Hell in the Cave: Falling down to find the light.

Performance Research A Journal of the Performing Arts ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rprs20 Hell in the Cave: Falling down to find the light Sara Fontana To cite this article: Sara Fontana (2021) Hell�in�the�Cave: Falling down to find the light, Performance Research, 26:1-2, 58-68, DOI: 10.1080/13528165.2021.1958642 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13528165.2021.1958642 Published online: 15 Nov 2021. Submit your article to this journal View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rprs20 Hell in the Cave: Falling down to find the light SARA FONTANA And this is what we call life!—If damnation truly is eternal! Isn’t the man who tries to mutilate himself damned then? I think I am in hell, therefore I am. Arthur Rimbaud, A Season in Hell INTRODUCTION 1 In 2011 the show Hell in the Cave was produced by Giusy Frallonardo and Enrico Romita in the suggestive setting of the Castellana Caves in Bari (Italy), casting over 30 young artist, actors, dancers and performers from the province of Bari and Apulia. This year the show marks its tenth anniversary, in conjunction with seventh centenary of Dante's death. Please see https://bit.ly/2Uvxtbo and https://bit.ly/2Uocdo5 2 Dante's Hell is the most read and known canticle because it is written to be accessible and easy to recall with its parts and episodes and its carnevalesco style. It is meant to be engaging as folkloristic things are, but the message is clearly: come on guys, Inferno is our devilish part, let's move on to purgatory and paradise because we are born to be happy (Dante was a medieval Christian. He wrote the Divine Comedy to encourage people to be free of damnation). (See Luzzi: 2006). 58 Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) and his works still make a fundamental contribution to the Western cultural landscape, as is well testified by the large number of studies printed about his works every year from various points of view. Consequently, with the analysis of a case study, here I will point out how his masterpiece, the Divine Comedy, is a productive source in theatrical fields. In fact, the Italian show Hell in the Cave1 is a remarkable example within Italy as well as the international panorama, not only for its stylistic choices dealing with certain themes and characters from the Divine Comedy, but also for the staging solutions it offers by choosing the Castellana Caves in Bari as the setting. Taking for granted that Hell is an interesting subject in its own right, in my conclusion I will offer some reflections on the importance of once again bringing an adaptation of Dante’s Hell to the stage. Moreover, I will show how the active participation of the audience in the performance by creating multimedia content is an element that enriches its very structure. This holistic experience is certainly an important step towards the twenty-first-century new virtual stage. FROM THE BOOK TO THE CAVE: A GEOS P E L E O LO G I CA L S I T E T U R N E D I N TO A T H E AT R I CA L H E L L Dante’s Hell, with his nine circles of sinners, stones and chasms, bloody rivers, pungent and acrid air, the eternal fire along the walls of the city of Dite, and the glacial lake Cocito in which Lucifer is trapped, is the geography of European PERFORMANCE RESEARCH 26·1/2 : pp.58-87 http: //dx.doi.org/10.1080/13528165.2021.1958642 Hell (Braida and Calè 2007: 2–3). The Italian poet succeeded in conceiving a structure that encompasses what the previous mythological pagan culture could offer to the new Christian conception of the mortification of sins: for example, Minos, the legendary King of Crete, foster father of the Minotaur, is the judge of sinners in canto V; also Cerberus, the hound of Hades, in Hell is the guardian of gluttons (in the VI canto). Many monsters and hybrid creatures of ancient mythology are portrayed in Hell and they play active parts in controlling the damned souls or inflicting pain and suffering on them: Pluto; Flegias; Medusa with the infernal Furies (Erinni); the Centaurs; giants and the winged harpies. Using historical facts, events and topics from his time and written in easily comprehensible language, Dante’s Hell has always aroused the most pity and has generally been considered the most emotional part of his masterpiece, the Divine Comedy (Borges 1984: 6–25). As often happens, people are more interested in seeing the error and the difficulty in choosing good when evil is innate to them, rather than the glory and peace of the saints that is displayed and achieved through the canticles of Purgatory and Paradise. It is in this very aspect that the 700-year success of Dante’s first cantica lies, considering moreover that wars, injustices and evil behaviour are still so difficult to fight.2 But what does an Italian medieval poet have to do with contemporary theatre ‘On Hell’? Why has a worldwide masterpiece been brought to the stage in a geo-speleological site? In order to answer these and more questions about the show Hell in the Cave and before taking a virtual walk through it, some information about earlier contexts is needed. DANTE ALIGHIERI: HISTORICAL I N S I G H T S A N D H I S T H E AT R I CA L ISSN 1352-8165 print/1469-9990 online © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group RECEPTION IN THE TWENTIETH AND T W E N T Y- F I R S T C E N T U R I E S 3 Dante Alighieri is one of the most significant and famous Italian poets. His masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, is a unique and visionary work that gained immediate success all across Europe for two main reasons (Lummus 2011: 63–77): it addresses the reader directly, putting characters ‘on stage’ that are taken from the Christian and mythological traditions as well as personalities from Dante’s times and merging these two cultures in an encyclopaedic work; furthermore, it was the first time that a poem had been written