The Million
A journey among the carnivals of different cultures, from India
to Bali, from Japan to Brazil, from Africa to European ballroom
dancing. A "musical" à la Odin: a mocking album of exoticism whose
figures of flesh and blood prance about in front of a strange
traveller, clad like a missionary, with the spectacles of a
short-sighted intellectual and the backpack of a tourist.
The spectacularity and the candid joy of the opening scenes
slowly reveal their opposites: dismay at the brutality which
accompanies the explosions of life, the misfortunes which encompass
the carnivals on the outskirts of empires, the exploitation and
humiliation of women, the children with no future.
This exotic album becomes one of meditation reduced to its
essentials: love, abandonment, old age, death. For the civilised
traveller who is intimidated and vulnerable, the journey becomes
escape, distance, involuntary cynicism. A procession of the Magi
sings a lullaby to the skeleton of a child: "In a doorway in
Bethlehem/ The Virgin and Saint Joseph...".
Created in Holstebro, Lima and Ayacucho (Peru), on the basis of
scenic material prepared by the actors during travels, on their own
or in small groups, in different parts of the world.
Actors
Torben Bjelke, Roberta Carreri,
Toni Cots, Tom Fjordefalk, Tage Larsen, Else Marie Laukvik, Francis
Pardeilhan, Iben Nagel Rasmussen, Silvia Ricciardelli, Gustavo
Riondet, Ulrik Skeel, Julia Varley, Torgeir Wethal.
(Some of the actors only participated in one of the various
versions.)
Scenic space: Odin
Teatret
Directed by
Eugenio Barba.
The dramaturgy consisted of a montage of various musical and dance
numbers representing the stages of a journey.
Number of spectators per
performance: No limit
223 performances, indoors
and in the open air, from September 1978 to October
1984
On Tour
Belgium, Colombia, Denmark, France, French Antilles,
Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Spain,
Sweden, USA, Wales