10.20pm.
A walk-through installation is at the onlooker’s discretion.
TICKETS 0845 120 7550.
www.barbican.org.uk/bite
Review: Carole Woddis 2 April.
All human life’s here, somewhere.
Inferno and Paradiso are two parts of a trilogy inspired by Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy presented by Italian theatre company, Societas Raffaello Sanzio, part of the Barbican’s bite09 and Spill Festival of Performance.
Founded in 1981 by Romeo Castellucci with his sister Claudia and his wife Chiara Guidi, Societas has become one of Europe’s most impressively long-running radical companies. Their website reveals seriously heavyweight analyses of their work, a plethora of European awards (including one for `resistance’ when their state funding was threatened) and a commitment to topics ranging from an 11-part examination of tragedy to children’s theatre.
This is not their first visit to London. Typically, it was Rose Fenton and Lucy Neal’s visionary Lift festival which introduced them to British audiences ten years ago with Giulio Cesare.
First-timers like myself may however ponder. Paradiso, marked by an encounter with a figure in a darkened room swinging from a small opening, seemingly trapped and from time to time emitting painful grunts, is something of a non-event though there are enough existential, Beckettian echoes to intrigue.
As for Inferno, you can see immediately how and why the company has earned its reputation for shock, opening as it does with a group of barking Alsatian dogs tied to stakes, followed by a perspex box within which very young children play, bounce and scream whilst an Andy Warhol figure lurks outside taking polaroid pictures of us. Culminating in a white stallion being smeared with blood (red paint) only succeeds in piling on the sense of discomforture, exploitation and bafflement.
Castellucci’s major strength, however, is his visual command. Vivid, visceral, and sometimes hauntingly beautiful, he orchestrates a vast cast through various tableaux mouvante. How it connects to Dante’s vision of hell I’m still unsure though there are allusions enough to fire, alienation and crowds. Hell may be other people, as Sartre once pointed out. Castellucci sees it as the city and gives us a series of unforgettable, flowing moments as a contemplation of the individual in relation to the crowd as outcast, child, parent, loved one, murderer, martyr. Finally, Andy Warhol climbing into a smashed car. Make of that what you will.
Purgatario follows.
Inferno:
The People:
Alessandro Cafiso, Maria Luisa Cantarelli, Elia Corbara, Silvia Costa, Sara Dal Corso, Manola Maiani, Luca Nava, Gianni Piazzi, Stefano Guestorio and Silvano Voltolina
The Animals and Trainers:
José-Claude Pamard with Balkan, Banzai and Robin.
nimal Actors: Gerard Naprous and The Devil’s Horsemen Stunt Team
Plus Special Presences.
Director/Designer/Lighting/Costume: Romeo Castellucci.
Original Music: Scott Gibbons.
Choreographers: Cindy Van Acker, Romeo Castellucci.
Choreographic Assistant: Tamara Bacci.
Collaboration on set design: Giacomo Strada.
Sculptures, Mechanisms, Prosthesis: Istvan Zimmermann, Giovanna Amoroso.
Paradiso (installation):
Conception: Romeo Castellucci.
with: Dario Boldrini, Michelangelo Miccolis.
Collaboration on set design: Giacomo Strada, Istvan Zimmermann.
Mechanisms/Prosthesis: Istvan Zimmermann, Giovanna Amoroso.
The restaging of Inferno is realised in the collaboration with La Bâtie-Festival de Genève, September 2008.
The project has been funded with support from the European Commission and many other international festivals and collaborators including Paris Calling, a Franco-British season of performing arts.
2009-04-08 12:44:55