in a common language, the vernacular Fiorentino, instead of Latin, which was customarily used for intellectual works, and it paved the way for Italian as a language (Caesar 1995: 89–108). Starting from Hell, the first of the three canticles, and moving forward to Purgatory to safely reach Paradise, the otherworldly trip made by the pilgrim-author in the Divine Comedy was easily comprehensible for the people of that time and was read at public readings in which mimes were also often involved (Armour 2007: 18–21). Since then, the fame of the poet and his works has spread all over the globe. The Divine Comedy has become one of the most translated Italian classics and has helped build the Western cultural landscape alongside authors such as Homer, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Goethe and others (Minervini 2016: 2). This creative potential was not limited to the sphere of poetry but spread through all the arts, soon reaching theatre. From music and visual arts to photography, dance and cinema, and finally reaching popular arts like comics and musicals, Dante and his works have been used over the centuries and at different latitudes to interpret and embody political issues as well as religious themes. For this reason, what were public readings with mimes in the thirteenth century became the basis of several types of performed readings (i.e. lecturae Dantis) that, from an academic and dramatic point of view, are still considered an important part of the tradition of performing Dante (Morini 2018: 219–31). Hell (Inferno, Aedes, in all its different forms and names) and the echoes of the Underworld on humankind became tremendously tangible with the outbreak of the two World Wars. During this time, the infernal description of Hell made by an Italian medieval poet more than seven centuries before became a point of reference for everything that pertained to the demonic and guilty nature of the human soul (Arqués 2009: 89). Many authors used Dante’s Hell as the main reference for their works, such as the poetry of T. S. Eliot and the writings of Primo Levi (Arqués 2009: 89). As to the lecturae Dantis, throughout the twentieth century special attention was given to performances played by a single actor, for whom interpreting Dante’s canticle became an actorial practice, a benchmark for revealing one’s skills (Pieri 2014: 69–70). During the sixties and seventies new performing models of staging Dante appeared; thanks to the theories and practices of New Theatre. In Italy actors and directors used new and more physical approaches to represent Dante’s Divine Comedy, for instance taking advantage of unexpected places, scenarios and meanings, and the Brechtian theory of Epic Theatre, not to mention the teachings of such great masters as Jerzy Grotowski, Eugenio Barba or Peter Brook. 3 See a brief chronology at the following link: https:// bit.ly/3hD34Qw. In this rich and creative moment, the performing arts distinguished themselves by presenting a double nature, figurative as well as narrative, and gave birth to many theatrical groups that took up the challenge of Dante and the Divine Comedy too. Some of their productions or performative projects were analysed in important essays, for instance the tripartite production of the Commedia directed by Federico Tiezzi, which was performed a few times after the three debuts in 1989, 1990 and 1991 but not since (Morando and Vazzoler 2014: 118–21). Now, after 30 years, thanks to the seventh centenary of Dante’s death, this trilogy of the Comedy is about to be retaken on stage by a new cast and with new scenographies. Similarly, The Premiere of Purgatorio will take place in July 2021 at Pompeii Theatrum Mundi (Pernice 2021). In contrast, other shows conceived or created at that time are still performed, or laid the foundations for brand-new contemporary performances. This is the case with the three-part production by F O N TA N A: H E L L I N T H E CAV E 59 Teatro delle Albe, that started in 2017 with Inferno, in 2019 released Purgatorio and, due to the covid pandemic, will stage Paradiso in 2022 as part of a worldwide tour; furthermore, Project DC by Peter Weiss, started in 1964 and was performed in 2003 (Cattermole Ordóñez 2014: 140–3). 4 To better understand the great amount of shows and new performances related to Dante, see the programme of this year dedicated to his centenary and the previous programmes in the archive: https://bit.ly/3jOdUG9 5 See also the interesting arguments made by Nassos Papalexandrou in his late article about ‘Caves as sites of sensory and cognitive enhancement’ (2021) and ‘The multi-symbolic profile of caves: Spiritual landscapes, disaster environments and cultural monuments’ by Amanda Laoupi. 6 To better understand this phenomenon, visit the official website of Kents Cavern near Torquay, Devon, in the UK: https:// bit.ly/3wnxmMv Due to the impact of social media on performing arts in the last two decades, a new kind of awareness of transmedia studies has been growing in academic fields as more space has been given to these kind of interdisciplinary approaches. It is hardly surprising that Dante’s Hell has had much greater luck than the other two cantiche of the Divine Comedy, having been adapted in every kind of art form and translated into hundreds of languages (Lazzarin and Jérôme 2018: 7–16). The successful programme of the Ravenna Festival project testifies to the spread of the phenomenon4, every year it includes an entire section dedicated to Dante, encouraging young artists to explore his works and organising readings of the Divine Comedy in various languages. Now as in medieval times, the vital, divine and devilish aspects of the world are well represented by Dante’s Hell, perhaps more than in any other literary masterpiece. The first cantica seems to be the most authentically human, because through the stories of individual sinners it reveals the darkest attitudes and the worst decisions