Lawrence Goldhuber: cold up there?
Jan Fabre's Prometheus-Landscape II is one inflammatory son of a bitch.
Here, spectacle is more important than content; the idea flashed out from the Grecian tale of Promotheus who stole fire from the gods and gave it to the people (and was punished by Zeus for his naughty behavior) is fleshed out visually (and at times, rather literally).
When it comes to staging, its hard to imagine seeing anything as innovative as this; its a mix of pyromania, bondage, Dionysian free for all, and occassionally, utterly disturbing kind of stuff.
Fire is the key element in this show, but I would say that the underlying theme of bondage (be it of the hero or those bound to their eternal suffering) is more substantial.
The narrative won't help you along much, but there is so much to see and to take your breath away, that the chilling, haunting landscape, a kind of Hades, will burn enough of an impression into your soul. Heroes, psychiatrists or gods aside.
Here, spectacle is more important than content; the idea flashed out from the Grecian tale of Promotheus who stole fire from the gods and gave it to the people (and was punished by Zeus for his naughty behavior) is fleshed out visually (and at times, rather literally).
When it comes to staging, its hard to imagine seeing anything as innovative as this; its a mix of pyromania, bondage, Dionysian free for all, and occassionally, utterly disturbing kind of stuff.
Fire is the key element in this show, but I would say that the underlying theme of bondage (be it of the hero or those bound to their eternal suffering) is more substantial.
The narrative won't help you along much, but there is so much to see and to take your breath away, that the chilling, haunting landscape, a kind of Hades, will burn enough of an impression into your soul. Heroes, psychiatrists or gods aside.
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