Castello di Petroro Drama Residence

Immersive Theatre Performance

 

From Homer

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"Tell us also of such happenings, o daughter of Zeus,

beginning from any moment in the narrative"

 

 

A tale made up of many tales, The Odyssey does not develop chronologically. Past and future are continuously intermingled in this epic tale. This concept underscores the direction of Odysseia, a show that the Accademia Nazionale delle Arti will put on stage in August 2018. This piece of immersive theatre will transform the entire castle of Petroro into a labyrinth of tales drawn from The Odyssey, which both audience and performers will explore directly.

In interactive, or immersive theatre, the public is directly involved in the performance alongside the actors, forging a bond between all those sharing the same space and the same particular moment in time. Each spectator is free to build his or her personal plot within the performance by choosing the sequence of episodes that compose it. In The Odyssey the places and tales that make up the story as a whole are all interrelated, parallel and simultaneous, as in the culminating meeting between Odysseus and Penelope, where the story ends but begins once more. 

Spectators will thus be able to choose whether to take part in the banquet held at the palace of Alcinous or enter Circe’s palace, whether to return to Ithaca to disperse the queen’s suitors or spy on Penelope in her apartments.

One evening is of course not enough to experience the entire Odyssey, but spectators will certainly be able to live some moments of it according to their own inclinations, without a predetermined or imposed order.

Director Federica Tatulli has agreed to take up this complex challenge, indeed to exploit it systematically by resorting on the one hand to a variety of expressive mediums (vocal digital technology, video, music, lighting) and on the other by developing acting, dance, combat techniques and song. Tatulli has chosen to deal with the issue of authenticity by relying largely on the most powerful tool that theatre can bring into play: the imagination of the spectator – involving the spectators’ personality and their spectrum of emotions.

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Scheduled to be performed in August at the Castello di Petroro.

The preparatory workshop  Immaginaria, will take place in June 2018 on a date that has yet to be finalised.

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