Motus Theatre Company's (Italy) Nella Tempesta 

 

 

 

LaMaMa and CultureHub in New York City presented a performance of Motus Theatre Company's (Italy) Nella Tempesta—an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest— livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Sunday 21 December at 1 p.m. PST (San Francisco) / 4 p.m. EST (New York) / 21:00 GMT (London) / 22:00 CET (Rome).

 

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Hailed by the New York Times as “fresh and ferocious,” Motus returns to La MaMa with the final production of the Tempest 3: The Tide is Rising Series at La MaMa. Motus’ Nella Tempesta creates a short circuit between Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Une Tempête by Aimé Césaire. Reflecting on the turmoil in our society and the consequences of the economic crisis, the performance also speaks about storms in the Mediterranean Sea, which are sinking the migrants ships that set sail from the coast of North Africa to reach Europe—“Brave new world,” to quote Miranda and Aldous Huxley. This version of The Tempest imagines the play about a world not as it appears to be ending, but a world on the verge of a new beginning.

 

Nella Tempesta is part of Motus Theatre Company’s Animale Politico Project started in the summer of 2011 when the company was working with Judith Malina of the Living Theatre whose voice is used in the show. Malina was speaking to the company about “unleashing storms and not protecting ourselves” when Hurricane Sandy struck New York. The company in making this new work thought about what would be a necessary item for a defenseless body after a hurricane, a shipwreck or an armed conflict? The most immediate answer was a blanket. The set of Nella Tempesta is created from blankets that will be donated to shelters and social service organizations at the end of the run. All audience members are invited to bring a blanket to be used in the show. This audience engagement is an integral part of the Nella Tempesta tour in which the company has redistributed audience-donated blankets in the cities in which they have performed around the world.