Since July 2011, and simultaneously to the creation of El Romanço de Llorenç, F. Torrent and P.H. Tan started working with David Eudave, creating material for a possible performance. Leonardo Mancini came into the group in November 2011. From January 2012 on, we can already speak of a new piece: Fills del drap – Retaule d’una caiguda.
A circle, a ventriloquist, a dance of the shadows of conscience, a blind man, transformed traditional songs, a hanging cord, the movement of time, the apparition of word… Children of rag – Tableau of a fall unfolds a series of scenes about the epic story of the fallen man, and his acid desire to return. A story which, like a kind of dreamlike ritornello, maybe we already know, even if we have never heard of it.
Children of rag – Tableau of a fall, is a theatrical narration conceived by a team situated in Barcelona. Four actors from Mexico, Italy, Singapore and Catalonia. Children of rag – Tableau of a fall is presented under the umbrella of La Vella Fam, a platform where productions, research, exchanges and diffusion in the performing arts terrain take place.
creation
David Eudave, Leonardo Mancini, Pei Hwee Tan, Francesc Torrent
direction
Pei Hwee Tan, Francesc Torrent
texts from
É. Cioran, V. Novarina, H. Melville, P. Celan, M. Capdevila, M.L. King, J. Kerouac, B. de Ventadorm, F. Dostoievski, C. de Lautréamont, Qohelet. La caça de l’home (Man’s hunt), the last book of the catalan poet Albert Balasch, provides the axis around which textual sources are organized.
with the collaboration of
Laboratorio Permanente di Ricerca sull’Arte dell’Attore di Domenico Castaldo
CRA’P – creation practices and artistic research
Teatre Almeria / Gataro
Rettoria della Chiesa di San Giovanni Decollato
with the support from
Synopsis
This theatrical story recounts a grotesque trip and displays a particular panoply of man : a circle, a ventriloquist, a dance of the shadows of conscience, a blind man, transformed traditional songs, a hanging cord, the movement of time, the apparition of word… All in all, the old story about the Fall of man. Children of rag – Tableau of a fall, following a kaleidoscopic perspective and through a dynamic montage of precise actions, narrate the steps of that epic of the man who has lost innocence.
The story is narrated by some characters that could be prototypical, without subjectivity or psychological journey, giving shape to a work that can be read as a sequence of portraits. Some of these images appear hieratic, others with a simple monstruosity. Adding this to the themes that are evoked… could we say that we are faced to a piece containing medieval resonances?
The scenes, as they are being enacted, give rise to questions: Who am “I”? Is this panoply, which we are living in, real? What are all these labors worth for? What happens after death? Even though un-responded, the piece intends to give some kind of poetic suggestions to these questions.
Between May and July, the piece visited different European sites:
1/ Le Mans –28, 29 May– presentations of the piece at La Fonderie, site of Théâtre du Radeau. It was shown to the resident group at that time.
2/ Palermo –14, 15 June– presentations of the piece at the church of San Giovanni Decollato.
3/ Torino –14, 15 June– presentations at the site of Laboratorio Permanente di Ricerca sull’Arte dell’Attore di Domenico Castaldo.
4/ Mollet del Vallès –4, 5 July– presentations at CRA’P – pràctiques de creació i recerca artística
5/ Barcelona –9, 10 July– presentations at Teatre Almeria in the frame of Festival Barcino’12.
6/ Barcelona –22 i 26, 27, 28 July– presentations at Estudi Sargantana.
Between September and October, the piece visited different Mexican sites:
7/ Guanajuato –25, 26 September–, invited by Dirección General de Cultura de Guanajuato.
8/ Mazatlán –4, 5 October–, Festival Escena Mazatlán 2012, invited by Instituto Municipal de Cultura de Mazatlán.
9/ Tlaquepaque –12, 13 October–, Festival Tlaquepaque en Escena 2012 (2nd edition), invited by c.i.n.d.r.a.