Curriculum Vitae Home | 1985 - present USA | 1967 - 1985 England | 1953 - 1967 Yugoslavia | Artship Yugoslavia : 1963 - 1965 Theater Vatronosa / Serbian Text < back to Theater Vatronosa |
VATRONOŠA
THE FIRE-BRINGER THEATRE Name. Fire-Bringer is the epithet of Prometheus, lover of mankind, who stole fire from gods and gave it to humans. Fire – a symbol of enlightenment and wisdom. Fire – one of the sources of the progress of mankind. In Ancient Greek the word for fire-bringer is πυρφορος and in Latin it is Lucifer. Lucifer - as a symbol of evil and fall, a symbol of curse - seemingly has nothing to do with Prometheus. But Prometheus the fire-bringer and Lucifer the fire-bringer is one and the same person. When we compare the ancient myth and the biblical legend we see: a demigod, Prometheus, dared defy the divine vanity, was made to expiate and was finally cast into Hades. An angel, Lucifer, wanted to emulate God in his greatness and was cast into hell in punishment for his vanity. The fire-bringer is a symbol of the greatest ascent, pride and generosity as well as a symbol of the fall and vanity. The Fire-Bringer Theatre addresses man who carries within both Prometheus and Lucifer. Shape. Architectural arrangement: The theatre would be made of three architectural parts, differently shaped, to create an architectural entity of both the outer and the inner space. The parts would be named after their function: I Introduction, II Expectation, III Act. I Part Introduction: No theatre has included this element so far. A performance always started on the stage. The same holds true of the atmosphere of a play. The theatre building was always the same and only the sets changed. The architectural element “Introduction”, in the shape of a long passageway, colours the theatre with a certain atmosphere right from the entrance, from ushers in costumes to purposefully arranged sets in the introductory passage. The introductory passage would look like more sophisticated houses of horror and houses of mirrors one sees at fairs. And when the attention is at its keenest, the passage would end and the second architectural shape of expectation begin. II Part Expectation: It is, in fact, an emptied theatre lobby, a neutral, agreeably shaded interior architecture. The emptiness and the apparent hole arouse further the curiosity of the spectator; he thinks about where he/she is heading and guesses at what he/she is going to see. The spectator thus, in a way, becomes another character in the play, it interests him/her; he/she is not alienated or at least is less alienated than in a conventional theatre. III Part: Act: It is only the house with the stage and the play where the purpose of the theatre is fulfilled. Forms of the theatrical expression of the Fire-Bringer Theatre The black theatre, as a young and as yet uncharted theatre territory, is an excellent form for the Fire-Bringer Theatre. It is the theatrical technique making possible irrational effects, humanisation of objects, dematerialisation of man. It is fertile soil for inventiveness and discovery of man’s innermost subconscious crannies; for the discovery of the truth about man where the cognitive significance of art is materialised. And, needless to say, this bizarre technique enables a purified crystal form in which art can indulge in the enjoyment of its own beauty. Categories. Aesthetical: The primary category of the Fire-Bringer Theatre is beauty, manifested in the purity of the symbols used, the clarity of mutual relations, sophisticated composition. As in any kind of purified art, it is imperative to gain the impression of inevitability, to have every move of an actor or object look vital and fateful. It seems to us that with the help of such art we touch the absolute. Theatre would serve no purpose however if one pursued only forms and style. Idea, that basic thread needs to be sensed in the beauty of form. It need not be a banal story as in the pantomime. It can even be but an emotional state expressed through the graphic-theatrical form of the black theatre. Mystical: The time we live in struggles to reveal and expose the secrets. Science undermines secrets proving that there is a cause for every thing and every phenomenon. Beauty however, needs a secret just as every man needs both beauty and secret. The art, even when it knows, does not want to know; even as it sees, it distorts. But, on the other hand, it loves, it is ready to receive and give, it is more humane and more emotive than any scientific truth. The scientific and technological progress of the humankind is great but irrelevant for the ultimate aesthetic. Even though ancient peoples saw the magic and mysticism in art