Carnal Infinity
Dialogue between Anthony of Egypt and Hilarion of Gaza
Dance by Mòra Company
Interpreters: Sissj Bassani
Pier Paolo Zimmermann
Dialogue, choreography and sets: Claudia Castellucci
Sound and music composed: Stefano Bartolini
Dialogue recitation: Simon Vincenzi (eng) | Adele Masciello (ita)
Pier Paolo Zimmermann (eng/ita)
Dresses: Haimana, Moldova
Lights: Gianni Staropoli
Production: Teatro Metastasio, Prato and Societas, Cesena
picture: Pier Paolo Zimmermann
photographs: Luca Del Pia
Luca Ghedini, courtesy Xing
Anthony of Egypt (251- 356), who lives as a hermit in the desert of Thebaid, is joined by one of his disciples, the young Hilarion of Gaza (291 – 371), who asks him various questions that distress him, but his master’s answers, instead of orienting him, deeply dishearten him. The desert environment offers nothing that can be grasped firmly, since the only things found in complete solitude are the products of one’s own mind. But the mind is not a place that is exclusively one’s own, inhabited as it is with images of all sorts coming from the past or fantasies generated from outside.
The desert reveals an anticipated vision of the end of all things, and the dust that remains seems to be endless. There is nothing left to see and nothing moves: everything has already passed. All that remains is to hope that one can find something new only in oneself. The instinct to create something that is not there reveals a need to represent the world, and not just to use it.
Mòra Company (a name that designates the slightest pause, such as to distinguish two sounds) follows the ancient expressive form of pantomime, to be judged against an extreme poverty in temporal, panoramic and material variations.
In this sense, Carnal Infinity prolongs the work in Sahara, a dance that explicitly refers to the desert, and Murillo, Lessons in Charity, a living sculpture that testifies to acts linked to poverty.
