ALCESTI (O DEL RUMORE DEI PENSIERI)

“But once again he saw her face, turned back toward him, in a smile bright as hope, as a promise: to return to him, grown, from dark death — to him, still living... Then he pressed his hands against his forehead, kneeling, so as to see nothing more but that smile.”
— Alcestis, Rainer Maria Rilke

Suite Alcesti is a reinterpretation of Alcestis by Euripides, a project that Zerogrammi has been developing since 2014.

The story of Euripides’ heroine unfolds across two distinct yet complementary chapters directed by the choreographer Stefano Mazzotta: two creations, one evolving from the other, which approach — through Euripides’ work — the themes of farewell in love, sacrifice and death, recurring motifs throughout the literature of all ages.

But is there still room for the idea of sacrifice within contemporary culture? Are we still capable of perceiving the heartbreaking poetry contained within farewell, now that we have become estranged from the feeling of distance? What is Love in the age of liquid society?

Alcesti attempts to give body and sound to these questions by turning to poetry — the language of beauty and pain, the language of salvation and hope, a universal language capable of transcending eras and cultural differences.

The first chapter of the work premiered in Germany in April 2014 in collaboration with the Theater Osnabrück and its dance ensemble.

In February 2015, the second and final chapter, ALCESTI (OR OF THE SOUND OF FAREWELL), premiered in collaboration with Luft Casa Creativa, Teatro Nuovo Torino and Agorà Coaching Project.