“Ancient Eleusis echoes even today in an urgent way the fact of “matricide” that we commit against Mother Earth”, said Romeo Castellucci after the performance “MA”
An immersive, experiential show, full of symbolism and primordial secrets, is Romeo Castellucci’s new creation Mysterio 11 MA, which premiered on September 1, 2023 at the archaeological site of Elefsina, as part of the European Capital of Culture.
The sacred space where the Eleusinian Mysteries were celebrated and Demeter, goddess of nature, agriculture and rural life, was worshiped together with her daughter, Persephone, became once again the focus of the female presence. More than 30 women, including little girls, danced and acted without speaking, only with their bodies and some sounds, in a performance without electricity, to the noises and sounds of musical classical instruments, well hidden in the evocative landscape.
“All the women are dressed the same way because they identify, it’s the same person,” director Romeo Castellucci told reporters on Saturday night (9/2) who attended the performance with the short but catchy title “MA.” – like the first compound of the word mom, the root of the term “matrix”, the exclamation of objection but also the swearing particle that recommends invoking the aunts. Or like “the reason not yet expressed.”
In this all-female show, the main character is a man, Filippo Addamo, who 23 years ago killed his mother, having now served his sentence. “I am especially grateful to Filippo, to this man who agreed to be with us, with the caveat that I would in no way wish to refer to his biographical details. It is significant that Philip Adamos shared with us this experience which was held to illustrate the relationship with Mother Earth. He is a brother, one of you”, emphasized the famous Italian director, for whom Greece is like his home. “I have two homelands,” he said, “Italy in which I have my roots, in which I was born by chance, and Greece, in which I was born of my own free will. Greece and in particular the city of Elefsina is for me a destiny, a horizon”, said Romeo Castellucci, creator of a theater that is based on all the arts and aims at the overall perception of the work on the part of the spectators. Of course, he also referred to the Eleusinian Mysteries, which he discovered when he was still very young, a fact that “catalyzed and profoundly influenced his practice” and his thinking regarding theatrical action, as he pointed out.
The performance, full of symbolism, constantly makes hints which the spectators, who participate walking, without speaking, like the mystics of a modern rite, are invited to discover. Like the meaning behind the real mother’s milk that has been collected, through nursing mothers, from breastfeeding women, present in the action, following and ‘watching’ all the actions, the dances, everything that happens in the performance. “This milk that is inside the glass container is the ‘line’ that connects to the mother. It is the umbilical cord, which also plays the role of the witness, the line that exists behind every image”, emphasized the famous director, who also spoke about the closing of the performance, when Adamo, as “a modern Orestes”, approaches the sanctuary, caressing the ancient stones, the soil (the strongest point of the performance, according to the director), crossing the part of the archaeological site that leads to the Plutonian Cave, which, according to the tradition of the Eleusinian Mysteries, symbolizes the entrance to Hades. But also the uterus, according to Kastelucci.
“We know that here in Eleusis there was, in the beginning, a kind of experimental democracy. Everyone, women, slaves were allowed to enter the sanctuary, the shelter. There was only one inviolable law that forbade entry to ‘barbarians’, to those who did not speak the Greek language, and to people who had stained their hands with blood, especially matricide. F. Adamos, in this particular case, entering the shelter, the temple, essentially desecrates the sanctuary, but restores the sanctity of the space itself”, pointed out the director, who also spoke about the modern era. “Ancient Eleusis echoes even today in an urgent way the fact of “matricide” that we commit against Mother Earth. This is a reading “key”, a way to read what is happening. Of course, it also recommends a metaphor. But the sanctuary of Elefsina, the refuge of the archaeological site, must return and acquire the character it once had. It is the reason why we are all Adamo’s brothers, it is the reason why we are all here,” said Romeo Castellucci, answering questions from journalists.
The fact that at the end of the show, a Renaissance painting, the masterpiece of the Italian painter, Simone Martini, “Annunciation”, was presented as a backdrop. In the tableau, as in the original work, the Virgin receives the joyful annunciation from the archangel Gabriel, who holds a tender olive branch – in contrast to the dry branch that Adam will hold in the final scene, kneeling like the archangel, perhaps as “a way of reconciliation and forgiveness”, without the meanings stopping there. “The female energy that spreads in the archaeological site, through the choreographies, refers to female knowledge. It is an attempt to slow down, to stop if possible, the arrival of the barbarian which will definitely happen”, noted the director at another point, who expressed his deepest gratitude to all those who contributed to the realization of this show.
“Eleusis, means arrival at the notable, person, object or event. “Well, through the definition, we welcome you” said Michael Marmarinos, General Artistic Director of Elefsina 2023 – European Capital of Culture, emphasizing among other things that “today 2/3 of the program is completed. We have before us the remaining 1/3 until the end of the year, the challenges of the last stretch. But this turning point is extremely crucial because we happen to have shared the experience of a “cornerstone” of the program, which is the performance “MA” by Romeo Castellucci. A show that in my opinion reveals one of the infinite secret aspects of this place and this landscape. I would say it’s an indigenous experience of her hidden part,” he added.
“The choreographies were made in an abstract spirit, knowing from the outset that I would have to adapt them to a specific and large area,” said the choreographer Gloria Dorliguzzo who made the choreographies having only known the archaeological site through photographs, something that, as she emphasized , helped her to work without restrictions, of course taking into account the relief of the ground. “For me it is a real achievement, that I managed to make a body with all the dancers – professional and not – who with such skill managed to join this project”, he emphasized.
“Everything I had read in Italy, at school, became flesh and blood. The archaeological site of Elefsina captivated me. I liked the idea that we wouldn’t be using electricity – although it was a second ‘crash’ for me, as I’m into electronic music. My approach immediately turned to classical instruments, but not for the purpose of composing music, but to produce sound. My intention was for the sounds, the noises produced to be identified semiotically with the shadow, the movement. Arriving on the spot, we found that the archaeological site itself was reacting, absorbing the sounds and noises, as if it wanted to reproduce them itself”, noted Demetrio Castellucci, who composed the music.
Source :Skai
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