“Ghosts from Shakespeare – Across the Wind”

“But it is necessary that he should have so much of greatness that in his error and fall we may be vividly conscious of the possibilities of human nature.” (A. C. Bradley).

William Shakespeare’s work the most influential playwright in the world, whose work has caused and continues to cause much discussion concerning actions and conflicts generated by the human nature. As it encourages the viewer to have his/her own ideas, the debate with Shakespeare stimulates. An opportunity to get in touch with the darkest aspects of human beings is to watch the show Espectros de Shakespeare – Do Outro Lado do Vento (Ghosts of Shakespeare – On the other side of the Wind), a new work by Cia. Corpos Nômades that debuts in the Anchieta Theatre on 12 May, 2010 and then goes on for a theatrical season at The PLACE, from May 28, 2010, at the company’s headquarters, directed by choreographer and dancer João Andreazzi.

The Bard of Avon is a great source of inspiration for this project, which has the support of the 6º Programa Municipal de Fomento à Dança (6th. Municipal Fostering Program to Dancing). Researcher and admirer of his work since 1993, João Andreazzi transfers a whole theater research process of the Cia. Corpos Nômades to the Shakespearean universe. This new show, a result of the project Espectros de Shakespeare (Ghosts of Shakespeare), is primarily focused on the tragedies Macbeth, Othello, King Lear and Hamlet, with their ghostly characters retrieved directly from these texts for the assembly of the show. Besides tragedies, some sonnets by Shakespeare add to the poetry in the “choreodramaturgraphy”.

The proposal of the show is based on the body work developed by Cia. Corpos Nômades in recent years, and special attention is given to improvisation work as a stage process, combined with the technical work and a strong contact with the ground and other bodies, with the addition of contact and improvisation to the creative process, as well as including theater, music and video art, as to enable the emergence of a dramaturgy derived from gestures, movements, objects, texts, sounds and images.

“Ophelia“, “Macbeth“, “Lady Macbeth“, “The Three Witches from Hamlet“, “Hamlet“, the “Specter of Hamlet’s recently deceased father” and many other characters are dissected and fused to the “choreodramaturgraphy” seeking more than the tragic suffering presented in a literal form, a tragic substance capable of uniting scenes that turns them into references of human existence, as it was done by other artists, filmmakers, writers and composers on Shakespeare’s work. Other influences on the research for this show were movies by Laurence Olivier (Hamlet and King Lear), Orson Welles’ (Macbeth), Akira Kurosawa’s (Throne of Blood and Ran), Peter Greenway (A Walk Through Prospero’s Library) and some books such as Salman Rushdie’s East West, Hamlet-Machine and Other Texts for the Stage by Heiner Müller, Guy Boquet’s Théâtre et société: Shakespeare, the Shakespearean Tragedy by Andrew Cecil Bradley and several operas that included the theme.