FINIS TERRAE
Directed by: Pavel Štourač Scenography: Helena Štouračová Cast: Kateřina Šobáňová, Lianca Pandolfini, Sarah Lerch, Martin Janda, Michal Puhač, Alessandro La Rocca Selection and vocal training of czech songs: Zuzana Vlčínská, Light-design: Jan Šuškleb, Rosario Ilardo, Production: ART Prometheus
Visual street theatre performance; languages: English, Italian, Czech, Latin; duration: 65 min.
FINIS TERRAE
The men are gone. They have gone to search for the Holy Grail, for peace, freedom and redemption. Just the women stayed at home. The image of a woman’s abandoned soul in the shadow of men’s grandiose journeys. Street physical theatre performance. Composition of live music, rhythm, historical texts, movement and visual poetry. Story of two journeys: male and female, external and internal.
Finis Terrae is the story of a great journey, presented in a grotesque frame. Improvised knights and horses set out for high ideals of unity and fraternity while the women are waiting sleepless… A visual outdoor performance based on historical texts, movement, live music and singing, masks and puppets.
A HISTORY LINE
In 1465, following King George’s will, a group of ambassadors set out for a journey through the lands of Europe. Their mission was to convince sovereigns to join an alliance that would put an end to armed conflicts and strengthen single European countries. An ideal of peace and brotherhood was written down in a treaty of peace, which can be considered as a prototype of today’s European Union. They travelled through Europe as far as the little village of Finisterre, the “End of the world” on the Atlantic shore. After two years on the road, their mission seemed to have come to an end. Many sovereigns did not believe that such an ideal could become reality. Nevertheless, their pilgrimage is witnessed by their travel journals. These journals and peace treaty called “Tractatus pacis generalis“ have been the inspiration for our project.
HISTORY OF THE STAGING
After debut in Nurnberg in April 2009, the performance started its tour through Europe and was played in Finisterre (Spain), Saint-Menoux (France), Gliwice, Kalisz (Poland), Nurnberg, Koln (Germany), Brussels (Belgium), Kosice (Slovakia) and several towns in the Czech Republic (Prague, Brno, Ceske Budějovice). At the beginning of 2010 the members of Continuo decided to go further into the theatrical research, in order to enlarge and enrich the performance with new perspectives, ideas, and material, and to present its new version to the audience in May 2010. Since then, the new Finis Terrae has been performed in several international festivals in Czech Republic (Hradec Kralove: Theatre of European Regions), Serbia (Novi Sad: Infant Festival), Poland (among others: Poznan, Malta Festival, Lublin: The Neighbours, Gdansk: FETA festival), and Italy (Venice, Rome: Improvvisi Urbani festival, and Caorle: La Luna nel Pozzo festival).
THE TRAVELLING THEME
Man wandering for “gnosis”, adventure and discovery is among basic archetypes of Western civilization. From old Odysseus, Jason and the Argonauts, Aeneas, through the Knights of the Round Table searching for the Holy Grail, to Marco Polo, Columbus etc. men travel, always attracted by taking the road, or the sea, to search for something new, to realize a dream. What were they searching for? A golden veil, a holy cup, a lost love, a new home… Then travelling transformed their desires, and what they really found was seldom what they had been looking for. All these male voyages are well known and have been recorded for the eternal glory of the heroes and for the memory of future generations. But what about women? Women are rather those who wait. They do not travel. Are they not interested? Or maybe they do travel, but in another way… inside their minds, in their dreams. What is the bitter taste of travelling for those who stay home? Such questions brought us to a second perspective: to look at human travelling also through the eyes of those who were left behind, with hope, suspense, love, fear, loneliness, envy, rage. The women take an invisible journey within themselves. And their travelling has hidden paths full of colours, even more vivid than those of reality.
FINIS TERRAE – PRESSBOOK
LIDOVÉ NOVINY: Finis Terrae attracts our interest by its own extraordinary atmosphere, which is created by the rhythmic and phonetic level of the performance. The words are transforming through rhythm and cadence into a virtuous tool of expression. Speeches flowing in Italian, French or in Latin language have a unique figurative quality and evoke mysterious litany or weird rogation that expresses something unimaginable. JANA MACHALICKÁ, Lidové noviny 18.7.2009, www.lidovky.cz
PRÁVO: The new street performance Finis Terrae of Continuo Theatre is extraordinary again. It has travelled with success all around Europe and has arrived as far as Cape Finisterre… Physical acting is followed by unique voice polyphonies inspired by Hispanic, French, Germanic, and Bohemian sources. This atmosphere catches you immediately and opens the door into the landscape of imagination… JIŘÍ P. KŘÍŽ – Právo 27.7.2009 www.pravo.cz
GAZETA WYBORCZA: One of the most interesting performances of this edition, „Finnis Terrae” of Continuo, was played in heavy rain. This play combines the style of comedy dell’arte with dance theatre (excellent choreography) and original live music. „Gazeta Wyborcza” 20. 07. 2010
DZIENIK BALTYCKI: Elwira Twardowska (director of the festival) says: At one o’clock by night there was finshed „Finnis Terrae” by Czech Theatre Continuo. There were about two hundred people. I have seen many performances, but this one charmed me by its beauty and great realization. „Dziennik Bałtycki” 19. 07. 2010
TROJMIASTO.PL: Great appreciation for the artists from Continuo, who presented „Finnis Terrae” – the performance that combines the tradition of comedy dell’arte with dramatic theatre, dance theatre, singing and performing. Trójmiasto.pl 19.07. 2010