An Odin Teatret ensemble performance, directed by Eugenio
Barba
Thursday 6 and Friday 7 November 2014 - at 7.30
p.m.
and Saturday 8 November 2014 - at 2.30 p.m.
Ancient Court Theatre, Wuzhen, China
It is the Carnival of a foreign country, distant yet close.
The actors in this Carnival are the emissaries of a hidden people,
stately, funny, grotesque, sometimes sarcastic, sometimes
sorrowful. We host them in our streets and squares, in the theatres
and the institutions that make us civilised.
This Carnival doesn't pretend to believe in civilization. It makes
us laugh. But it is a type of laughter that confines with tears and
evokes tears when least expected. The Carnival shows human and
animal masks, marionettes and skulls, skeletons and rag dolls. It
starts with a procession and alternates scenes with music and
dances, figures like the actors of past times entering a village.
They exhibit a tame bear, Harlequin, the Queen of Saba, a man-woman
and Our Lady of Death who steals children just as children catch
butterflies and happily torment them. There is also an old monk,
solitary, haughty, sad as an inquisitor and vulgar as a corrupt
saint.
"Human beings are not like this!" thinks the Hunter, who runs into
this Carnival during one of his safaris.
To compose this Ode, Odin Teatret has deformed some precious scenes
from its past repertoire. In other words: the actors have loved and
respected it until blasphemy. Carnival.
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