and had a developed sense of the occult nature of the artistic expression, today we mostly watch art as something alienated from us and we are always outside it. It is thought that séance and religious performance are anachronistic and so they are if we are summoning the spirits. But man needs the séance in which we summon ourselves more than ever before. In its developed form the black theatre can give him that. Subjugation Characters: Three chairs A table A white chair enters the black stage. Music, a little slow, a little wan, interprets the chair’s character. Then another, identical white chair enters, but at a merrier and livelier pace. And then the third to waddling, almost limping music. Having entered, they deploy in disorder, each in a different part of the stage. They stand like that for a little while and then, suddenly, over the music, they hear something coming. They start to align themselves. To the sounds of a triumphal march a white table enters and reviews the cordon of aligned chairs. Then it stops in the centre of the stage and frightened chairs take their places around it. Their position shows that the table is dominant. This does not last long however. The chairs lean one towards the other and discuss something. Then one begins to climb the table and somehow manages to do it but the table throws it off. Then the other two set off and fail. They move away a little and mount one another and thus become higher than the table but being unstable in that position, they sway and wobble and finally fall around the table whilst one ends up on the table. The table is enraged; it throws the chair off, then brings them all around and starts trampling on them. They bend, flee, but the table brings them back and tramples on them again. Everything is quiet, the table holds sway again, and the chairs are around it. Not for long however because all three suddenly charge the table, beat it and under their violent assault it falls over and breaks into pieces. The chairs collect the pieces and carry it like a coffin off the stage. Then they come back, position themselves haphazardly as before, yet again form a cordon and then gather around the place where the table stood. Desolation and emptiness - the chairs feel purposeless without the table. They begin to fall apart, slide towards the ground and finally break down completely. A Life Character: A bed-sheet A baby is crying somewhere; there is a white horizontal line on the stage. The line begins to curve and one sees that it is a white bed-sheet, folded and well-ironed. It continues to unfold until it becomes the rectangle of a common bed-sheet. The two upper edges are remindful of arms and the two lower ones of legs; the bulge on top – a head. The humanised sheet begins to dance like a ballerina, then it scratches its head, the back of the neck, then the back. It scratches as if it were full of fleas. Suddenly, the sounds of a crowd, applause, the sheet gesticulates as a speaker, pounds its chest. That game stops and to the accompaniment of lively music the sheet flies through the air and forms various abstract figures: it twists in a spiral, then flies as a comet creating a parabola. The fluttering edges unexpectedly turn into geometrical figures. Out of the blue the sheet begins to ooze mucus. To a wedding march it crosses the stage like a bridal veil carrying a bunch of flowers in its hand and a wreath on its head. The bunch of flowers and the wreath disappear and the sheet pounces upon something and we see that it has become a table-cloth. Suddenly glasses, bottles and plates appear on it. Chewing and clinking are heard only to turn suddenly into the howl of the wind; the sheet rises but the next moment it drops on the stage like a sail. When it reaches the other end of the stage, it abruptly stops and becomes a projection screen showing a fragment of a film. The hero wins in a whirl of smoke and flags, after which he walks slowly along an old wall. There is a luscious girl at the end of the wall. He approaches her ever closer and it is clear that they will kiss. When they are only some 10 centimetres apart the film stops and the sheet hops to the ramp. A white pole snatches it, wraps itself with it and begins to fiercely mop the floor with it. The pole disappears, the sheet slowly heaves itself up and we see that its edges are torn. It drags itself sadly to the exit. To the funereal music a dead body wrapped in a sheet is lowered from the flies. Everything disappears in the darkness. END OF THE TEXT SLOBODAN DAN PAICH < back to Theater Vatronosa Curriculum Vitae Home | 1985 - 2008 USA | 1967 - 1985 England | 1953 - 1967 Yugoslavia | Artship © 2007 Slobodan Dan Paich
|