RC CYPARISSUS
THE SENSE OF GUILT STARTS FROM THE FEET AND RISES TO THE HAIR, CRAWLING THE BODY WITH BRANCHES THAT TAKE THE BREATH AWAY. BEYOND THE HEAD THEY APPEAR TO CONVERGE TOWARDS THE SKY
Per Cyparissus_RC_09, in the last of the nine paragraphs of Radical Change we see Valentina Barbarini back on stage, one of the most defined acting souls of Radical Change, with Andrea Prete and Antonio Corsi. Cyparissus was a beautiful young man from the Island of Ceos, loved by Apollo, fond of a particularly tame deer. One day, during a hunting trip he hit the deer with his spear and killed it. Cyparissus distressed by his gesture, he asked the gods to mourn forever: it was thus transformed into a thousand-year-old tree, which Apollo decreed would henceforth be a comfort to the deceased. The mythical story of Cyparissus, narrated in a few verses in book X of Ovid's Metamorphoses, it is reread through a path that brings back, come through the performance of Pyramus x Thisbe, in the foreground the installations in the form of ovules: starting from the act of the transformation of the young man into a cypress, the story will be traveled backwards.
The central element of the performance, which has a strong olfactory implication is an Ax deodorant, through which Cyparissus gives death to the deer: here the suggestion of the brand returns, come already in Pyramus x Thisbe, one of the constant artistic chords in the plastic works of Maria Federica Maestri. The corporeality of the performers regains total value through a clearer absorption mechanism, determined and concrete, almost as if to provide a balance at the conclusion of the paragraphs that will be composed, in a continuous evolution of artistic creation, Radical Change, which will be presented in its national premiere on 18 May in Parma. “For the paragraph dedicated to Cyparissus – underlines Maria Federica Maestri – we will stage perhaps the least conceptual performance of the entire project: we move into a dimension in which the tragic is returned by the presence of bodies, the silhouette of the performers acquires an absolute value". In scena, as well as Valentina Barbarini in the role of Apollo, Antonio Corsi who gave life to the second performance, musically translated relating to the nymph Echo and the paragraph of Pyramus and Thisbe and Andrea Prete, who rigorously and carefully interpreted the role of Ceyx in the performance Alcyone with Chiara Bersani.
CYPARISSUS
from The Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidius Naso
creation || Maria Federica Masters | Francesco Pititto
translation | playwriting | imagoturgy || Francesco Pititto
installation | wrappers | plastic elements || Maria Federica Masters
musica || Andrew Azzali
sound direction || Maria Federica Masters
performer || Antonio Courses | Andrew Priest | Valentina Barbarini
Project care || Lisa Gilardino
light design ||Gianluca Bergamini | Andrea Morarelli
