Tuesday 6 December 2011

Teatri Di Vita- A modern theatre experience

Teatri Di Vita is perhaps Bologna's most avant-garde theatre. Indeed, the interior says it all. The bar room is filled with vibrant red square sofas with low lighting and eccentrically dressed theatre-goers. The decor is a perfect reflection of this theatre's aims; Teatri di Vita prides itself in being dedicated to promoting original and innovative theatre productions, and promoting interest in contemporary dance.

It was this latter focus of Teatri Di Vita that attracted my attention. I was particularly fascinated to see a Samuel Beckett play performed using the medium of contemporary dance. Could a dance capture the tragicomic essence that is at the core of Beckett's work? Beckett creates an air of mundaneness by stripping language down to near nakedness. How would the medium of dance show off Beckett's skilful play on language? Essentially, I was sceptical but also intrigued by this performance. It was a must-see for someone who has studied Beckett's work with much intensity for her A-Level French course.

We took our seats in a small theatre room, facing a stage that hosted just a single doorless passageway and a grand piano. Maybe, just maybe, this would work. The setting was exactly how I imagine every production of a Beckett play to be staged- with an unsettling bareness. And it did work. "Happy Days" is a play about the human condition, about our loneliness that caused by the people around us, about the suffocating experiences of marriage, about the moments of elation that break up our mundane existence into bearable blocks of life.

Periods of the play are broken up by the ticking of an unseen clock and music that signals both excitement and dejection. Time is measured and passes by with a intense slowness that leaves both the audience and characters feeling a sense of emptiness in the lives of the characters. Should we laugh at their poor state and at their obvious happiness when the other half leaves them alone for just a moment? Or should we pity their state of entrapment and obvious hunger for freedom?

Directed and starring Michele Abbondanza and Antonella Bertoni, the production does Samuel Beckett's masterpiece true justice. The play is dissected and stripped even further to only a few lines projected onto the stage at various intervals that encapsulate the play's main motifs. You can find out more about the company's work on their website http://www.abbondanzabertoni.it/

Teatri Di Vita evidently appreciates the changing dynamics of theatre and new ways of representing traditional masterpieces. If you're looking for a new theatre experience then make some time to see one of this theatre's many productions, which can be found at http://www.teatridivita.it/11-12/.



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