of human souls. These exemplars get more extreme as the pilgrim-author continues on his journey through Hell, causing the reader to feel more and more pain and compassion. Hell’s ‘success’ compared to that of the other two canticles has been studied and discussed by critics across the centuries; each looking for new approaches to the Divine Comedy in order to understand the reasons for Dante’s enduring importance. Some of these approaches might be useful for considering the misconceptions that can arise by looking at the work through ‘contemporary glasses’ (Grimaldi 2017: 7). HELL IN THE CAVE—HOW DID IT LL BEGIN? From the earliest times humankind has regarded 60 P E R F O R M A N C E R E S E A R C H 26· 1/2 : O N H E L L caves and holes in the earth’s surface with awe and reverence as entrances to the Underworld. The darkness, strong smells, oppressive atmosphere and narrow spaces have evoked fear but also pleasure in human beings throughout history and at all latitudes, who, at least from an anthropological perspective, rediscover there something similar to their mother’s womb (Musco, Petrassi, Pracchia 2003: 346—50.5 Some of the earliest forms of art were created in caves (for example, in the famous Lascaux Caves in France) and nowadays caverns are not only fascinating geo-speleological sites but also performance as well as cinematographic spaces, like Kents Cavern near Torquay, Devon, in the UK.6 Among the stones, stalactites and stalagmites, the strange sounds and echoes produced by the hidden creatures that inhabit these underground places can cause disorientation, leaving room for fantastical creatures and monsters to become true. In Italy Dante’s poem is generally studied from middle high school and for this reason its scenario, especially that of Hell, is well known among the population from a very young age. Furthermore, to someone who has grown up in Italy, the idea of Hell is identical with Dante’s, and as a matter of fact Hell stands for Dante’s masterpiece (more than Purgatory and Paradise will ever do) because it shows the full extent of human weakness. Keeping this cultural background in mind, the two artists Giusy Frallonardo and Enrico Romita let the incredible setting of the Castellana Caves in Bari shape their imaginations and those of the audience, inviting them not simply to be spectators of the show, but also to be part of it, inviting them to enter Hell. In effect, during the show the cast constantly put emphasis on the truthfulness of the lived experience and on crossing the line between reality and fiction. For instance, the entrance to the caves, which during the day is a geo-speleological attraction, at dusk becomes the gates of Hell. In the following section I outline some examples that will describe how the show uses its scenic and scenographic features to create an immersive and participatory experience with/for the audience. In 2011 the show Hell in the Cave—Versi danzati nell’aere fosco (Eng. Verses danced in the bleak air) saw the light of day. The idea to set a show in the spectacular Castellana Caves near Bari, at the entrance to Val d’Itria in Puglia (southern Italy), was realized thanks to the synergy created between the playwright Giusy Frallonardo and the director Enrico Romita. These Apulian caves were discovered by Franco Anelli and Vito Matarrese in January 1938, who together were charged with investigating the site’s touristic potential. The formation of these karstic caves dates back to around 90 million years ago, when the region emerged from the sea, and many different phenomena have since shaped the region7 The particular geological setting gave Romita and Frallonardo the idea to create a show that, on the one hand, would promote their local area and workers there and, on the other, harness the devilish resonance of the caves. In fact, Romita recounts how he came up with the idea of creating the show inside the caves of Castellana as follows: 1961. There is a child crying and recoiling from the entrance to Hell. He refuses to enter that void populated with monsters and the dead, souls and demons. A kindly man reassures him, takes him outside into the sunlight, buys him ice cream and stays with him, while the others go happily down into the bowels of the earth. This is my first memory of the caves of Castellana. Later, over the years, I visited them many times, accompanying friends and acquaintances from all parts of the world, French, English, Japanese and so on. I remember with pleasure the ecstatic expression on the face of Mrs. Wang, who came from Beijing to Puglia to organize the Olympics, when confronted with the beauty of the underground environment. Because caves are beautiful. But, every time, they sent a resonance, a distant echo back to me of that frightening and dreamlike first impression. Hell in the Cave also comes from this emotional, visceral response.8 Enrico Romita, Grotte di Castellana website ENTERING HELL: FICTION TURNS INTO REALITY FOR ONE NIGHT ‘Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate’’ (Inf. III, v. 9) Allen Mandelbaum9 translates these verses as ‘ABANDON EVERY HOPE, WHO ENTER HERE!’ (1984). The fame of these words has transcended the Comedy, as the website Dante Today10 testifies with its constantly updated database of ‘citings and sightings of Dante in contemporary culture’ (https://bit.ly/3wnxZpl ). At dusk, having arrived at the Grotte di Castellana, you find yourself standing at the gates of Hell, thinking and feeling like Dante at the beginning of his journey through the afterlife. The more sceptical will remain detached for a little while longer; others will start to reflect on their sins as the gates open. In this very moment a sort of game begins between the cast and the audience: while they are waiting outside to enter the site, some technical information is given to the public, but apparently everyone’s attention is focused on remembering their high-school literature lessons about the Divine Comedy. It is like in a video game: the show is about to start and the people start choosing who is going to play Dante, Virgil or another character, while sharing rumours about the show and what they should expect. Once they are in the show, all speculation is over; having already been invited to do their part, they start using their phones to Instagram and record what happens in more or less detailed social media stories and posts. A N I N T E R E S T I N G WAY TO B U I L D A N A U D I E N C E’S PA RT I C I PAT I O N As the descent down the stone staircase begins, the air gets heavier and a red light runs along the walls of the tunnel, which become closer, more and more oppressive. Unclear noises, screams and the words of the first verses of Hell hover like crows and then rumble through the walls like thunder storms on a loop: ‘Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita | mi ritrovai per una selva oscura | ché la diritta via era smarrita’ (Inf. I, vv.1–3).11 Amidst the loss of spatial references, the guardian demons begin to move among the people. Notwithstanding that many of the audience are still sceptical, convinced of their total safety, someone screams on close contact with the demons. At that point all hope really is F O N TA N A: H E L L I N T H E CAV E 7 In order to see images of the beautiful geospeleological site in Apulia, visit the official website of Castellana Caves: https://bit.ly/3kKPk9G 8 Translations by Sara Fontana unless otherwise stated. 9 Allen Mandelbaum is author of one of the two English translations selected by the platform Digital Dante https://bit.ly/36jbB5P 10 Dante Today is a ‘curated, crowd-sourced repository that brings to light Dante’s sustained presence in contemporary culture’: https://bit.ly/3jTCjKm I refer to the text that was actually used and heard during the show, the Italian sounds that rebounded in the caves. I quote the cantos and the verses with the standard quotation system (i.e. Inf. as abbreviation of Inferno —Hell in Italian—and the cardinal number of the canto). Using this reference as compass, the reader can find the corresponding verses in English inside Digital Dante (see https://bit.ly/3ANaHN8). This source, made available by the Columbia University research team coordinated by Teodolinda Barolini, offers Dante’s Italian text in the Petrocchi’s edition, as well as two different English translations: one by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and the other by Allen Mandelbaum. In addition, the Baroliniano commentary on Dante’s text and other remarkable features are also made available, making this online edition a useful tool for experts and people interested in approaching and understanding Dante’s world and works. 11 61 lost, control and reason evaporate: from that moment the audience seems to be projected into something similar to Dante’s Inferno, the fastpaced combat video game created by American video game company Electronic Arts in 2010. Dante’s poem, previously a memory, a fascination, is being used in Hell in a Cave to make nightmares come true. q Figure 1. Showmap with English descriptions © Hell in the cave When the spectators arrive close to the natural pothole, i.e. the Grave, the first and the biggest They climb up and down the rocks with extreme agility; dance, move and wander around even where the audience crowds together once the judgements of both Minos (orange on the map) and the infernal ferryman, Charon (blue on the map), are given. All different scenes and episodes are determined as follows by the playwright Giusy Frallonardo: Some of the best-known [Dante] characters were chosen for the show, emphasizing the incredible contemporaneity they hold: there is love, betrayal, envy, thirst for money, lust, outrageous heroism; they reveal the ties that bind parents to children, students to teachers, ‘ministers’ (or protonotaries, as they were then called) to institutions. Qtd in production website http://www.hellinthecave. it/ As a consequence of choosing the well-known characters and having so many episodes, Hell in the Cave’s unusual stage is set on several levels. The public’s first katabasis down the tunnel confirms what Howard says about the dislocation of Hell and Paradise on stages: according to Howard there has long been an association with the ‘vertical height from above’ the stage used ‘to indicate divine space’ and, in contrast, ‘the depth below the stage floor as the demonic space’ (2009: 4). In order to understand this incredible geospeleological site as setting for the show ‘Hell in the Cave’, watch this video that helps clarify how the show uses the space to locate the artists and to make the public move in the infernal journey: https://bit.ly/3hnfpt3 See footage of the show here: https://bit.ly/3hIujt0 We can also add a reference to their youtube channel: https://bit.ly/2TB1PcJ 12 62 cave of this wonderful speleological complex and the only one 12 communicating with the outside, the great potential of the chosen setting is revealed: 100 metres long, 50 wide, 60 deep, this part of the underground system with its unique environment amplifies the audience’s feelings of fear and helplessness (see top left of the show map in Figure 1). The layout of the rocks of the Caves alone plays a key role in determining the impact on the people gathered there for each new performance, constantly enhanced by the looming rocks of the caves. Using the various distinct rock formations in the Grave, different stations are set up, characterizing different scenes, through which spectators are obliged to walk (the characters and stations are identified by the various colours on the show map). The twenty to twenty-five actors employed in each run of the show are divided into specific characters and demons according to the different ‘character’ areas/stations defined on the map. P E R F O R M A N C E R E S E A R C H 26· 1/2 : O N H E L L Furthermore, the idea of