ABOUT La velocidad de la Luz
It´s a site-specific theatre project created by Marco Canale together with elderly people from different cities around the world. The play traverses different spaces of their city: their homes, where the spectators read their memories, walking though the streets and a sacred place of the city, where they perform a fiction that traverses the past, present and future.
The Speed of Light was created in Buenos Aires (FIBA, 2017), Hannover (Theaterformen Festival, 2019), Tokyo (Tokyo TOKYO Festival, 2021), the Swiss Alps (FAR Festival, 2022), Spain (FIT de Cádiz, 2023) and is currently being created in Santiago de Chile (Centro GAM, 2024).
Synopsis: La velocidad de la luz / Suiza
Documentary: After meeting in a square, the spectators visit old wine cellars, meeting place of the alpine world. There they read memories of the elders linked to the old country life, the boarding schools, the birth of the mountain guides, the immigration to Canada, old loves and cow stories. To which the elders respond with a song.
Fiction: Gerard, an old farmer, is the last inhabitant of a village in the Valais, and Reinon, his only cow, is the last inhabitant of his pastures. Stricken by an illness, Gerard calls his granddaughter, Pauline, to accompany him on a journey to the Glaciers, where the old beliefs claim that the spirits rest. Thus, he will try to convince her to inherit his old house, which his son wants to sell, after his death, to a project that will develop a ski resort. Having to face his own miseries to save what he loves.
FICHA ARTÍSTICA
A play by: Marco Canale
Performance and texts: Brigitte Antille-Revey, Isabelle Clivaz-Savioz, Anne-Brigitte Genoud, Isabelle Genoud, Alexine Guinchard, Tristan Kaufmann, Vijay Kumar, Laurence Kummer, Gérard Revey, Noé Savioz, Morgane Solioz, Régis Theytaz, Anne Guillermin.
Music / Cor des Alps: “Lè Toba d’Anivyè”.
Choral direction: Gabrielle Terrettaz.
Chorals: from the Val D´Anniviers.
Scenography Mariana Tirantte.
Choreography: Josefina Gorostiza.
Musical composition (bandoneón) : Pampa Roldán.
Musical direction: Juan A. Bayá Casal.
Map design: Paola Rodriguez.
Production design: Carine Antonio.
Production: Marco Canale y far° Nyon.
Co-production: SMArt – Sustainable Mountain Art.
With the support of: Pro Helvetia-Swiss Arts Council (as part of COINCIDENCIA, programm), Fondation pour le développement durable des régions de montagne, Canton du Valais- Service de la culture, Fondation Château Mercier, Direction du développement et de la coopération, Ville de Nyon, Région de Nyon, État de Vaud. Commune d’Anniviers, Anniviers Tourisme SA.
Acknowledgments: Janine Barmaz, Sonia Martin y Stéphane Tissières de los Compagnons de la Navizence, Nicole Solioz, Sarah Huber, Pauline Pannatier, the neighbours of the County of Anniviers, and all those who joined the project during its creation.