Thursday 1 June 2017

Spitfire Dramaturgy: The Narrator @ Edfringe 2017


THE NARRATOR 

ZOO SOUTSIDE VENUE

Aug 14, 15, 18, 19, 23, 25, 26, 27

a one-woman story of secrets, unspeakable truths and being a woman.


What was the inspiration for this performance?
The Narrator, starring the excellent French dancer and singer Cecile Da Costa, is a continuation of a dramaturgic line about strong women who are not afraid to tell their intimate stories and exhibit their body as a battleground and as a place for reconciliation. The main inspiration is a true story of the dancer Cecile da Costa, who has decided to fight unbearable demons in her own life. 

There are no words in her narrative, yet the audience is witnessing a story of an archetypal dimension. Fragile and exotic Cecile da Costa tells about her three unborn children by singing, moving and dancing.

Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas?
Definitely, in performance the spectator is front of
a live performer, that is a unique characteristic that allows for the communication to happen in a special way. Performance is in this way part of the public sphere and bring questions and topics for the audience to reflect and reconsider.

How did you become interested in making performance?
It is an attempt to achieve my own limits and then overcome them. In English there is one beautiful word : trespassing. The Czech language does not have it, it has to be translated by a copy. And just trespassing fascinates me. In America, I saw many signs "Don’t Trespass".

And I am obsessed to step into the forbidden territory of my own existence. That's why I'm doing theater. I dare to say, that's why I'm doing transgressions in theatre. I desire in a dialogue with other/s to humiliate forbidden territory.

Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?
The performance is devised under my direction between the performer ( dancer/singer) Cécile Da Costa, the musician Jan Šikl and me, the director.




Does the show fit with your usual productions?

The main tools of the Spitfire Company is to create an original body language, emphasis on the performer´s state of being that generates very present emotions, dealing with a human´s limitation and his/her existential situation. In this performance these aspects are very clearly seen and experienced.




What do you hope that the audience will experience?

So far the audience were always touched by the performance as Cécile is an amazing performer. Thanks to her genuine expression astonishing by its intensity and the archetypal nature of the story, the audiences have a feeling that they themselves lived Cecile's story. Identifying with the story allows the reconciliation that Cécile is addressing in her narration.







What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?



It is an admirable experience to see Cécile da Costa dancing and singing. And it is uplifting that we as spectators can be part of her confession about her three unborn children. It is a confession full of beauty, pain, hope, reconciliation. After the performance, many people remain in the auditorium for a long time. Identification with the story of Cecile is so strong that they do not want to leave the space where the story was narrated. In particular, women in this story recognize their lives and feel part of it. In such a communication the true theatre begins.

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