Chronicle by Raoul Horn

When it comes to theatre-dance, ballet, contemporary dance performances, we always tend to over-interpret the visual on the stage. We think to what philosophy the gesture fifteen made by the dance-actor four at one scene or another belongs. What does the cadence mean? While we wonder and try to figure it out, the ambiguity is on the stage, indifferently carrying out its steps.


In An Elegy in Five Breaths, an inspired title chosen for the scenic content, we have a confrontation between the poetic momentum of the written word and the bodily plasticity. In the show, solo moments and group moments are linked together. The leitmotif gestures, the black veils over the interpreters' faces could create a picture of suffocation, a mourning claustrophobia of freedom, mental fragility and of the feeling of longing. The moments do not necessarily lead to a clear narrative, but rather to the idea of fragmentation.


It is not a difficult show, in fact it is quite predictable. The gesture and the dance do not seem to have been sufficiently researched at some moments, and the meanings – not sufficiently outlined. The clean execution of the movements could not compensate for the lack of authenticity. The poetry on which the dramatic foundation of the dances is built (poetry in general) is not forced to observe any rule, to belong to any current or genre, which gives total freedom in interpretation. And here lies the challenge – this absolute freedom makes us wander, the landmarks are removed, the choices can be multiple.


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“Theatre Chronicle @ Eurothalia” is a programme conceived by Daniela Șilindean together with the team of the German State Theatre Timișoara, within the Eurothalia 2023 European Theatre Festival, held between 20-30 September 2023, financed by the National Cultural Program Timișoara - European Capital of Culture in 2023.