After a series of performances in Ghent last year, the Swiss director Milo Rau's company returns to several Belgian cities with "Antigon in the Amazon", an immersion of the ancient character in the Brazilian jungle and its contemporary issues.
© Kurt Van der Elst
What would become of our founding myths when confronted with today's realities? What would they have to say about our times? This is the premise of Milo Rau's Trilogy of Ancient Myths. An epic that concludes with Antigone in the Brazilian state of Para, after having previously transported Orestes to the heart of the Islamic State and Jesus to the middle of a refugee camp in Italy.
In his version, the 21st century Antigone is Kay Sara, a Brazilian activist from the Landless People's Movement. A woman fighting to protect the Amazon rainforest from the destructive forces of agribusiness, supported and legitimized by the Brazilian state. Accompanied by a few Flemish actors from NTGent, Milo Rau is joining the Movimento dos Sem Terra (MST) in 2019 to adapt Sophocles' classic to the current battles being waged in the Amazon.
Clearly, the parallel is not the easiest. Especially for viewers like me who are not familiar with the story of Antigone. Will the initial hypothesis hold up? The fear of a forced concept nagged at me as the first few minutes dwelt on the genesis of the show, its development and its backstage. Fortunately, once these keys to understanding the show are in place, 'Antigon in the Amazon' gradually moves away from being a TED talk.
The play begins and follows step by step the structure of its ancient counterpart. The Greek classics have their origins in the melodies sung at harvest time. Sophocles' play has its roots in the peasant tradition, and its modern version marks this return to the land, to that part of the globe which best crystallizes both social and ecological tragedy.
In its Amazonian form, the ancient choir rediscovers its dramatic function, the collective voice that leads the militant action while announcing the tragedy. In April 1996, 19 activists from the Landless People's Movement were murdered by the police while blocking a motorway. Man's cruelty is the same in Thebes as it is in Para.
"Many things are monstrous, but nothing is more monstrous than man". The youngest victim, Oziel, becomes the symbol of this struggle. Frederico Araujo's deeply moving performance, a mixture of rage and sadness, immerses us in this fight for the land and the Earth. A fight for respect for minorities sacrificed on the altar of order and profit.
In the ancient version, the character of Antigone rebels against the established order to honour her dead. By way of metaphor, we understand that the play is intended to pay tribute to the victims of April 17th through a minute-by-minute reconstruction of the events. It is a necessary duty to remember for people whose cosmology sees the past as always there, always visible, in front of them. The Brazilian transplantation of Antigone, a figure in the struggle between the powerful and the humiliated, makes sense. Her opposition to the ruthless liberal law of private property - which prevents her from burying her brothers and crushes the traditions of her people - resonates.
© Kurt Van der Elst
There is a constant dialogue between the performance on stage, the live rhythms by musician Pablo Casella and the more articulate works projected onto the screen. It's clear that we're witnessing an original artistic production that has decided to break free of all codes. Kay Sara, a modern-day Antigone, projected onto the screen, gives the line to Oziel, who is present with us. The Brazilian activist gave up her third dimension on stage to continue the struggle in her country. "Antigon in the Amazon" connects with the struggles of Sem Terra without detracting from them.
Reflecting on the contemporary relevance of our founding myths. Milo Rau achieves this in Antigone in the Amazon. The comparison is complex, sometimes intellectualising. Yet the initial explanations do not hold back the moments of emotion that follow: Pablo Casella's music, Frederico Araujo's monologues, the doubts expressed by the Flemish actors about their legitimacy to interpret this story, the voice given to the witnesses of the tragedy.
As a major figure in documentary theatre, Milo Rau blurs the boundaries between art and reality. This approach is reminiscent of other Latin American artistic movements that bring together two seemingly contradictory terms: magic realism or narrative journalism, both of which play with the borders between fact and fiction, objectivity and subjectivity.
The director succeeds in offering a theatre that is committed without being moralising or boring, and without leaving the spectator powerless once the curtain falls. Milo Rau's strength lies in the fact that he truly considers the art of theatre as a driving force. A sounding board, thanks to concrete, long-term work in the field. The banners of the MST movement around the auditorium and the call to sign the May 13th petition in the programme give us an idea of his conviction that theatre can have an impact on the world.
After the first dates in Ghent last year, 'Antigon in the Amazon' will be performed in several towns in Flanders in the first half of 2024.
Brugge: 30 January 2024
De Warande - Turnhout: 7 February
Antwerpen - De Singel: 01/02 March 2024
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