There is a passing time before death, a flash during which all of life passes you by. And in this dilated time, Eurydice, on the verge of crossing the threshold of the afterlife, relives her story through fragments of memory. Hers is a story never told before. Little has been said about her over the centuries: she was an arboreal nymph, she was the wife of the musician Orpheus, and she died prematurely bitten by a viper while fleeing from the beekeeper Aristeus, who wanted to possess her. Her death causes the descent to the underworld of Orpheus to whom the myth is dedicated. Nymph victim of male violence, then. This is the starting point of the original reconstruction that tells of a young, handsome and vivacious woman, a nymph from the Neapolitan province, the daughter of an Oak tree, whose ardor is extinguished by a engulfing love affair with Aristeus.
That of Eurydice is a visionary monologue, in Neapolitan and Italian, according to Campania’s bilingualism; a virtuous play of changes of voice and characters, of dances and songs of desperate love. A reflection on the condition of women-nymphs whose essence as evergreen and free spirits is repressed in defense of the established order, family and patriarchy. To this repression the women-nymphs respond by transforming themselves into plants – rooted and immobile, with a silent vital energy deadened and constricted by woody limbs – or by rebelling, triggering the violent reaction of those who demand their succumbing.
direction and text Luisa Guarro
with Chiara Orefice
choreography and chants Chiara Orefice
light design Paco Summonte
scene, costumes and musical choice Luisa Guarro
duration 50′
Luisa Guarro, graduated in Philosophy, at University Federico II of Naples, is an author and director. Her works won numerous awards. In 2021 PINOCCHIO. Pereplyt more, produced by Ryazan Drama Theater, received 3 Nominations for the Golden Mask, Russian National Award, in the categories: Best Production; Best Director; Best Leading Actor. In 2022 DER SANDMANN, produced by Wolfgang Borchert Theater, wins at the Monica Bleibtreu Awards, German National Awards, as Best Production in the Drama category. In 2022 Una storia per Euridice wins the award Regista con la A. In 2020 PINOCCHIO. Pereplyt more wins at the Regional Theater Festival THE MIRROR STAGE in the categories of Best Cast, Best Leading Actor, Best Supporting Actor. In 2018 the play PANE, storia d’amore in tempo di guerra wins at the International Theater Festival Rendezvous on Theatralnaya Square in the categories: Best Leading Actor and Best Light Design. In 2018 THE PROMETHEUS GIFT, produced by Ryazan Drama Theater, is selected to represent Italy at the International Forum of Ancient Cities in Ryazan. In 2017 Il RE RIDE wins at the International Theater Festival Rendez-vous on Theatralnaya Square in the categories: Best Actor Cast and Best Light Design.
Chiara Orefice, dancer and performer, born in Ischia (Naples), in 1984. Her research focuses on the performative act as a device of interaction between sound, body, and space. She dedicates herself to the study of the principles of instantaneous composition with particular attention to the relationship between the body, the memory, and the imagination. Her main masters and main references are, among others, Raffaella Giordano, Claudia Dias, Maria Mugnoz, Julie Stanzak , Masaki Ivana, Silvia Rampelli, Cloude Coudly, Daniele Ninarello, Frey Faust. She deepens the study of the body through the practice of Shiatsu and has obtained a postgraduate degree in Philosophy of Communication with a thesis entitled The body and dance in Nietzsche. She is the author of several choreographic projects. Among her last works: Paesaggio perplesso with the composer Jean Philippe Gross, What you/you what with the dancer Giulia Ferrato and the musicians Domenico Napolitano, Attila Faravelli and Francesco Gregoretti, Back Pink Poem and Notes for a fire in collaboration with sound designer Renato Grieco.
Paco Summonte, light designer and technician, winner of several awards for best lighting design. Technical director of the Antonio Niccolini Academy of Fine Arts Theater in Naples, since 2017; of the Nuovo Teatro Sanità in Naples from 2013 to 2017; of the company I Teatrini since 2006. He collaborates as light designer and technician for Eugenio Bennato, Luisa Guarro, Giovanna Facciolo, the company Teatri di legno, the company Teatro nel Baule, the company Teatri di carta. In 2017 he works as light designer for the production La paranza dei bambini by Saviano and Gelardi, at Festival di Spoleto.