TEMPEST(S) PROJECT / 2008-2009
By Gilles Pastor
Tempest at 54° North / Thirteen Degrees South
A performance writing about sinking, dreams and sleep,
Based on The Tempest by William Shakespeare
A story of travels.
A syncretism between Kent desert and Bahia.
In Shakespeare’s play, the story begins with a tempest, and it turns out that this tempest, this phenomena that we believe is natural, is actually the result of a wicked scheme. A tempest orchestrated by a magician, Duke of Milan, also called Prospero. The island is in crisis. The sinking is inaugural.
Thirteen Degrees South / 2009
In 2007, I win the “Villa Medicis hors les murs” Prize. I go to Salvador da Bahia, in Brasil, where I work during three months on syncretism and trance in Candomble rituals. Candomble comes from a meeting between catholicism and afro-brasilian religions.
In The Tempest, Shakespeare uses Prospero’s magical art to talk about his own dramaturgic art. He reflects on his theatre, his writing.
In The Tempest, at Salvador, latitude 13° South, I question my own relationship with theatre.
Thirteen Degrees South is the story of a journey to the unknown.
A real journey : to Salvador, a city of 2,4 millions inhabitants, of which 2/3 live in favelas.
An imaginary journey : The Tempest, by William Shakespeare, written in 1611.
Salvador and Prospero’s Island are zones for the transported, the expatriated and the shipwrecked.
Salvador is propitious for trance and convulsions. Salvador reminds me my theatre : a convulsive, eclectic, trance-like narration, that I pass on to my actors to avoid any psychology. A narration made of holes, aftereffects and absences.