setting Dante’s Hell in natural caves was the smartest and most practical choice, even though this specific geographical space in Apulia has no direct connection to Dante, who nevertheless travelled extensively through the Italian peninsula. However, the problem then lies in the fact that all points of reference in the cave get lost, generating a parallel universe where there is no real awareness of place at all. Everything becomes part of the setting and the spectators themselves become part of the cast for the evening. The stage, with at least twelve episodes for different characters, as described in the show map, is located in a huge and unique place, which resembles medieval stages, and takes up the decoding of the luoghi deputati (Eng. designated places) at a distance (Allegri 1988). The importance of the orientation of the scenes and how the performative dynamics are managed by the actors on stage make a different use of the spatial references clear. The action on the horizontal axis of the cave, proceeding and walking along small flat sections (actually from one small square of natural conformation to another), helps to create more pathos, emotion and involvement for the audience, who must physically and necessarily move and go to the next station. On the other hand, in the action grafted onto the vertical axis one recognizes catharsis for the audience. This upward perspective, which embraces the disarming totality of the open vault of the cave, allows emotional and liberating momentum, which lead the audience to confront the most vivid memories of Dante’s text. In order to better understand the above descriptions, examples will now be offered for each of the two scenarios. T H E H O R I ZO N TA L O R I E N TAT I O N O F THE SHOW: THE ACTIVE PRESENCE OF T H E A U D I E N C E A N D N E W M U LT I M E D I A I M P L I CAT I O N S The descent of the public through the earth is fundamental to start building the devilish scenario in people’s minds. But it is in the horizontal orientation of the show, when the audience starts moving in the caves, that the public involvement expresses itself in all its strength. The audience is now in the Grave and sees Hell opening up before them. Starting from the horizontal axis, one can see how a relationship is established with the audience, who are gathered as a sort of Greek tragic choir, watching its own physical movement. As can be seen in the show map, in the centre of the Grave stands the central mass of rocks on which many scenes are built and set. The audience has to descend or rather move around it, passing from the stone steps to the small/medium crazes (small squares) it comprises. Throughout the entire duration of the performance, the audience is undergoing a metamorphosis: in the Grave people are more or less consciously, a choir of sinful souls, but they are constantly pushed and dragged into the show until they are part of the performance, like real damned souls. This is the case with the action during the passage between the first appearance of Lucifer (top right, vermilion on the map) and the episode of Pier della Vigna (bottom right, green on the map). In fact, right after the scene of judgement, everything turns green and melancholic music fills the air. This atmosphere introduces the dramatic episode of the suicide of Pier della Vigna (Inf. XIII, vv. 31–114), who is turned into a tree and then tortured by the Harpies for the violence he did to himself. While his branches are broken by the infernal Furies, spectators watch the scene in astonishment, thinking about the painful decision that this poor man made because of the slander and envy of others. Although the map on the right shows how the actors involved in Lucifer’s and Pier della Vigna’s scenes are all on the same side of the rocks, albeit in two different stations, the audience must move beyond the stairs and converge in the first part of the clearing there to be able to see. Between these two scenes, frantic and fast action is played by the remaining actors, who, in order to start climbing and preparing the following scenes, pass through the audience, creating panic and pushing them towards a specific position. As a result people scream, shout and move like a collective character, creating that chorus of fearful voices necessary to keep the tension of the show alive and high. The contribution of the audience to the performance is therefore neither marginal nor passive, but extremely sought after and cultivated. After a melancholic scene in which Pier della Vigna speaks, a sudden scream, ‘Oh vendetta di Dio’,13 can be heard inside the cave and techno electronic music wakes everyone up: at once the scene comes back to life. The focus now turns back to the central massive rock formation, where the figure of Ciacco (see the map) declaims the original verses of the first prophecy (Inf. VI), while the rest of the damned are descending towards the public, clinging to the rocks and gagging as if they were about to vomit. Particularly important for the impact of these scenes are the musical choices (made by Mirko Signorile, Paolo Pace, Giuseppe de Trizio and Adolfo La Volpe), the light design and the F O N TA N A: H E L L I N T H E CAV E ‘Oh vengeance of God’. This is actually a parody of Psalm 94.1, where God is seen as the truth judge of the world and here Lucifer is adressed, as prince of hell but actually the direct victim of the judgment of God. 13 63 choreography (coordinated by Vito Cassano since 2014). The sound and light systems were specially designed and conceived for the caves, to ensure the greatest impact on spectators and to emphasize the performances. The natural location and archetypal setting let the audience identify and connect with their innermost nature, crossing the boundaries and limits of a theatre, in order to create a realistic or even symbolic scene. As difficult as it is to deal with the natural surroundings, projecting one’s voice among