Work of | Euripide
Creation for 10 performers | 5 danzatori, 3 attrici, 1 cantante lirica, 1 cameraman
Conception, choreography, scenography and lighting design | Claudio Bernardo

Assistants | Anne-Cécile Massoni, Marie Bach
Choir director | Anna Andreotti, Valérie Davreux
Performers on stage | Vincent Clavaguera, Elise Gäbele, Maxime Jennes, Cécilia Kankonda, Tijen Lawton, Carmela Locantore, Fatou Traoré, Mimbi Lubansu, Thi-Mai Nguyen.
With the exclusive participation of Claudio Bernardo and Maria Grazia Mandruzzato.
With the support of Luna Palacios of Catania Tango Club
Players in the film | Gabriella Iacono, Johanne Saunier
Voice of Athena | Marie Bach
Musical composition | Giovanna Marini, Dorian Baste
Music | Nina Simone
Screenplay | Alain Cofino Gomez, Claudio Bernardo
Costumes | Agnès Dubois, Hélène Lhoest, Claudio Bernardo
Video production | Cristina Dias
Production | Claudio Bernardo
Administration | Valentina Masi
Co-productions |Théâtre Varia (Be), Théâtre de Liège (Be), Charleroi Danse (Be), Fondazione INDA (It), Oriente Occidente Danza Festival (It), DC&J Création (Be), Belgian Federal Government Tax Shelter (Be), Charleroi Danse Residences (Be), Centro Coreografico Nazionale Scenario Pubblico/Catania (It), Oriente Occidente Danza Festival (It), Teatro Varia (Be)

With the support of the Ministry of the Federation Wallonia-Brussels – Department of Dance, Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government, Wallonia-Brussels Theatre/Dance, SACD Belgium, WBI, Centre National Chorégraphique-Public Scenario/Catania, Wakko Kapper;

with the support of the Municipality of Ixelles; the company is in artistic residence at the Théâtre Varia, Dramatic Centre of Brussels

Après les Troyennes is a dance theatre show that starts from the Trojans of Euripides to put us back in front – two and a half millennia after it was written and staged – of unfortunately still current themes: the brutality and madness of wars, the wounds it causes, among destroyed cities and people forced to flee, women and children as the first victims, the pain of detachment from their land and origins. “Excruciating requiem about war sung by mythological female voices”, this is how Lèon Parmentier defines the Euripidean tragedy, Claudio Bernardo’s creation focuses on the survivors, their pain, their testimony. The Brazilian choreographer, who has always been active in Belgium, created this work from the impression he had of the Trojan show staged by Thierry Salmon, a Belgian director who blossomed very young, died prematurely, whose theatrical research is strongly intertwined with Italy. It was 1988 when his Trojans shook the audiences of Europe with their poetry and beauty, their poignant choral strength. Created for the Orestiadi di Gibellina, at the time directed by Franco Quadri, after a year of work in stages in several European cities, they had as a scene, signed by Nunzio, the emblematic remains of a Greek theater buried by the earth. The dramaturgy was elaborated by Renata Molinari in ancient Greek, as well as in ancient Greek were the songs composed by Giovanna Marini, drawing on the popular culture of the Mediterranean area. Only voices, soloists or ensemble, intertwined with music created live by an ensemble of 35 actresses-performers striking their bodies, the earth, objects. The strength that Thierry Salmon managed to bring out from a group work was so “pure”, without forcing, as to literally shake the viewer. The lament of women wounded by the destruction of what they had helped to build, the city and the people of Troy, came upon it with a very special and unexpected delicacy. It led almost everyone to tears, that poignant lament that seemed timeless and without geographies and that lapped everyone, like a ferocious caress.

For that being rite, communion here and now between actors and spectators, the theater is a unique, fragile event, it is pulverized at every performance, every night. Although there are still emotional and cognitive traces in those who took part, in the room and on stage, in actors and spectators. With Après les Troyennes Claudio Bernardo performs an act of love towards the theatre, towards that show that appeared to us as an Epiphany, trying to stimulate the memory of those who lived that show, and charging the show of today with additional strength, also due to the fact that some actresses and dancers are the same as the creation of more than thirty years ago. Après les Troyennes is an international co-production in which the INDA Foundation wanted to participate. A show of words (in multiple languages), gestures, dance, songs, images, in Italian premiere and for everyone. Today, Ecuba, Cassandra, Andromaca and Elena find their natural landing place in the Greek Theatre of Syracuse: they come from afar, from the Myth, from the ruins of Troy destroyed by the Achaeans; they come from Greece and Sicily, from the ruins of Gibellina struck by the fury of an earthquake. Devastation upon devastation, time upon time, shadows upon shadows. Because “We are such stuff as dreams are made on and our little life is rounded with a sleep.” (William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act IV, Scene I).

26 at 9 p.m.

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