English (2006)
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ODIN TEATRET UR-HAMLET A performance by Eugenio Barba based on Vita Amlethi by Saxo Grammaticus (1200 A.D.) UR-HAMLET: THEATRUM MUNDI Ur-Hamlet is the result of Odin Teatret’s keen interest in acting technique. Instead of technique, we could say professional identity, and this identity does not necessarily coincide with the performer’s biographical-cultural one. Odin Teatret, whose actors are of different nationalities, has been a pioneer in this field, studying and presenting various western and non-western acting traditions in Holstebro. It started in 1966 with seminars on the actor’s professional know-how as practised by Jerzy Grotowski, Etienne Decroux, Jacques Lecoq, Dario Fo, Jean- Louis Barrault, Joseph Chaikin, Judith Malina and Julian Beck. In the beginning of the 1970s, Odin Teatret organised seminars involving Javanese and Balinese ensembles and artists (Sardono, I Made Pasek Tempo, I Made Djimat), Japanese Noh, Kyogen, Kabuki and Shingeki theatre (Hisao and Hideo Kanze, Mannojo Nomura, Sawamura Sojuro, Shuji Terayama) and India’s main classical forms of theatre-dance: Kathak, Bharatanatyam, Odissi, Chhau and Kathakali. Besides the performances, the performers presented and commented the technical basis of their way of thinking and establishing a communicative relationship with the spectator. ISTA, International School of Theatre Anthropology, founded in 1979, widened this research and has grown in symbiosis with Odin Teatret. ISTA is a working environment characterised by a technical exchange between regularly returning artists and researchers of different genres and nationalities. In this “performers’village”, they compare and analyse the technical foundations of their styles in sessions lasting from two weeks to two months. From 1980 to 2005, fourteen ISTA sessions have taken place in Europe and Latin America. All of them ended with a Theatrum Mundi performance with musicians and performers from different cultures. Many of the ISTA members participate also in Ur-Hamlet. The work on Ur-Hamlet started in 2003 and continued in Holstebro and Copenhagen, then during the ISTA sessions of Seville (2004) and Wroclaw (2005), in the villages of Batuan and Ubud (Bali, 2004 and 2006) and, in its final phase, in Ravenna. Ni Made Srimpi, Cristina Wistari Formaggia and Julia Varley rehearsing Ur-Hamlet in Bali. 02 03 UR-HAMLET A performance by Eugenio Barba based on Vita Amlethi by Saxo Grammaticus (1200 A.D.) GAMBUH PURA DESA ENSEMBLE (Batuan, Bali) Actors/dancers and musicians: Cristina Wistari Formaggia (artistic co-ordinator), I Made Suamba (administrative co-ordinator), I Wayan Naka (musical co-ordinator), Ni Wayan Sudiani, Ni Wayan Nugini, Ni Nyoman Jumiati, Ni Kadek Ariantini, Ni Luh Nik Windasari, Ni Made Srimpi, Ni Made Partini, Ni Wayan Pia, I Wayan Bawa, I Ketut Karwan, I Nyoman Doble, I Wayan Purnawan, I Wayan Martawan, I Made Suteja, I Wayan Suamba, Ida On stage: Akira Matsui (Japan), Cristina Wistari Formaggia (Italy), Ni Nyoman Bagus Negara, I Wayan Lesit, I Ketut Rida, I Wayan Merta, I Ketut Suana, I Wayan Candri, I Wayan Bawa and 30 performers and musicians from the Gambuh Pura Sandi, I Made Budiana, I Wayan Lambih, I Wayan Rawa, I Made Renanta, I Made Desa Ensemble (Bali), Brigitte Cirla (France), Augusto Omolú and Cleber da Geten, I Wayan Berata. Paixão (Brazil), Annada Prasanna Pattanaik (India), Magnus Errboe (Denmark), Odin Teatret (Denmark) and the Foreigners' chorus (43 performers from 21 ODIN TEATRET (Holstebro, Denmark) countries) - Music: Composed and arranged by Frans Winther; classical Actors and musicians: Balinese and Indian songs - Scenic space: Luca Ruzza - Costumes: Jan de Kai Bredholt, Roberta Carreri, Jan Ferslev, Mia Theil Have, Julia Varley, Torgeir Neergaard and Odin Teatret - Light design: Luca Ruzza and Odin Teatret - Wethal. Sound: Cy Nicklin - Production director: Patricia Alves - Production assistants: Emanuela Bauco, Anne Savage - Photos: Claudio Coloberti - THE FOREIGNERS' CHORUS Poster: Luca Ruzza - Technicians: Hans Kobberø, Fausto Pro, Oscar Alonso Adrianna Kabza-Biernacka (Poland), Aeran Jeong (South Korea), Agnieszka Sánchez, Stefan Tarabini, Søren Lykkeager - Judy English translation: Sosnowska (Poland), Ana Sofia Monsalve Fiori (Colombia), Ana Laura López Barba - Director assistants: Julia Varley, Cristina Wistari Formaggia, Ana Morales (Mexico), Ana Woolf (Argentina), Aneta Stojnic (Serbia and Montenegro), Woolf - Administrative director: Søren Kjems - Literary adviser: Annamaria Talone (Italy), Antonello Motta (Italy), Audrey Finkelstein (Canada), Bruna Longo (Brazil), Calafia Montserrat Piña Juárez (Mexico), Carlos Carmona Nando Taviani - Eugenio Barba. Dramaturgy and direction: (Mexico), Carolina Paola Balduzzi (Argentina), Christina