ANTIGONE IN THE AMAZON is a superb work of contemporary multiform theatre, using innovative and established forms of layered narration to engage in a bloody grim event in modern Brazilian environmental/indigenous history – the killing of 22 unarmed civilians protesting at a road block protest on PA 150 Highway.
It is difficult to find a genre for the work’s style. It has elements of epic theatre of Brecht and Piscator – suspension of belief is constantly made by meta commentary on action of the four performers, Frederico Araujo, Pablo Casella, Sara De Bosschere and Arne De Tremerie.Scenes are short, constantly composed of linked art forms such as the precise interaction of video and live action, featuring a pace associated with film montage; we see the palpable construction of reality and at first are distanced from any illusion of reality. There is explicit argument.
Yet the result is far from a self conscious or dogmatic ironic subversion of truth and theatre tradition. The embodiment of a raw tragedy in sophisticated multilayered narrative focused on cutting edge video – in – theatre works to engage, move and see vividly – all the thing Brecht did not seek. There is argument but it is rhetorically and plausibly made, seeking truth positively. Truth about big theme, of national identity, environment, indigeneity and humanity – perhaps we need a new term, “metaphysics”, for theatre bold enough to take on big themes. The script (Milo Rauand ensemble) is finely wrought, perhaps with the allure of the Greek classical text by Sophocles – it is often poetically rendered, given the work an elevation in which to encase any graphic events.
The stage is unpromising at first – virtually an empty stage, black back curtains, a plastic table chairs, some props, a low stand for a solo musician, and performers looking seriously at audience and themselves. A solo guitar and even the first song are slow unfolding. Then three screens drop in unison for rear projection – the video is one large ratio image, but edited into three vertical files and projected in sync. I am not why three screens were necessary – they are not used separately. But the aesthetic is nice, as is the cinema look of projector lights beaming into the audience at the start of each one of a dozen or more videos.
The first shot feels 5 minutes long. A high panorama of a blocked highway in agricultural land that was until recently rainforest. The shot bans down to closeup and extreme close up on a group of MST (Movimento Set Terra) Protesters. This great cinematography (Moritz von Dungeon) and Fernando Nogari). When cuts are made (Joris Vertenten), to a row of police, to molesting and then killing of protestors, it all feels like one continuous cinema verite shot. The landscape and incidental bystander shots, like the opening stage sequence, makes for a disarming everyday ambience, making the sudden horror and manner of execution killings so much more chilling. Even though a second thought tells us drones or mobile cameras (seen in crowd) did not exist in 1996, and that this is actually a commemorative reenactment, suspension of belief works, and the effect is palpitatingly shocking. Meanwhile narration occurs from a stage performer, and music underscores with perfect pitch.
The screens go up, but the stage is no longer empty. The masterful direction has the audience totally engaged, and the multiform play of unexpected effects continues like this for another eighty busy, thoughtful and exciting minutes. As a long standing practitioner of multiform theatre, I loved it all. All the elements and all the relations between them work to a very precise and resonating tee. The video makes the theatre, and the theatre makes the video, it is almost as if the art forms were always made for each other, have been waiting for new assemblage.
One time a stage performer speaks with a commemorative performer on video; at another time the stage performers are present in the video mirroring themselves, while a tribal group on video admires and applaud both performances; at another Sara De Bosschere is dressed as a copy of police on video and, in the fourth layering of narration, symbolises Creon, the ferocious lead character in the classical story of Antigone; at another four fire stands on video are copied with four live fire stands on a stage lowly lit (Dennis Diels) with sombre dirt on the floor; another time grief for a tortured deceased next to a busy highway if felt in a rare moment of raw emotion, on video and on stage, as Frederico Araujo as Antigone explodes on the earth floor in traumatic hurt. The whole is underscored and underpinned by gentle but effective music created by Elia Reedier and Pablo Casella.
And so it goes. It seems every scene uses a different technique and combination of artistic elements. The result is both thoughtful and in a true sense of the word, entertaining.
Has a previous Sydney Festival begun with such a knockout? This show must be equal to any year before. Congratulations to the Sydney Festival for this selection, and to NTGent Companyand to activists from MST and members of indigenous and Brazilian communities. The director Milo Ray has displayed skills beyond the toolkit of traditional theatre director, melding disparate art forms in a complex yet effective, and coherent, whole.
The audience was enraptured. And what theatre work has conclude with screening of a long rolling credits – on the second screen, the first time the screens have been used separately. The volume and music style is just right as the performers take their bow. It works seamlessly, and like the rest of the show with cool style. European style matches Latin energy and tragedy.
One additional comment. The “welcome to country’ at the start of the show was long enough, but seemed to miss the opportunity of a global handshake and welcome to the international indigenous visitors (albeit, with the exception of Frederico Araujo, as present on video.) It might have been there – but more could have been done.
There’s still a lot to explain about the genre of this work. Reception indeed consciousness by an audience is affected by the mixed media. Two decades ago audiences would have pushed back about such a crowded and complex style. But mixed media Internet screens and advertising has prepared the ground. Cognitively and perceptually contemporary audiences can cope with much more pace and content tham traditional theatre allows. What does that mean? That we are bored or asleep in theatre, much of the time, and don’t even know it?
By way of caution there is always a danger that art work – painting, film, photography, even music, and now theatre – on the subject of war or conflict can on occasion exploit their subject matter, or in the case of theatrical docs the stage drama can be overwhelmed by reality, or involve their audience in an easy consumption of trauma on the other side of the world. This show seem to avoid these risks. Through the sustained contribution to commemorative events that were captured on video, it is obvious that the Brazilian communities were happy to have skilled theatre making disseminating their story and cause to a wider world. That was an aim of NTGent, and it seems to have been achieved. Well done.
ADDENDUM
I saw Antigone in the Amazon a second time – several days after first reviewing.
I took a friend who works with the Adivasi or untouchable indigenous communities in India – but equally was happy to see the show a second time. I’m not sure if it was energy levels over the weekend, or just the richness of the show, but there were were some aspects apparently missed, and many moments and images worth seeing a second time. This is a show of images – images understood in the deeper sense of a plane or domain of mixed language forms. Cinematographically we can refashion mise en scene, to include live aspects of a segment or shot. Either way we both are challenged to find a new language for multiform performance. There are so many touching and breath-taking moments in this show – layered, intercut, and revealed unexpectedly. The show is nuanced, like a good film. It is finally impossible to transcribe in words moments that are : declamation between two of Sophocles characters speaking out of eternity on an empty barely lit smokey stage: the song of a choir on video becomes a delicate refrain after the singer have gone; the images change, constantly merge and transition on into the other. Multiform at its best is like that. I did not realise on first viewing how much is made of the re-telling of Sophocles – characters are spelt out in the context of modern Brazil, and the whole work is structured in the five parts of Antigone. These references, along with elevated language afforded, give dignity and significance to a story of those who have often been called “savages”.
It is possible that the Sophocles story is too detailed, and could be balanced with more Brazilian content and history. However it is the Antigone story, along with the multiform style, that makes this show just so special and compelling.
Two corrections. The triple split screens are used separately on several occasions – in particular with the indigenous philosopher. Also the onscreen contributions of key indigenous creatives needs to be mentioned, including the special work of Kay Sara who played Antigone.
I spoke with three performers after the show. May we see more of this company. I cannot speak too highly of this quite original show, which had the audience captivated within the first 20 minutes of its start and gripped in appreciation at its end.
Production photography : Stephen Wilson Barker