the stones is even more challenging. The caves are actually an unconventional soundboard, constantly changing because of the public’s exclamations, screams and reactions in response to the devilish sinners and presences. Consequently, the sound of nature is enriched both by the performance of the artists playing and by the audience, who participate intensely. Each run of this show represents a real unicum (an unrepeatable occasion), in which a particular conjunction is created between the public, artists on stage and nature. N E W M U LT I M E D I A I M P L I C A T I O N S This constant action on the horizontal axis manages to produce complete sense of cohesion with the public, who, caught between fear and adrenaline, feel part of the show. At the entrance to Hell, the public are encouraged to use smartphones and social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and from then onwards this is a constant extrapresence within the show. So it is primarily the artists and creators of the show themselves who understand how important this new frontier is, this additional stage to step onto. Therefore they encourage spectators to post and share their experience of Hell: whether to exorcise fear, to stay social, to give an account of their experience and to be able to offer authentic testimony on demand. The awe and strong impact produced by the show are not dampened but actually amplified by social media. What you/the public perceive is a real desire to be there, to be part of Hell, to exorcise that human cruelty that unites everyone. In a certain way, the virtual and the unreal are seen as a new frontier of experimentation, and this kind of imperative 64 P E R F O R M A N C E R E S E A R C H 26· 1/2 : O N H E L L for theatre and performance has never been so pressing as in these difficult times of lockdowns and social distancing. This is why the words of Derrick de Kerckhove and Cristina Miranda de Almeida underline how, with the support of the virtual, it is the person who constantly chooses where to be, 100 per cent. The point of being is the physical sensation of one’s own presence in the world, of one’s own intimate bodily participation in life. This feeling is accessible to anyone without even thinking about it. It is deeply tactile, but it has been hidden by the empire of the eye that has prevailed in Western sensibility (De Kerckhove and De Almeida 2014: 11). This mixture between real, unreal, virtual world is very much present in the show Hell in the Cave, where the planes are mixed, and the perception of the self is the only thing sought. The complex layers of the scenographic architecture, the present moment, the unrepeatable here and now, allow the artists, the public and nature contribute together and converge to a collective breath, a unique moment. On the horizontal axis, finally, the extreme corporeality of Hell, found in Dante’s strong, harsh and overwhelming words, is skilfully reproposed to the public by means of a scenography that uses movement, the sensuality of the actors’ bodies, the force of physical impact and shared action in the physical space of the caves. This scenic decision on movements and dislocations accords with Rachel Hann’s vision, when she describes how the scenography in theatre-making manages to move performers and spectators not only emotionally but also physically (Hann 2019: 5–8). T H E V E RT I CA L O R I E N TAT I O N O F T H E SHOW L’emozione scatta a partire dal movimento Randi (2014: 219; Eng. Emotion is triggered by movement) Moving now to the vertical axis, in this more ethereal, aerial dimension, the audience comes into contact with the real moments of élan vital of the performance, the moments of liberation and finally of catharsis. In the very first together carnally.14 In addition, they are (with Lucifer, Ulysses and Beatrice) the only characters to have a particular and different costume: a wide bright dress for her and a darker jumpsuit for him; in fact, all the others, more for practicality and safety than to express unusual ideas, wear full earth-coloured suits, which camouflage them well against the rocks and let all the mimicry and savage, carnal-bestial movements shine through. description of the show, given in the subtitle (It. Versi danzati nell’aere fosco—Eng. Verses danced in the bleak air), the dimension of dance and the interaction between different arts are already very well emphasized, recalling in a perfect way the synaesthetic nature of the Divine Comedy itself: it was made for the eyes of the readers but also for the ears of the public listening and for the taste of the believer, who really and truly could taste the pleasure of redemption in the message of Dante’s poetry (Vanelli Coralli 2008: 24–5). The bodies of the actors are amazingly involved in the verses during the different scenes of the show, scenes chosen in order to underline the inner value of the message of salvation and redemption that the Divine Comedy can still offer to people today. The atmosphere in the Grave changes when spectators are at the same time asked to look up into the air to see an installation coming down from above. This is one of the most emblematic parts of Hell (Inf. V), with Francesca da Rimini and Paolo (see the map). Two dancers, divided by a cloth, twirl in the air of the rose-tinted caves filled with poignant muscial notes, retracing the canto of forbidden and adulterous love. This is the first moment of extreme verticality of the show: in Dante’s verses the two lovers are ravaged by the infernal storm; here they are suspended and perpetually unable to touch each other, despite the lust for one another. This installation, which condemns infidelity but does not blame them, like Dante does, for making the difficult choice to die for love, recalls the flower beloved of lovers, the red rose, which here is divided in half, an unequivocal sign of the eternal impossibility of the two still being q Figure 2. Paulo and Francesca © Mariagrazia Proietto If you are interested in watching this specific scene, follow this link to Hell in the Cave channel on youtube: https://bit.ly/3qSGibp . 