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Theatre, because of its ability to represent through restaging, would seem to be the quintessential platform for reenactment. The Orestea (una commedia organica?) by R. Castelluci and Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio, restaged at the Paris Automne Festival in 2015, twenty years after its 1995 world premiere in Prato, is the starting point for a reflection on the status of restaging in theatre. This case study is the occasion to apply Walter Benjamin’s philosophical concept of the Jetztzeit to a theatrical context, and to consider also the ‘citational’ value of theatrical reenactment. These concepts are useful to study not only the reenactment of theatrical gesture and acting but also to consider the practice of restaging related to the theatrical event conceived in its entirety.
Keywords: Theatre; Castellucci, Romeo; Oresteia; Benjamin, Walter
Title
Reenactment in Theatre
Subtitle
Some Reflections on the Philosophical Status of Restaging
Author(s)
Daniela Sacco
Identifier
Description
Theatre, because of its ability to represent through restaging, would seem to be the quintessential platform for reenactment. The Orestea (una commedia organica?) by R. Castelluci and Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio, restaged at the Paris Automne Festival in 2015, twenty years after its 1995 world premiere in Prato, is the starting point for a reflection on the status of restaging in theatre. This case study is the occasion to apply Walter Benjamin’s philosophical concept of the Jetztzeit to a theatrical context, and to consider also the ‘citational’ value of theatrical reenactment. These concepts are useful to study not only the reenactment of theatrical gesture and acting but also to consider the practice of restaging related to the theatrical event conceived in its entirety.
Is Part Of
Place
Berlin
Publisher
ICI Berlin Press
Date
4 January 2022
Subject
Theatre
Castellucci, Romeo
Oresteia
Benjamin, Walter
Rights
© by the author(s)
Except for images or otherwise noted, this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Language
en-GB
page start
131
page end
140
Source
Over and Over and Over Again: Reenactment Strategies in Contemporary Arts and Theory, ed. by Cristina Baldacci, Clio Nicastro, and Arianna Sforzini, Cultural Inquiry, 21 (Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, 2022), pp. 131–40

References

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  • Quaranta, Domenico, ‘RE:akt! Things that Happen Twice’, in RE: akt! Reconstruction, Re-enactment, Re-porting, ed. by Antonio Caronia, Janez Jansâ, and Domenico Quaranta (Brescia: LINK Editions, 2014), pp. 43–52
  • Rau, Milo, ‘Intervista a Milo Rau’, PASSPARnous, Teatro, ed. by Enrico Pastore <http://www.psychodreamtheater.org/rivista-passparnous-ndeg-22---teatro---intervista-a-milo-rau---a-cura-di-enrico-pastore.html> [accessed 28 September 2019]
  • Sacco, Daniela, ‘La Jetztzeit del teatro. L’Orestea della Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio/Romeo Castellucci venti anni dopo’, Biblioteca Teatrale, 119–120.2 (2016), pp. 65–84 <https://doi.org/10.1400/256739>
  • Sacco, Daniela, ‘Re-enactment e replica a teatro. Riflessioni sullo statuto filosofico della ri-presentazione’, Materiali di Estetica, 4.1 (2017), pp. 340–51
  • Weber, Samuel, Theatricality as Medium (New York: Fordham University Press, 2004) <https://doi.org/10.5422/fso/9780823224159.001.0001>
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Cite as: Daniela Sacco, ‘Reenactment in Theatre: Some Reflections on the Philosophical Status of Restaging’, in Over and Over and Over Again: Reenactment Strategies in Contemporary Arts and Theory, ed. by Cristina Baldacci, Clio Nicastro, and Arianna Sforzini, Cultural Inquiry, 21 (Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, 2022), pp. 131-40 <https://doi.org/10.37050/ci-21_14>