Kyriazidi (Argentina), Corina Oprea (Romania), Eugene Park Cofield (USA), Ewa Piotrowska (Poland), Francisco Villicaña Maldonado (Mexico), Fredric Villano (USA), Gabriella Sacco Odin Teatret thanks: The Italian Embassy in Jakarta, Atalaya Teatro, H.M. Berg, Trevor (Italy), Hirton Fernandes Jr. (Brazil), Jessica Bockler (Great Britain), Jon Hewitt Davis, The Centre for the Studies of Jerzy Grotowski, Jonah Salz, Mirella Schino, (Great Britain), Larick Samuel Huerta Gonzalez (Mexico), Linda Cunningham Annamaria Talone, Jesper Boldsen (Syddansk Universitet), Franco Masotti, Batuan Dalam (Great Britain), Liza Urbanová (Czech Republic), Maria Ficara (Italy), Marilli Desa, Ananda Cottages, the Municipality of Russi. Mastrantoni (Greece), Netta Plotzki (Israel), Noah Benezra (USA), Óscar García- Produced by: Odin Teatret, Hamlet Sommer, the Municipality of Elsinore, Ravenna Martín (Luxembourg), Paul Attmere (Great Britain), Pierangelo Pompa (Italy), Festival, KIT - Copenhagen International Festival. With the support of: Danish Arts Rachael Lindsay (Great Britain), Sherry Bie (Canada), Sofia Ristevska Council - Centre for the Performing Arts, Kulturministeriets Provinspulje, Counties of (Macedonia), Steve Rice-Khan (Great Britain), Thadd McQuade (USA), Vanna Ringkjøbing and Frederiksborg, the Municipalities of Holstebro, Lemvig, Struer, Kårfors (Sweden), Wout van Tongeren (The Netherlands), Yuval Dishon 04 Thyborøn/Harboøre, Thyholm, Ulfborg/Vemb and Vinderup, The Japan Foundation. (Switzerland), Zofia Dworakowska (Poland). 05 UR-HAMLET MAIN CHARACTERS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE Pulcinella, master of ceremonies: Torgeir Wethal SCENE 1: Saxo Grammaticus: Julia Varley SAXO, THE MONK, DIGS INTO THE DARK AGES AND UNEARTHS THE STORY Orvendil, ruler of Jutland and Hamlet's father: Cristina Wistari Formaggia OF HAMLET, RULER OF JUTLAND. Fengi, Orvendil's brother and Hamlet's uncle: I Wayan Bawa Gerutha, Orvendil's wife and Hamlet's mother: Roberta Carreri SCENE 2: Hamlet: Augusto Omolú ORVENDIL, HAMLET'S FATHER, IS MURDERED BY HIS BROTHER FENGI. FENGI Hamlet's foster-sister: Mia Theil Have SEIZES POWER AND MARRIES GERUTHA, ORVENDIL'S WIDOW AND MOTHER Queen of the rats (the plague): Akira Matsui OF HAMLET. A counsellor: Cristina Wistari Formaggia Hamlet's foster-brother: Akira Matsui SCENE 3: HAMLET PRETENDS TO BE MAD IN ORDER TO CONCEAL HIS PLAN FOR VENGEANCE. SCENE 4: THE CASTLE IS INFILTRATED BY FOREIGNERS FROM DISTANT LANDS. SCENE 5: FENGI LETS HAMLET MEET A GIRL IN ORDER TO TEST HIS MADNESS. HE BELIEVES MADMEN ARE IMPOTENT. SCENE 6: THE QUEEN OF THE RATS (THE PLAGUE) ARRIVES AT THE CASTLE. SCENE 7: FENGI'S COUNSELLOR HIDES IN ORDER TO LISTEN TO THE CONVERSATION BETWEEN HAMLET AND HIS MOTHER. SCENE 8: HAMLET TAKES HIS REVENGE AND PROCLAIMS THE LAWS OF A NEW ORDER. I Wayan Bawa, Roberta Carreri and I Ketut Rida. 06 07 The Nine Rules of Hamlet’s New Order Men and women submit to fear, money and pleasure. Violence that frightens, money and the offer of pleasure are the three main tools of government. A ruler must be loved for his good government. He must therefore entrust the practice of misgovernment to a reliable minister. A reliable minister must know how to perform secretly his ruler’s infamous orders and be ready to suffer openly the rigour of his ruler’s justice if his misdeeds come to light. If you are weak don’t stoop to compromise. If you want to weaken the enemy, offer your hand and make a pact. Never respect a pact. Don’t allow your adversary time not to respect it. Be loyal, but only towards yourself. If you torture a man, don’t kill him. Free him and he will be your dog. If you torture a woman, kill her. Never be unfair. Be inscrutable. Perversity is inscrutable. Injustice is not. Betrayal cannot be avoided. Betray, before being betrayed. I Wayan Bawa, Ni Wayan Nugini and I Wayan Martawan. 08 09 Eugenio Barba probably set by him upon his task, he proceeded by gathering and editing mythical matter, arriving at actual history. The 16 books of his Gesta Danorum thread a genealogy of kings in part legendary - among whom also Hamlet, ruler of Jutland. About Saxo, Hamlet The first translation of Saxo into Danish dates from 1575. Books III and IV record Hamlet’s life and death. We recognise most of and the Performance Shakespeare’s figures. Gertrude is Gerutha; Claudius is Fengi; Polonius is Fengi’s anonymous adviser, living only for his master, being his eyes and dying in his place. He has no family. There are neither Ophelia nor her brother Laertes, with their parallel and specular tragedy to that of Hamlet. There is no place, obviously, for Horatio, the young intellectual educated at the University of Wittenberg. There is, however, an anonymous couple of foster brother and sister, humble children of Hamlet, Don Juan, Doctor Faustus and Harlequin