photos by Paolo Piscolla
Presented for the first time in Bologna on 9th and 10th March 2019 in the framework of Atlas of Transitions Biennial 'HOME', Cantieri Meticci's new production 'The Niger of the Narcissus' comes once more to San Martino Theatre in November 2019. Another opportunity to get on the Narcissus' boat and immerse in a maze of visions, spaces, bodies, and relationships.
The Nigger of the 'Narcissus' by Joseph Conrad is the story of a ship distraught after the entry on board of West Indian black sailor James Wait. The contemporary rewriting by Cantieri Meticci gives life to a work halfway between performance and installation, in which the migrant, the African, the black foreigner - labeled as the original and eternal enemy - is seen both as a real and spectral figure. The spectators, free to move in a labyrinth-space, interact with the performers who in the middle of narratives and actions are able to connect the pages of history with the ghosts of the West.
One of the principal lines of research concerns the experimentation of a spacial/scenographic device, which at the same time, offers an interactive installation, repository of materials made by the audience. For this production, Cantieri Meticci has constructed a "labyrinth of stigmas" composed of ten 2,40m black cubes. Each cube symbolises a different stigma/ghost associated to people of African origins by the western culture, and is designed as a device which can contain materials belonging to a variety of languages.
Joseph Conard's novel can be read as a very precise map of fictional dynamics, activated by the West in front of the "other". In fact, in "The Nigger of Narcissus", the black protagonist James Wait isn't treated in the same way as other characters by the author. Instead of creating a portrait of a sailor affected by tuberculosis, Conrad rather transforms him into a sort of anthology of the negroide essence. The man vanishes, or better yet is subsumed by the Nigger's identity, which Conrad created by fusing the impressions other characters have on him. Based on this premise, Cantieri Meticci conducted a series of workshops during the 18 months period of dramaturgy writing, allowing to explore how various communities - those particularly exposed to the "spirit of time", could react, interpret, and rewrite Conrad's pages.
From 19 to 24th November 2019 at San Martino Theatre in Bologna
For information and bookings
info@cantierimeticci.it
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