ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA

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antonY and CleoPatRaTiago Rodrigues, Teatro Nacional D. Maria II

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info Context

dates & starting time Tue 4 June 2019, 9 pmWed 5 June 2019, 9 pm

venue Frascati 1

running time 1 hour 20 minutesno interval

language English with Dutch surtitles

introduction by Marjolein Vogels8.15 pm

meet the artist with Sofia Dias, Vítor RorizWed 5 June – after the performance

CRedits

text Tiago Rodrigues

with quotes from William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra

direction Tiago Rodrigues

with Sofia Dias, Vítor Roriz

set Ângela Rocha

costumes Ângela Rocha, Magda Bizarro

light Nuno Meira

music excerpts from the soundtrack of the movie Cleopatra (1963), composed by Alex North

artistic collaboration Maria João Serrão, Thomas Walgrave

set construction Decor Galamba

english translation Joana Frazão

executive production Rita Forjaz

executive production on the original creation Magda Bizarro, Rita Mendes

production Teatro Nacional D. Maria II after an origi-nal creation by Mundo Perfeito

coproduction Centro Cultural de Belém, Centro Cultural Vila Flôr, Temps d’Images

artistic residencesTeatro do Campo Alegre, Teatro Nacional de São João, alkantara

thanks to Ana Mónica, Ângelo Rocha, Carlos Mendonça, Luísa Taveira, Manuela Santos, Rui Carvalho Homem, Salvador Santos, Toninho Neto, Bomba Suicida

support Museu de Marinha

world premiere 4 December 2014Lisboa, Portugal

websiteTeatro Nacional D.Maria II

notes

‘But the fortune of the day was still undecided, and the battle equal, when on a sudden Cleopatra’s sixty ships were seen hoist-ing sail and making out to sea in full flight, right through the ships that were engaged. For they were placed behind the great ships, which, in breaking through, they put into disorder. The enemy was astonished to see them sailing off with a fair wind towards Peloponnesus. Here it was that Antony showed to all the world that he was no longer actuated by the thoughts and motives of a commander or a man, or indeed by his own judgment at all, and what was once said as a jest, that the soul of a lover lives in some one else’s body, he proved to be a serious truth. For, as if he had been born part of her, and must move with her wheresoever she went, as soon as he saw her ship sailing away, he abandoned all that were fighting and spending their lives for him, and put himself aboard a galley of five ranks of oars, taking with him only Alexander of Syria and Scellias, to follow her that had so well begun his ruin and would hereafter accomplish it.’

– Plutarch, from Parallel Lives

by Daniël Bertina

Director and theatre maker Tiago Rodrigues’ production of Antony and Cleopatra is a contemporary version of an age-old love story about the Roman general Mark Antony and the Egyptian queen Cleopatra. In the year 41 (BC) a republican gen-eral is assigned to the eastern part of the Roman Empire and a young Egyptian queen is afraid her people will be subjected. The two meet and become lovers for a turbulent period of ten years. Mutual passion leads to their downfall, but combining love and politics they discover a politics of love.  Rodrigues has written a modern deconstruction of this historical story, partly inspired by William Shakespeare’s tragedy of the

the woRld thRoughthe eYes of the otheR

same name (1623). Rodrigues focuses mainly on the many dichot-omies in Shakespeare’s text: east and west, reason and passion, male and female, stern Rome and exotic Alexandria, love and war, comedy and tragedy. Another source is Plutarch’s Parallel Lives, from the second century AD – a series of historical bio-graphies Shakespeare took as the basis for his play. Rodrigues also incorporated elements of the Hollywood productionCleopatra (1963) directed by Joseph Mankiewicz.  Despite these extensive citations, Rodrigues’ Antony and Cleopatra is an original work, constructed from the memories of the various different interpretations of the two historical figures. Even though it is a romance based on real events, through the centuries the details of this love story have evolved, faded, ampli-fied and changed. The core is all that remains. Rodrigues reduces the story to an interplay between two dancer-actors: the duo of choreographers (and couple in real life) Sofia Dias and Vítor Roriz. As themselves, they embody, in the here-and-now, the Antony and Cleopatra of there-and-then. In the process, Rodrigues conscious-ly creates a distance between the actors and characters. At the same time, a striking mirror effect is at play: Antony describes the world through Cleopatra’s eyes, and vice versa. This reversal is a central theme of the performance. As the play proceeds, Dias and Roriz come closer to their characters. Their choreography, which includes playful, mathematical and poetic elements, is placed within a dynamic set, designed by Ângela Rocha, with lighting by Nuno Meira, creating a universe of instability and perpetual motion.  Antony and Cleopatra premiered in 2014 and has been staged in various European theatres and at the Festival d’Avignon. The production marks Rodrigues’ debut at the Holland Festival. In this production the audience is invited to experience the world ‘vice versa’, through the souls of Cleopatra and Antony.

