Riscrivere il mito: Kassandra di Sergio Blanco (2008), un personaggio in-between – Gilda Tentorio – Stratagemmi 23

Descrizione

Rewriting the myth: Kassandra by Sergio Blanco (2008), a character “in-between” 

Sergio Blanco (1971, Montevideo, Uruguay) – a splendid career as theatre director and playwriter in his country and in Europe – unfortunately is still unknown in Italy. In April 2008 he is in Athens, and decides to go away from touristic routes, wandering and looking for another face of the city: he meets a melting-pot of ethnic groups and languages, but also the complex reality of drug, crime, prostitution. Starting from this contemporary and unusual Athens, Blanco creates the monologue Kassandra, an original rewriting of the mythical figure from the ancient Greek tragedy. The location of this “stand-up tragedy” is not a conventional stage theatre, but a modern pub: Kassandra, wearing red shiny boots, is waiting for sex-customers, and starts talking about the terrible events occurred in the past (the destruction of Troy, the love affair with Agamemnon, the wild murder by Clytemnestra). Myth and contemporary time follow one to another, in a strange but successful mix: Euripides and Bugs Bunny, ancient Troy and Tara (Gone to the wind), tragedy and humor. All the monologue is spoken in an elementary English, full of mistakes, but this solution provides an utmost and powerful expressiveness to every word. As a character floating in an “in-between” condition at many levels (i.e. myth-reality, ethnic, linguistic and also sexual identity), Kassandra feels foreigner in a foreign body (not man / not woman), selling herself for pocket change but nevertheless hoping for a better future.