14 The intimacy of this space inevitably emphasises the performer and the spatial placing of the action in the stage space. Space for the scenographer is about creating internal dramatic space as well as responding to the external architectural space. To be able to create potent stage images that describe the dramatic space starts with understanding and q Figure 3. Uylsses’ Flame from the public © Sara Fontana responding to the texts that are be played. (Howard 2009: 6) A new vertical episode, the more acrobatic one, is performed by the red-hot damned—the fraudulent Ulysses (Inf. XXVI). Ulysses is played by a dancer suspended between lengths of red aerial silks, surrounded by projected red lights that pervade the cave. A voice reads the immortal verses on the unquenchable lust for knowledge while vocals shimmer like flames in F O N TA N A: H E L L I N T H E CAV E 65 To better understand the passage and Ulysses figure, consult the English version on Digital Dante platform: https://bit.ly/3jSMbE0 15 q Figure 4. Beatrice and Exit, the pertugio tondo © Mariagrazia Proietto ‘he first, I following— until I saw/ through a round opening, some of those things of beauty Heaven bears./ It was from there/ that we emerged, to see—once more—the stars.’ To read the full canto in English, follow this link to the Digital Dante platform: https://bit.ly/3xseu0i 16 66 the air. The scenic impact is tremendous: in the show the ‘crazy flight’ made by Ulysses in a boat is skilfully transformed into real flight (‘de’ remi facemmo ali al folle volo’, Inf. XXVI, v. 125). 15 Suspended more than 8 metres above the ground, the dancer’s performance leaves the audience breathless. In this case Dante’s tumultuous verses are enhanced through the acrobatic prowess of the dancer, who uses circus techniques. Once again, wise artistic, directorial and scenographic decisions and incredible skills to access the entire space of the cave make this show able to deploy all its strength. It is precisely with the tragic closing of the sea above Ulysses’ ship (Inf. XXVI, vv. 139–42) that we witness the miserable fall of the lengths of fabric, and the dancer. In this moment the Lord of the Underworld himself builds the tension up high for one last time. Lucifer towers over the rocks and calls his demons to him with licentious singing. Voices of men and women and verses mix, creating a hellish chorus that loudly intones a song with sacred features: in Dante’s Hell everything is double, everything is upside down, so in this moment of the show the cave becomes a church with a demonic function. The sounds project powerfully between the walls, generating an acoustic echo-game that recalls the roar of thunder. Faintly at first, then louder and louder, the voices of the damned resound in the ears of the audience, paralysing them for the last time. At this point the moments of high tension produced by the actions on the horizontality of the rocks and those of liberation, full of pathos, produced by the action in the air balance each other. A N E W K I N D O F CAT H A R S I S The last vertical episode comes after the sounds, after the noise: first a beam of white light, ripping through the semi-darkness of the cave like a dream come true, revealing everything. Initially the audience sees a long white robe coming from above, then hears the benign voice of Beatrice calling Dante’s attention upwards to the sky. From the base of the cave each person is called to look up, towards the female figure who speaks kindly of the journey of purification P E R F O R M A N C E R E S E A R C H 26· 1/2 : O N H E L L that Dante will make (‘amor mi mosse, che mi fa parlare’, Inf. II, v. 72). Love is the engine that moves this blissful creature and here, as well, in the darkest Hell, love is the force that can bring everyone back to reality. The choice to act Dante’s words at this precise moment is extremely effective, making Hell’s final verses a vivid and lively accompaniment to the exit from the caves: … salimmo sù, el primo e io secondo, tanto ch’i’ vidi de le cose belle che porta ‘l ciel, per un pertugio tondo. E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle. (Inf. XXXIV, vv. 136–9)16 Spectators are enraptured by the vision of the pertugio tondo, the near-circular opening in the cave roof above them, so much so that they can see, among the foliage around its imperfect circumference, the sparkle of stars in the real world, the outside. The spectators awaken to their own human bodies, as from a terrible nightmare, from a real journey into Dante’s Hell that presents the villainies the human soul can accomplish in all times and places, and become aware of the fiction of the show. The verticality of the Comedy is expressed in both descent and ascent. On a physical level, the structure of the rocks in the cave is exploited to make Dante’s journey even more vivid. This seems easy but requires the uniting of meaning and important content: Dante makes a journey downwards and then comes back up again, not knowing that this is his destiny. Virgil, a damned soul, guides him through Hell, as happens in the poem, and the love of Beatrice brings him back up. In Hell in the Cave instead the audience is itself Dante and there is no guide, only sinners and damned souls; therefore the character of Beatrice had to be inserted at the end because otherwise there would have been no escape from the demons and the real setting of the caves. In fact, the light and the woman are staged as a final scene so as not to leave the spectator prey to the infernal and beastly vision of a very sensual Lucifer. What is asked of the audience at the end is to leave behind what they have lived until that moment and point their eyes towards the light, towards the woman, to purify themselves before exiting. Giusy