As Rodrigues puts it himself: ‘This is going to sound a little pomp-ous, but I believe that in love like in politics one has to have the will, humility, and courage to destroy a part of oneself, to leave some ideas and dreams behind so as to have the space and the possibility to see the world through the eyes of the other.’

Tiago Rodrigues (1977) has been the artistic director of the Teatro Nacional D. Maria II (TNDM II), the Portuguese national thea-tre in Lisbon, since 2015. He is known as a versatile theatre maker and has been active as an actor, dramaturge, director, producer and playwright. In 2018 he was awarded with the Europe Award for New Theatrical Realities. Rodrigues appeared in the film Mal Nascida (2007), directed by João Canijo, and was the creative director of the cult television series Zapping (2016). At the age of 21, Rodrigues left his studies at the Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema and joined the Belgian collective tg STAN. There he co-created various productions, taking them on tour through 15 countries. The non-hierarchical working method of this collective, emphasizing creative exchange and freedom of choice, was a great influence on his vision as a theatremaker and artistic director. In 2016, Rodrigues was city artist of Lisbon. In that capacity, he met Faustin Linyekula, whom

he invited to produce a work in the city. Just like Linyekula, Rodrigues calls himself a storyteller.

In 2003 Rodrigues founded the compa-ny Mundo Perfeito together with Magda Bizarro, producing no less than 30 produc-tions over a period of 11 years. His subver-sive, poetic stage productions earned him a reputation as a pioneer. Rodrigues has contributed to various European festivals and outside of Europe his work has been staged in Lebanon, Singapore and the United States. He teached dramaturgy at P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels, the drama school of Stockholm and in various programmes in Portugal. He also works with interna-tional kindred spirits such as Tony Chakar, Rabih Mroué, Tim Etchells and the group Nature Theater of Oklahoma. He has been lauded for his minimalist style of ‘living theatre’ and original approach to dram-aturgy. With TDNM II, Rodrigues recently won the Globo de Ouro prize for the production Sopro (2018). In 2014 Rodrigues presented his performance By Heart at the Théâtre de la Bastille, shown later at the Frascati theatre in Amsterdam in 2016. That same year saw the debut of the production currently on show during the Holland Festival, Antony and Cleopatra, in Lisbon. The Teatro Nacional D. Maria II is located on the famous Rossio square in the heart of Lisbon. This national theatre official-ly opened on 13 April 1846, to mark the occasion of the 27th birthday of Queen Maria II (1819-1853). However, the theatre’s

about the aRtists

roots go back to a decade earlier. After the 1836 revolution the politician Manuel da Silva Passos requested, by royal decree, that writer and politician Almeida Garrett created a plan for a national theatre that could, ‘as a school of good taste, contrib-ute to the civilization and moral elevation of the Portuguese nation’. In the decade between its legal foundation and inaugu-ration the national theatre was housed in the dilapidated Teatro da Rua dos Condes. Eventually, the current Teatro Nacional D. Maria II was constructed on the ruins of the Estaus Palace, the former seat of the Inquisition. For many years, the TNDM II was managed by various theatre compa-nies, including Companhia Rosas e Brasão (1881-1898) – responsible for the first stage

productions of Shakespeare in Portuguese – and Companhia Rey Colaço-Robles Monteiro (1929-1964), Portugal’s longest- standing theatre company. In 2004, the TNDM II came under the management of the Ministries of Finance and Culture. Apart from its own productions, the TNDM II is since Rodrigues’ directorship a partner in various international platforms including PERFORMART (the association of perform-ing arts in Portugal), the European network Advancing Performing Arts Project and European Theatre Convention (ETC). Tiago Rodrigues has been the artistic director of the TNDM II since 2015.

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textDaniël BertinaVincent Kouters

text editorKaren Welling

translationSarah Welling design thonik

lay-out Mark Drillich, Erna Theys

photography© Magda Bizarroportrait Tiago Rodrigues © Filipe Fereira

© Holland Festival, 2019

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