MISERO PROSPERO Project MATRUSKA Russian Dolls

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 MISERO PROSPERO Project MATRUSKA Russian Dolls

INTRODUCTION

Matruska is a contemporary dance play with a theatrical dramaturgy that is based on a

hybridization process typical of the post-modern sensibility and it brings together the borders
between theatre, dance, clowning, pantomime, music and fine arts. The goal is to synthesize
those disciplines, trying to find a new language in the most pure and sober form possible.

In opposition to a linear structure, it is essential to create a dramaturgy made up of a series of

episodes or fragments (similar to an impressionist structure), giving the feeling of them being
infinite. These episodes are born from daily activities, both private and social, cause a barrage
of physical and emotional actions and give an image of a provocative eclecticism.

The play raises world issues and the needs of contemporary women considered from different
angles; emphasizing the richness and variety of points of view and the originality of new
approaches. We consider that women’s point of view is ideal for talking about matters which
affect us all: the everyday frustrations, the violence, the fear of knowing ourselves and going
further with our lives —many times based on the uncertainty and on an absurd routine which
just aspires to survival— and the emotional disorders which are the consequence of
contemporary world.

Russian Dolls is a metaphor of the countless intimate drawers that we could find in the
feminine sphere; a collection of different aspects and identities which coexist inside the same
person, represented by three female dancers that unify that reality.

Matruska shows a woman, immersed in her own struggle to find her identity, and for this
reason, she decides to rise in posthumous flight and soar up towards her future. This flight will
guide her through the boost that comes from a desperate need of reveal what is inside of her.
To understand her identity, she has to accept all its various aspects and adapt to their constant
changes in a sort of ritual which allows her a never-ending evolution.

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 MISERO PROSPERO Project MATRUSKA Russian Dolls

DRAMATURGY OF THE MOVEMENT

The submerged identity

A woman who lives an identity crisis, a vital conflict of communication within herself, feels a
weight on her which does not allow her to move in freedom. Finding strength in her weakness,
she decides get rid of that weight and starts to search inside herself to find out who she is.
Step by step, she will find some aspects of her personality, one inside the other; some of them
contradictory, some complementary in a journey that could take the rest of her life, making
her live ceaseless evolution.

The divided identity

To go deeper into that search and explore in detail all its sides, that woman divides (splits) into
three, multiplying herself and creating images from herself which can interact with each other.
To convey this, we rely on three female dancers. The three of them are, actually, the same
woman who starts that trip into herself; but in this way we can portray on the stage all her
inner conflicts, all her contradictions and all the aspects of her mood. This will provide us with
a variety of possibilities.

A weight that becomes a posthumous flight

Posthumous originally means “after buried”. Our woman is under an indeterminate but
annoying weight and is completely subject to it. That weight prevents her from making any
kind of movement, which for her, means she will not be able to express herself. She is locked.
She is buried. Thanks to a strong effort, she manages to rise from under the weight and take
flight - a flight which tries to take her out of that state, a posthumous flight, which may also be
the last one she makes.

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 MISERO PROSPERO Project MATRUSKA Russian Dolls

A ritual of Russian Dolls

After creating a bridge of communication with herself through a letter whose content we know
very little of. She starts to examine her identity, “opening” one of its aspects which she will
explore with the conventions of a ritual (that is, through a series of actions mainly developed
because of their symbolical value. However, she will on her own give concrete meaning to
those symbols).The most important characteristic of this ritual is that aspects of her identity
are found one inside the other, like the Russian Dolls - everyone of them contains another one.

The research through the movement

Once the flight has just started, the woman elaborates on the ritual based on the movement.
Now the explorations of several technical languages which in principle belong to different
disciplines of the stage arts appear. Contemporary Dance Techniques (some of them from
quite varied origins and not always giving the same results), Pantomime (a language which
codifies gesture poetically), Clowning (which gives free rein to the expression and the
production of a personal and visceral style of movement) and the world of Body Expression
which comes from the training for theatre actors and gives never ending possibilities of
meaning. We rule none of them out and to avoid empty or poor eclecticism or a simple
collage, we will look for a common language which can be used in the whole show, including
and reconciling all the others and giving coherence to them. Each of those languages or
techniques is a Russian Doll which contains another one inside it as well, and so on. The result
is a language made-to-measure and suitable for Matruska.

The daily (everyday) catastrophe

This is one of the elements which appear in the ritual - the failure and daily pain that come
from the simplest elements which surround us, the provocation caused by the things that
happened to our dancer and apparently do not have special importance.

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 MISERO PROSPERO Project MATRUSKA Russian Dolls

AESTHETIC ASPECTS OF THE DRAMATURGY

The poetry of detail

This refers to the importance of the little details, every one of them full of extremely
significant meaning .An incessant succession of tiny actions will help her to understand all that
happened in her search and give a true sense to the whole process.

The object as a destabilizing element

The treatment of the daily objects, which can be recognize easily by their frequent use,
suddenly become something else; and jump into a disturbing dimension, finding new meanings
and obtaining a new symbolical perspective within the limits of the dramaturgy.

Gradient (degrade) and chiaroscuro

Use of these concepts as painting techniques will enhance the subject and character of the
play, just like the aesthetics of the action. A succession of tones between two points highlights
the complete range of possibilities created to move from one to the other, and at the same
time provide the dramatic contrast between the illuminated and the cast shadow over
volumes (with the aim of stressing some elements more effectively by isolating them from the
whole and contrasting each).

The humour as a contrast

We are not going to cut the humour from our show. On the contrary, we will develop it and
give it an important function. It is present in all vital paths and, of course, it will be present in
our first dancer as well. Humour will lighten some serious moments and give them another
dimension; relieve the tension of other moments or just become the objective of some scenes
which will cater for the game and the pleasure.

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 MISERO PROSPERO Project MATRUSKA Russian Dolls

SCENES or FRAGMENTS

I.
Posthumus flight

II.
Letter to a dancer

III.
Dance of Forks

IV.
Personal Hygiene

V.
Submission

VI.
Suicide

VII.
Ceremony of Crying

VIII.
Penis envy

IX.
Little winter variety

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MISERO PROSPERO Project MATRUSKA Russian Dolls

Eleni Karaindrou (1946)

Gavin Bryars (1943)

Carla Bley (1938)

John Cage (1912-1992)

Kurt Weill (1900-1950)

MUSIC
Holger Czukay (1938)

Anouar Brahem (1957)

René Aubry (1956)

Edith Piaf (1915-1963)

Toshi Ichiyanagi (1933)

Mickey Hart (1943)

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 MISERO PROSPERO Project MATRUSKA Russian Dolls

CREATIVE TEAM

Performers DANIELA H.FAITH

FÜLÖP ÁGNES
TÓTH KAROLINA

Translator IMREI ANDREA

Costume Designer BOGA ESZTER

Light Design VAJDA MÁTÉ
Music consultant GERGELY ATTILA

Production Assistant BORONYÁK VIVIEN

Assistant Choreographer ERIKA MÉNDEZ

Choreorgaphy DANIELA H. FAITH

Stage Directing CARLOS RODERO

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MISERO PROSPERO Project MATRUSKA Russian Dolls