Picture Storytelling: a show for actress, sounds and paper cuts.
Artwork and Performance : Patricia O’Donovan
Text: Sections by Heinrich Von Kleist with dialogues adapted by Patricia O’Donovan
Box and lights: Mario Keizman
About the show: The show consists of 14 separate tableaux.Each tableaux is made of semi translucent paper onto which the cut out pictures arranged as in Comics, are glued on. The public sees me act the characters and narrate the story as I simultaneously illuminate the pictures with a lamp . The show belongs to the genre of of picture storytelling such as still exist today in many cultures, the Kamishibai of Japan, the Wayang Beber of Indonesia, the many forms in India as well as in the West. As well it makes reference to Comics and to Shadow Theater. A DVD of the show is in preparation. Below are stills of my papercuts.
Bernd Heinrich Wilhelm von Kleist (1777 –1811) was a German poet, novelist, dramatist and short story writer whom most puppeteers know from his work “On the Theater of the Marionettes”. The story opens with a young man about to hang himself in prison. The woman he loves, condemned to death for becoming pregnant out of wedlock, is about to be beheaded and the earthquake happens. Tearing down not only buildings but social conventions, the disaster opens up a chance for reconstruction and change. But that chance soon fades. Inflexible, deeply rooted laws and codes of behavior, Kleist tells us, grasp humans in moments of crisis more strongly than any earthquake could tear apart. Kleist leaves us little consolation in his unsparing vision of the human condition where the innocent pay for the crimes of the guilty, who go unpunished.
Characters
- Jerónimo Rugera - A Spaniard, the lover of Josefa
- Don Enrique Asterón- of a rich nobleman of Santiago. Josefa’s father
- Josefa Asterón – Jerónimo’s lover.
- Felipe - The son of Jerónimo and Josefa
- Don Fernando Ormez - An acquaintance of Josefa, husband of Doña Elvira
- Doña Elvira - Don Fernando's wife
- Juan - Doña Elvira and Don Fernando's son
- Don Pedro - Doña Elvira's Father
- Doña Isabel - A relation of Don Fernando
- Doña Constanza - Sister of Doña Elvira
- Maese Pedrillo - A cobbler
- Don Alonzo - An acquaintance of Don Fernando and Josefa, a naval officer
Notes The story takes place in Santiago, the capital of the Kingdom of Chilecapital . On the 13th of May, 1647 it was hit by a 8.5 Richter scale earthquake which devastated the city. At that time the Colonial Church operated a court responsible for judging all actions that allegedly threatened the Christian faith: the Holy Office of the Inquisition. In this story, a parable of injustice and inevitability, we understand why Kafka considered Kleist his honorary ancestor.
Festival: International Puppet Theater Festival of Jerusalem, August 2011
Technical requirements: A table and chair, total darkness, electric output.
For an adult audience of 30 people.
Set up and break down: 30 minutes
Duration: 50 minutes
On stage: one performer.
Languages: The show can be done in either Hebrew, Spanish or English. Hebrew translation of Kleist: מ א ז"ק. Press א.י.ל Schocken Publishing House Tel Aviv, 1982.
Contact: Patricia O'Donovan
email:patod3@gmail.com
Tel:++ 972-2-6246470
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