"Mhdeia" (Medea) December 15, 2011

"Mhdeia" is Euripides' "Medea," adapted and directed by Dario D'Ambrosi. The production will rehearse in Rome beginning November 16 and play there December 1-4. The American Premiere will be presented by La MaMa December 15-18. Production features Celeste Moratti (Italy-New York) as the title character, Duane Allen (NYC) as Jason, Giovanni Calcagno (Italy) as Creon and Roberta Guerrera (Italy) as Aegeus. The chorus will be ten actors from "La Magia del teatro" (The Magic of Theater), a program of D'Ambrosi's Teatro Internazionale di Roma, where people with diverseabilities (including epilepsy, neurological disabilties and down syndrome) not only act in plays, but also write them and design them. They are: Beatrice Agostini, Stefamo Nicolo' Amati, Bruco Bonnani, Simone Cianfa, Fabio De Persio, Andrea Di Niscia, Andrea Federico, Paolo Giliberti, Giuseppe Pacioni and Claudio Salvatore.



This adaptation focuses on the relationship between language and the human body: the body itself becomes language and a means of communication thanks to, among other things, a live musical score. The original Attic Greek becomes a key textural element. The principals speak in English and the chorus performs in Attic Greek (the product of an intense collaboration with language historians and philologists in Rome).



D'Ambrosi writes in his director's notes, "You are about to witness something that looks like a 'regular' show, with actors moving, acting, speaking and trying to achieve a structured movement pattern while wrapped in costumes designed to fit their bodies. But the truth, what you are about to see is anything but a 'normal' show. Some of these actors, before this experience, weren’t able to talk; some of them were deathly afraid to walk up a flight of stairs; some have been harming themselves for years. Seeing their progress is what gave us the strength and the enthusiasm to push forward. When their parents thanked us because they could finally sleep at night, after many years, thanks to this theater training and to the newfound serenity it brought their kids, we knew that our apparently impossible work had finally paid off.



"Going to theater conventions all over the world, we’d heard that artists such as Peter Brook, Bob Wilson and Pina Bausch brought new languages to the stage in the seventies and eighties and that nothing new can be really achieved after them in terms of theatrical expression. I don’t agree. Working with actors with mental disabilities brings us to a new form of theatrical language. Only they have the key to it, only they can unlock and dictate new guidelines for the future of the theater. That is because their presence on the stage is intentionally 'anti-theatrical.' We could expect anything to happen: they could leave the set at any moment or end the show before its conclusion.



"This new way of being on a stage, which for me is the healthiest possible, mirrors the sheer terror every human being feels at any time anywhere in the world. I don’t know if any of my actors will actually leave the scene without warning, but then nobody will ever know. What you’re about to see is absolutely truthful and unique. Each night will be an absolute surprise both for my 'patient-actors' and for the audience. It is a unique experience that will bring you close to true theatre, the Theatre of Emotion."



Music is by Papaceccio-Francesco Santalucia. Transliteration, revision and consultation on the Ancient Greek text is by Silvia Buffo. English translation is by Celeste Moratti. Choreography is by Marta Deioanna. Assistant Director is Alessandro Corazzi. Lighting design is by Danilo Facco. Costume design is by Giuseppe Avallone. Assistant Costume Designer is Cristina De Rold. Second Assistant to Costume Designer is Marta Severini.

Official Website: http://www.lamama.org