First Sample Issue

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2009

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The show must go on... But can it?

Entering the theatre you feel almost like you are intruding. Instead of being fooled by huge stage-tricks, fake backgrounds of mountains, a living room in the sixties or any other setting, this stages shows you back stage. ‘Opening Night’ is a new theatre play by Ivo van Hove, based on the film of the same name by John Cassavetes. The film made in 1977 is not the first film Ivo van Hove converted into a theatre play, the past years this has become part of his brand. Stories with complex characters, inner battles and without a lot of change in settings, become even more impressive during a live act. Examples of his conversions are ‘Scenes from a Marriage’ by Igmar Bergman and ‘Angels in America’ by Tony Kushner. Though ‘Opening Night’ is one of the more complex conversions so far because it actually contains live video images of the actors while they are playing.

(Hadewych Minis). Maybe Nancy can help her to understand the character she has to play. How was to be young and sexy? And how do you change over the years? But what started out as a good idea, turns 180 degrees when she becomes more and more dependent on Nancy. She drinking more and more to forget her problems, and when the premiere of her play approaches, there’s only one thing left to do. Completely drunk she stages a fiscal fights with Nancy and eventually ‘kills’ her imagined help. She ends up playing a magnificent premiere while giving the text and therefore the play a twist to her own liking.

The play in the play

Theatre families

The play tells the story of Myrtle (Elsie de Brauw), leading actress in the broadway-play ‘The second wife’. Myrtle has a lot of difficulty playing her role, because this character is a woman struggling with getting older. But she doesn’t completely collapses until a devoted young fan dies in front of her eyes in an accident. This makes her feel useless. What is she still doing on stage? Faking grief? Try-outs fail, and drama’s occur when she walks offstage in the middle of a scene, changes all her lines, and starts talking to her public directly about how ridiculous her co-actor looks with his fake mustache. When she’s offstage in the dressing room, or at home with a glass of wine, she starts talking to the ghost of her dead fan, Nancy

But even more than the underlying battles Myrtle fights with herself, her relationships with her director, ex-husband and leading male, and producer are complicated enough by themselves. The story of a theatre-family which completely collapses when their main star loses it. Ivo van Hove explains in an interview this is exactly what makes this play interesting. A sneak peak behind the scenes of an ordinary play. The director who always tries to make and keep everybody happy; The producer who just has to make money in the end; The play writer who feels nobody understood what she really wanted to say with her play; and hair/ make-up personnel and stage managers who feel they are the only ones really understanding what the actors

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by Rosa Plijnaar

need, but do not have the power make this happen.

The setting The stage setting and decors create the possibility to understand when you are seeing ‘Opening Night’ and when they are playing ‘The second wife’. One hundred audience members sit stage right as the audience of the play in the play. On top of this construction, the video screens placed all over the stage and theatre makes you feel you are watching a live documentary and making-of. Ivo van Hove decided on purpose not to see the actual film of Cassavetes, but to work from his screenplay to avoid comparison. It’s refreshing to see that theatre and video-images can work together, not just for aesthetics, but to support the goal, message and feeling of the play. If you know what a theatre-family works like, this play will give you a lot of laughs of recognition. Know what it takes when the show must go on...

The theatre play ‘Opening Night’ by the Toneelgroep Amsterdam (Theatre Company Amsterdam) and NTGent (National Theatre Gent). Concept: Ivo van Hove Leading roles: Elsie de Brauw, Jacob Derwig, Hadewych Minis and Fedja van Hûet. Seen: 26 August 2009, City Theatre Amsterdam, The Netherlands Tour until June 2010 Info: www.toneelgroepamsterdam.com

3 [Images (c) Jan Versweyveld]

Contemporary art is finally reaching the traditional lands of Sicily. In February 2009, with the opening of Palazzo Riso, the new regional contemporary art museum, we have witnessed the most significant event, from both the national and international point of view. But to be clear, we already had in the last few years some innovative galleries and private institutions that carried on a discussion about art from a contemporary perspective. The new initiative of Azienda Agricola Mandranova, a small agrotourism company near Agrigento, is one such example. They chose to dedicate some spaces of the farmhouse to contemporary art. The project started in June, through a partnership with a young and promising contemporary art gallery from Milano, AreaB. The Di Vincenzo family, that own and manage the company, approached this new challenge zestfully. The old hangar, that only a few months earlier was jam-packed with olive oil processing equipment, turned into an openspace gallery surprisingly suitable for contemporary art. Currently, a collective exhibition with a selection of young Italian artists from AreaB gallery (Vanni Cuoghi,

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Paolo De Biasi, Massimo Gurnari, Tiziano Soro and Siva) is being held in the space. The location is very suggestive, thanks to the contrasts that emerge between the surrounding countryside and the inner exhibition set up. Guests generally come from outside Italy, usually from USA or Britain, and are often surprised and astonished by this unexpected vision.

CONTEMP ISLA

Between July and August another interesting project took place, By: Giovann more linked to the promotion of young Sicilian artists. The first step involved a collaboration with Marco Bonafè , a young artist from Palermo. The artist spent a short period in residence, so as to develop some work linked with the territory. The exhibition ALTER-ECO is the final output of this experience. It is a collection of three different interventions, all site-specific. Using natural elements

and old furniture found around the ruins of the Di Vincenzo country, Marco gave new meanings, and new life, to something that was supposed to be dead. Il Giardino del Campiere, the great installation inside the old Frantoio, honors the dialectic between natural

PORARY AND

ni Saladino

and artificial, light and shadow, stillness and movement. All the elements are in a charming equilibrium, creating a special atmosphere inside the room that captures every one who enters.

Pennate, the installation placed inside the common spaces of the main building, aims to alter a familiar setting, destabilizing the vision of the viewers, giving shape to a sort of surreal corner. Last but not Least, Famiglia Di Vincenzo Don Tancredi, is the most moderate and apparently ironic intervention. The inclusion of a picture of an old codger (found by Marco in a local street market) among those of the Di Vincenzo ancestors could seem at a glance just a game of contrasts, but in reality it goes much deeper than that. Don Tancredi, a name borrowed from the Gattopardo, a novel written by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, is not an accidental reference. The agrotourism farm is situated in the Palma di Montechiaro neighborhood, where the majority of the novel takes place. Within the story, Don Tancredi is certainly the most innovative character, inclined to change but at the same time aware of his origins. In my opinion, this is exactly the right mood to have in order to keep on going with a grave and concrete discussion about contemporary art in Sicily.

www.palazzoriso.it www.mandranova.it www.areab.org

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