Tragedy is a privileged art because the audience is familiar with the plot even before the poet describes it; it only needs to be reminded of it. Today, how can one reconstruct this collective knowledge that dispensed a tragic poet from having to put the myth into prose, entitling him to elicit immediate visions from his audience? How should tragedy be performed today? And in which language? After his international acclaim with The Tempest, award-winning artist Alessandro Serra chose Grecanic. This language can still be heard today in a remote corner of what was once Magna Graecia. The tragedy of Oedipus is set in a town that has been stripped bare; it is barren and decaying, a town in which Sophocles leads spectators towards an inner light that will become manifest in Colonus, in the sacred wood where Oedipus will become literally absorbed by the gods.
freely inspired by Sophocles’ plays and tales about the myth
written and directed by Alessandro Serra
Sardegna Theatre
Teatro Bellini
Emilia Romagna Teatro ERT / Teatro Nazionale
Fondazione Teatro Due Parma
in collaboration with Compagnia Teatropersona
I Teatri di Reggio Emilia
The performance contains partial female nudity and stroboscopic effects
foto Alessandro Serra