My Father's House
A small courtyard, in party mood,
festooned with coloured lights. Rooms, isbas and muddy clearings in
Dostoyevski's Russia. "Paraclete! Paraclete!" With this call, the
fire butterfly which hovers in the shadows, flutters down. A hand
snuffs it out. The music swells through the pitch darkness, as
though rising out of a well.
"What is a great thought?"
"Changing stones into bread, that is a great thought.""Is it
really the greatest?"
"It is great, but not the greatest. When you no longer suffer the
pangs of hunger, you say: now that my belly is full, what shall I
do next?"
Created in Holstebro, between April
1971 and April 1972, while Odin Teatret discusses whether or not to
become an agricultural commune.
There is no plot. In spite of the
original intentions at the start of the work process, the
performance does not evoke the life and works of Dostoyevski, but
is dedicated to him. In the context of the second half of the
twentieth century, it is one of the most influential European
performances: it is an experience, for the spectators, of which it
is almost impossible to speak in "objective" terms.
Actors
Jens Christensen, Ragnar
Christiansen, Malou Illmoni (who leaves the group after the first
few weeks of performances), Tage Larsen, Else Marie Laukvik, Iben
Nagel Rasmussen, Ulrik Skeel, Torgeir Wethal
Literary Advisors:
Christian Ludvigsen / Peter Seeberg
Scenic space: Odin
Teatret
Adaptation and
directing: Eugenio Barba
Language: The
actors speak a reinvented Russian
Number of spectators per
performance: 60
322 performances from April
1972 to January 1974
On Tour
Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland,
Sweden, Switzerland, Yugoslavia