« There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance… and there is pansies, that’s for thoughts. » William Shakespeare

Ophelia is born from a desire that has accompanied me for years: to give body and voice, in another way, to a character too often overlooked. Ophelia passes through Hamlet like a shadow: objectified, silenced, abandoned in her madness. In this performance, she returns as a living presence – vulnerable and obstinate – in a language that is no longer that of words, but of dance, song, and dream. Carried by a proposal from curator Laura Lamonea and by the encounter with dancer Giulia Quacqueri, this vision was finally able to unfold.

The project was made possible through a collaboration with the association VIDAS, which supports people at the end of life, and through a work of inspiration around the dreamlike and unsettling universe of Francesca Woodman. This creation explores a threshold: that which separates and connects life and death. On stage, there is no story to follow, but a presence to listen to. Ophelia does not seek to explain or denounce: it is an invitation to inhabit the boundary of the visible, to let oneself be traversed by what remains at the margins. And to imagine, perhaps, another way of being in the world.

OPHELIA
Texts by William Shakespeare
Translation by Paolo Bertinetti
A performance by Luca Giacomoni
Organized by Laura Lamonea
With Giulia Quacqueri
Dramaturgy by Piera Mungiguerra
Music from the album “Spira” by Daniela Pes
Puppet creation by Ivan Terpigorev and Aimée Mattio

Production by Video Sound Art for VIDAS
Co-produced with Ersilia Danza and
Hagia Sophia Centre for Philosophical and Theatrical Research
With the support of Sardegna Teatro and Atelier Si Bologna
Duration: 20 min
Photos © Luca Del Pia