THEATRUM MUNDI

     Volterra 1981

     Blois-Malakoff 1985

     Holstebro 1986

     Salento 1987

     Bologna 1990

     Brecon-Cardiff 1992

     Londrina 1994

     Umeå 1995

     Copenhagen 1996

     Montemor-O-Novo 1998

     Bielefeld 2000

ISTA PRODUCTIONS

    Shakuntala

    The Jungle Book

    Orô de Otelo

THE ISLAND OF LABYRINTHS
by Eugenio Barba
Copenhagen 1996

Stage design: Jan de Neergaard
Lighting: Peter Glatz
Musical arrangement: Frans Winther, Jan Ferslev, Kai Bredholt, Raghunath Panigrahi
Production: Mads Madsen
Technicians. Werner Atzen, Per Dines Petersen, Lars Oppegaard, Jens Sylvestersen
Assistant directors: Leo Sykes and Julia Varley
Dramaturgy and direction: Eugenio Barba

The island’s inhabitants
Shiva: Sanjukta Panigrahi
Dionysus: Augusto Omolú
Rangda (Balinese witch): I Made Djimat
Barong (Balinese lion): I Nyoman Jony,I Wayan Bawa
Caliban: Isabel Ubeda
Shishi (Japanese lion): Mark Oshima
Garuda (Vishnu’s vulture): Ni Ketut Maringsih
Mr. Peanut (a giant whose head is a skull): Julia Varley
Peasant woman: Ni Wayan Sekarini

Characters played by the actors, mountebanks and clowns on the island
Ophelia: Kanichi Hanayagi
Mad Ophelias: Sanjukta Panigrahi, I Made Djimat, Augusto Omolú, Julia Varley
Ophelia’s ghost: Sae Nanaogi
Don Giovanni: Torgeir Wethal
Kleist’s bear: Kai Bredholt
Mignon: Tina Nielsen
Petrushka: Iben N. Rasmussen
Queen: Roberta Carreri
Old king: Cristina Wistari
Young king:I Nyoman Jony
Japanese clown: Shogo Fujima
Balinese clown: I Made Djimat
Italian clown: Roberta Carreri

The island’s music
Compositions by Kai Bredholt, Bob Dylan, Jan Ferslev, Ivan Hansen, Raghunath Panigrahi and Frans Winther as well as drum rhythms, classical themes and folk tunes from Bali, Brazil, Europe, India and Japan.

The island’s singers and musicians
India: Raghunath Panigrahi (singer, harmonium), Hemant Kumar Das (sitar), Gangadar Pradhan (drum), Annada Pasanna Pattnaik (flute).

Japan: Yasuhiro Miyata (singer), Yoshikazu Fujisaka (shamisen).

Bali: I Made Djimat (drum), I Wayan Bawa (gamelan), I Wayan Naka (gamelan), I Nyoman Budi Artha (gamelan), I Nyoman Jony (gamelan),Ni Made Sarniani (gamelan), Ni Wayan Sekarini (gamelan).

Brazil: Ory Sacramento (drum), Jorge "Funk" Paim (drum), Jairo da Purificaçao (drum).

Odin Teatret: Kai Bredholt (accordeon), Emil Ferslev (drums, bass), Jan Ferslev (guitar), Nikolaj de Fine Licht (flutes), Frans Winther (violin, accordeon).

Choir: Theatrum Mundi

Echoes from the Island of Labyrinths

Hamlet’s advice to the actors
You are called upon to act,
Not to enjoy the fruit of your action.
Do not depend on the fruits of your action.
Do that which you must do, without worrying
About success or failure
And do not ask, do not ask.
That is what we call
Discipline.

The river
There’s beauty in that silver singing river
There’s beauty in that rainbow in the sky
But none of these and nothing else can touch the beauty
That I remember in my true love’s eyes.
I can’t see my reflection in the water
I can’t speak no sound to show my pain
I can’t hear the echo of my footsteps
Nor remember the sound of my own name.
And if only my own true love was with me
And I could hear her heart so softly pounding
If only she was lying by me
I would lie in my bed once again

Funeral chant for a king
Cattle die, kinsmen die,
One day you die yourself.
I know one thing that never dies:
The dead man’s reputation.
The pine tree withers in an open place,
Neither bark nor needles save it.
How shall a man hated by everyone
Live for very long?
Greedily searching over the sea,
The eagle watches the waves;
He is like a man surrounded by many
But who has few friends. 

Ophelia’s monologue
Great is the wood, full of trees in blossom
With seducing shadows.
The creepers wave with the weight of the bees.
From the trees cradled by the wind,
Reaching the sky,
Always a rain of petals falls.
The forest shines,
It mirrors in the river.
The branches intertwine
In the desire of making love.

Don Giovanni to Ophelia:
Sleep, sleep on, forget thy pain.
My hand is on thy brow
My spirit on thy brain
My pity on thy heart, poor friend;
And from my fingers flow
The powers of life, and like a sign
Seal thee from thine hour of woe,
And brood on thee, but may not blend
With thine.
Sleep, sleep, sleep on - I love thee not.

Don Giovanni’s monologue
The noise is stilled. I stand on the stage,
My shoulder pressed against the doorframe.
I try to grasp through distant sounds and echoes
What will happen in my life and be my fate.
The gloom of night is sinking upon me
Through the sights of a thousand opera-glasses.
If only you are able, Abba Father,
Let this heavy chalice pass me by.
I love the stubborness of your purpose
And I consent to play my part.
But this is someone else’s drama,
So if you can, let me be.
Yet the pattern of the plot is cast
And the end already known.
I stand alone in a world of Pharisees.
To live your life is not as simple as to cross a field.

Shiva’s and Dionysus’ song
Lost on the journey of life, shall you learn at last
That you trod a path of dreams?
You watched the seasons pass:
Spring, summer, autumn, winter, a thousand trees,
A thousand flowers were strange and lovely in their pride.
So the time sped, and now
Fifty years of glory have passed you by
And because they were a dream
All, all has vanished and you wake
On the pillow where you laid your head.
Now shall the wayfarer,
Content to learn that Life is but a dream,
Turn homeward, where the peasant heaps
His grain.
You collect stones and build a palace
And claim it as your house.
But it is neither yours nor mine.
It is just a bird’s nest.

Texts from: Bhagavad Gita, Bob Dylan, Haavamaal, Kalidasa, Percy B. Shelley,  Boris Pasternak, Zeami, Santh Kabir.

A legend
The actors of the Commedia dell’Arte used to relate how, after their death, they would continue to perform. Their stage would be the Celestial Theatre; their audience, the gods.
In the Celestial Theatre, famous actors and humble mountebanks, regardless of rank, would all  become protagonists in comedies, tragedies and dances.
Some actors interpreted this legend as a dream of redemption, others as a threat.
A similar legend is to be found, during the same period, amongst Elizabethan actors but here, however, the Celestial Theatre was known as the Island of Labyrinths.