SOMETHING IS ROTTEN… NOT ONLY IN THE STATE OF DENMARK. ODIN TEATRET AND THE CHRONIC LIFE
SOMETHING IS ROTTEN… NOT ONLY IN THE STATE OF DENMARK. ODIN TEATRET AND THE CHRONIC LIFE

Summary/Abstract: This paper provides an extended analysis of The Chronic Life, the latest big theatre performance with the ensemble of Odin Teatret, started in 2011. We take into account evident issues of the play, such as war or peace, time, vulnerability, instability, but also subtler ones, such as the blindness. The blindness is, at the first level, a metaphor of the human condition (the “chronic life”), and, at a second level, it is a way to engage a debate on the theatrical practice. In this performance, the blindness of the performers is used to emphasize the importance of both physical and inner visualising in acting. In the meta-discourse built by Eugenio Barba with The Chronic Life, blindness appears as a metaphor for the constant and unpredictable search in art. This paper focuses also on the great number of multicultural allusions in Barba’s performance: allusions to precedent shows by Odin Teatret, political problems, musical mixtures, historical references, etc.

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