ECHOES -
Zoo Venues -
Monkey House Venue 124 7pm
4/28 August – £10/8 50 minutes
Theatre - New Writing (UK-Italy)
The unthinkable has already happened
In a Black Mirror-esque near future, two men face each other across a table.
The Government has ordered a bomb to be dropped on the motherland's civilian population killing a million people. Why?
Everyone has reasons, even the cruellest of plans can be defended.
In an era of fake news and dystopic visions becoming everyday occurrences, the Politician and the Journalist facing each other across the table seem to be very distant in their arguments and ideologies, but their shifting convergence will bring a deflagration, like bringing matter in contact with its dark counterpart.
Echoes is a taut, crucially topical two-hander that will generate long discussions and food for thought.
By Lorenzo de Liberato, with Marco Quaglia and Stefano Patti, directed by Stefano Patti – Infallible Productions/Dystopia Theatre
Questions answered by Stefano Patti, actor and director
What was the inspiration for this performance?
1. Echoes is written by an Italian playwright, Lorenzo De Liberato. After a sell-out premiere season in Rome in late 2016, the company decided that given the play has many universal themes and concepts, we should translate it into English for the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, in order to reach a large international audience. It was for these main reasons that Ed Fringe seemed like the perfect stage.
Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas?
2. We believe theatre is a cultural space where society examines itself in a mirror. Theatre can be a laboratory in which we study the problems that confront society; it is a space in which we can explore our diverse ways of thinking.
Understanding theatre helps us understand what it means to be human.
How did you become interested in making performance?
3. For us, theatre is a medium in which we can present ideas and concepts and more often than not, receive a range of reactions from our audience members. Typically, theatre is intimate and immediate and a great way of creating dialogue between all of us.
Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?
4. Our approach to this play is to take the text and characters extremely seriously. The two central characters find themselves in a dystopian future where contemporary reality is stretched into an unreal world; we however believe we need to play the characters as realistically as possible in order to make unthinkable, thinkable.
Does the show fit with your usual productions?
5. This is the first collaboration between this creative team, but there are other works in place for the future. Collaboration between different areas of the creative process is a fundamental philosophy of our group.
What do you hope that the audience will experience?
6. We hope our audience will respond to the contemporary issues presented in the play. We believe the dynamic relationship between the two characters will resonate with many people and possibly make them consider their own lives in a different light through thoughts and emotions.
What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?
7. The play is set inside a bunker and in order to add to the physical and emotion oppressiveness, we are using a range of lighting techniques (created by Paride Donatelli) which adds to the starkness, and heaviness of the atmosphere.
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