Perséfone

The Comediants have always chosen the universal themes for their shows: the fest, the Sun, the fire, the night, he water, the dreams, the time, the sea, the play of life and death. As you can see the theme of death has been time and again brought out into our shows. But now we have decided to make Death the central character. This was the result of our meditations about fluidity and irreversibility of time. Death certainly deserves to be placed in the focus of the production. And we can talk about Death in our characteristic scenic language and our manner of perceiving the art.As our specific character we chose Persefone who was abducted from the Olympus by God of Death Hades. This happened back in the time when she was beautiful Kora. Hades forced her to marry him and made her the Queen of the Underworld.

With Persefone’s help we shall see the procession of characters, actions and situations that will demonstrate various customs, creeds, myths and legends related to death. With a certain touch of irony we shall watch our civilization being on the one hand obsessed with the hope to make life longer, and on the other engages in overkill practices and want to know nothing about death for this subject is a taboo/

Persefone is one of the most vivid illustrations of our company’s much loved genre. In painting this genre would be reflected in the works of Hieronymus Bosch and in theatre it would be a variety show – a colorful medley of episodes performed in various styles and creating a multifaceted image of “another reality” called Death.
This subject is complicated and delicate and therefore we suggest poetry as the language for the discourse with our audiences. The poetics in our performance incorporates irony and poignant humor, music and even elements of surrealism.
However the styles and techniques employed in the performance are not limited to the joyful and entertaining manner of a variety show. This is further enhanced and supplemented by gibe, sarcasm and critical attitudes that typify the cabaret theatre. It is the performance of masks in the style of The Comediants, a spectacular musical blending together drama and dance. The characters extensively use masks, vocal, dance, dialogues, elements of Commedia dell’arte, the interplay of objects and transformations.
Structurally the performance is divided into scenes, each of them having its own distinctive scenic concept, musical score, specific acting techniques – and all these with the purpose of visualizing the irrationally created world, which is further enhanced and underscored by the transformable backdrop. This backdrop closes up and opens by turns enabling the actors to show up and vanish and transforming alternatively into a huge projection screen, a colorful curtain or the “black-box” where only Death can dwell in.