Frallonardo comments as follows on the final catharsis: The suggestion comes from the ‘pertugio tondo’ or the mouth of the Grave of the Castellana Caves. A Grave deep, in the bowels of the earth, with an outlet to the sky through which to emerge ‘to see the stars’. Salvation and damnation. Then came Enrico Romita with his visionary imagination that mixed Dante’s verses with concrete but at the same time fantastic images. He saw those characters literally flying, or running into unusual objects, he saw the colours of that hell and heard its screams, he looked for solutions to make his visions usable and possible. Qtd in production website http://www.hellinthecave.it/ Actually the fact that at night you can really see the stars does not on its own lead the audience straight to Paradise, but instead to a plum tree where they can linger, reflect and remember that there will only be an exit/salvation if they make a real change in the way they live. The memory of that night will remain alive for everyone. IS ANOTHER HELL POSSIBLE? FINAL CO N S I D E RAT I O N S The show Hell in the Cave is a cohesive whole, which revolves around Dante’s strong literary matrix to elaborate it from a new contemporary theatrical perspective. The great theatrical vocation of Dante’s text finds a formidable and exceptional setting in the caves of Castellana, a small treasure in the Apulian territory. The engaging dramaturgy of the show is made even more captivating and exciting by the strong impact of the performers’ aerial choreographies and the pathos of the actors’ performances. In fact, the constant play of low and high and the sudden shifts and movements required of the public, call for their unwavering attention and keep the pressure and expectations high during the whole show. The unique stage of the Grave is fragmented and arranged with different tableaux vivants of actors and performers, not to mention the main rocks in the middle, surrounded by the audience. Sometimes the players start moving around and between the members of the audience, touching them, and playing with whatever emotions they are feeling in the moment, creating a vibrant and unpredictable new scene. At other times, the sudden appearance of structures and performances suspended above creates a feeling of liberation and deep meditation in the audience, thanks to the impact of these aerial choreographies and the influence of Dante’s words. This kind of involvement required of and acted with the audience throughout the show, especially when they are asked to record and post multimedia material online, even in moments of pure catharsis and relief, calls to mind the words of Alessandro Pontremoli on the interactions between corporeity, dance and new media: In light of what has been said and described in the previous sections, the show Hell in the Cave manages to create an unprecedented immersive experience. Since 2011, in fact, it has managed to In Italian: ‘Quando la danza è parte integrante dell'ambiente di un evento performativo, nel quale interagiscono immagini video, realtà virtuale, suoni sintetizzati, rielaborazioni digitali del movimento, in differita o in tempo reale, ci troviamo all'interno di un'esperienza percettiva, che mette in gioco più direttamente la corporeità: se non quella del performer, almeno quella di uno spettatore certamente più attivo, che in tali contesti ambientali diviene a sua volta protagonista di un'azione ed è parte in causa e motore del processo artistico e creativo.’ F O N TA N A: H E L L I N T H E CAV E 67 When dance is an integral part of the environment of a performative event, in which video images, virtual reality, synthesized sounds and digital re-elaborations of movement, in deferred or real time interact, we find ourselves at the intersection of a perceptive experience, which brings into play more directly the corporeity: if not that of the performer, at least that of an active spectator, who in such environmental contexts becomes in turn the protagonist of an action and is part and engine of the artistic and creative process. (Pontremoli 2004: 128)17 17 scare and then hearten many spectators at every reprise. While the decision to create a powerful synergy between dramatic action and natural space was certainly a fortunate one, the choice to use vertical and horizontal orientations to divide and characterize different aspects and meanings of Dante’s text was the most original and successful. The scenography of Hell in the Cave succeeds in transporting the audience to Hell and then taking them back safely to the real world, the real world, where there is still time for them to make a change. Following the increased attention to Dante’s text with the approach of his next centenary in 2021, many shows have subsequently decided to emulate this format, using other beautiful Italian geo-speleological sites. However, the singularity of Hell in a Cave and the scenography in it continues to confirm its strength and uniqueness. It will fall to posterity to judge which of the other productions are mere marketing campaigns and what works reward the synergy between study, creativity and innovation. For now, it is clear that Hell in a Cave is a good example of how to successfully adapt Dante: working on its universal themes and features and playing on the fact that the Inferno is the scope and foundation of a European, perhaps even worldwide, collective imagination. More than seven hundred years later, who knows what the Poet himself would think in seeing his verses become frightening and bombastic vaults within such a splendid and terrifying context. REFERENCES Allegri, Luigi (1988) Teatro e spettacolo nel Medioeveo, Rome and Bari: Laterza. Armour, Peter (2007) ‘The comedy as a text for performance’, in Antonella Braida and Luisa Calè (eds) Dante on View: The reception of Dante in the visual and performing Arts, London: Ashgate, pp. 17–22. 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