About Igitour

Igitur is the play I saw during my Easter vacation in Greece. It was presented by the company KNOT and as the title indicates it was based on the experimental theatrical text (not exactly a play) written by S. Mallarmé. As the company itself notes: "Igitur describes a young man's journey towards death and this is not the ultimate end for him but only a new beginning".

This performance which was created by a group of directors, actors, singers and musicians,was an extraordinary kind of performance that used theatre, music, sound design and installation in order to be realized, so only from this it becomes very clear why it can help my research at this point.

Always looking everything from the designer's point of view I have to admit that from the moment I walked into the "theatrical" space a mix of relaxation and tension took over my body. I was in a white space and the floor was soft and every sound from footsteps was dying as you entered. Sound-wise you did not exist for a few moments, up to the point you would sit on the (wooden?) benches and you would realize that you exist again because the people sitting opposite were intensely looking at you. And you could look in frond of you, the really simple set and the actor, and the people in frond of you. For long. And the the body/the actor/Igitur started moving, but you still felt like you had time to notice whatever you wanted in the space. As if you were in en exhibition, a gallery, you could observe taking your own time. The body/Igitur passed from different states and positions with an astonishing continuity of the movement even if the position were the most uncomfortable for the human body. My only observation about this part was that the actor's muscles were not very well trained and you could see sometimes that he was in great tension while he seemed to be "normal". But this was obvious only in few moments.

This sense of space and motion/not motion was accompanied by sounds created that very moment and by recordings probably with the text from Igitur but I paid no exact attention to it. It was flowing and I was only happy when at some points I would catch one word or phrase and realize that the speech, the movement, the sound and the space co-existed harmonically creating that feeling of rich emptiness, leaving the time and the space for the human brain to work on the sounds and the visuals.

After the performance ended I asked if it is going to be presented somewhere else. The company said they think about it. I will have to see and study this in another space. Site specificity can change it or not? In my opinion it will. Anyway, Igitur as a "performance" created "something to remember".