Everything is ready at the Naxos Taormina Archaeological Park for the theatrical dawn scheduled for Tuesday 20 AugustThe Teatro della Nike will host “The Epic of Gilgamesh” narrated by Giovanni Calcagno and Vincenzo Pirrotta (production Emilia Romagna Teatro ERT / Teatro Nazionale).
At 5.30 in the morning the gates of the Park will open and the show will start at 6, with free admission.
“The Epic of Gilgamesh”, text and direction by Giovanni Calcagnois made with the scientific advice of Luca Peyronel. On the stage, which becomes a sophisticated and fascinating time machine, we find two great names of Italian theater much loved by the public (Vincenzo Pirrotta and Giovanni Calcagno himself) and, thanks to them, Gilgamesh, the oldest epic poem in history, comes to life again.
The director and actor Giovanni Calcagno introduces his show as follows: “Gilgamesh, through the testimonies of Assyro-Babylonians, Hittites and Hurrians, opens a view of the mysteries of knowledge and wisdom of one of the most advanced civilizations known to us, that of the Sumerians. Gilgamesh’s experience, from a heroic point of view, is a total failure: his search for eternal life produces no results and he, at the end of his story, is condemned to die like all other men. But perhaps there is something else that emerges from this story: the consequences of his desperate search are enormous and profound, even if relegated entirely to the sphere of interiority. They allow him to reach a different point of understanding of the human events of life”.
“This experience of a new vision, as fresh and necessary as ever for us today, asks us to transmit and tell. Convinced, therefore, that the text of the epic is a score to be played out loud, here we are ready together with Vincenzo Pirrotta to ‘remove the dust’ from one of the greatest treasures of literature of all time. In the wake of the most ancient narrators, who for centuries have told the story of the legendary king of the first city in the world, we have thought of an archaic version of this show, entrusted only to the voices, to the body of the narrators, sometimes accompanied by the rhythm of the drums and the sound of cymbals and flutes”, concludes Calcagno.
Also on Tuesday 20 August, at 7:30 pm, the Archaeological Park of Naxos will host a meeting with Giovanni Calcagno on La Canzone di Orlando Martirio e vendetta dei cristiani a Roncisvalle, with the intervention of Dario Tomasello, coordinator of DAMS of Messina and the moderation of Gigi Spedale, artistic director of Interpretare l’Antico. The appointment will be opened by the greetings of Gabriella Tigano, director of the Park and Fulvia Toscano, Councilor for Culture of the Municipality of Giardini Naxos.
Theatrical dawn with Gilgamesh is the first special event of the Interpretare l’Antico reviewcurated by Gigi Spedale for the Latitudini Network; an integral part of the larger multidisciplinary project Communicating the Ancient, organized by the Naxos Taormina Archaeological Park directed by Gabriella Tigano, full of cultural and entertainment events inspired by the Myth, with the collaboration of the NaxosLegge Festival, directed by Fulvia Toscano.
The Communicating the Ancient project is organized by the Naxos Taormina Archaeological Park, with the collaboration of the Latitudini Network, the scientific support of COSPECS and DAMS of the University of Messina and with the patronage of the Municipality of Giardini Naxos of ERSU ME.