
BEST PERFORMANCE – BEST LIGHTING DESIGN
BEST SET DESIGN – BEST PERFORMER
– SINPARC / USIMINAS AWARDS
SCROLL DOWN TO BEGIN
“By means of this interplay, the world remains identical; resemblances continue to be what they are, and to resemble one another. The same remains the same, riveted unto itself.”
Michel Foucault
Verissimilitude is an ensemble piece about the territory of subjectivity and perception, a study of the extremes of human instinct. A somatic response to Michel Foucault’s text The Four Similitudes, Verissimilitude deciphers subconscious symbols and explores the fabric of the human condition. A world held in tension by laws and restrained compulsion. Jealousy and blind emulation; affinity and mechanisms of isolation. A witness trying to halt the machine of fate. A modern-day cannibal surrenders to his final victim in pursuit of self-annihilation. The hunter and the hunted are one.
“Anglo-Brazilian physical theatre choreographed by Fernanda Lippi – angry, intense and explicit, but compelling”
The Times
“Inspired by Foucault’s The Four Similitude’s, this movement piece attempts to encapsulate the heart of the human condition. The basest instincts of the soul are given a choreographic treatment as a cast of four move in an elemental dance of symbols. The basest instincts of the soul are given a choreographic treatment as the cast moves in an elemental dance of symbols. This is a piece of exemplary choreography, dripping with sociological comment and performed with astounding fluidity and expertise…
The design is dominated by a giant propeller, acting as a metronome to the rhythm of the piece, while a square of turf scents the theatre with a pungent freshness as feral as the often-violent choreography. Guilherme Bonfanti’s rich, atmospheric lighting design concentrates more on the shadows, creating an almost film noir piece for the stage. The dancers set about their task with astounding aggression, either in constant repetition of movement and form or in attack mode, throwing themselves naked around the space with mesmerizing ferocity…an accomplished piece”
Paul Vale, The Stage
Verissimilitude was devised in a building site that was inundated by seasonal storms. Scooping out buckets of water before rehearsals became a daily, silent ritual. The tropical heat and humidity, the musky smells and ever-present sounds of crickets seemed to bestow the walls with an encroaching grip, eliciting a somatic response to danger. It was the territory of instinct. The urgency was palpable – it was a pressure cooker of the here and now.
Cast: Lívia Rangel, Tuca Pinheiro, Marçal Costa, Heloísa Domingues
Lighting Design: Guilherme Bonfanti
Set Design: Orlando Castaño
Costume Design: Marney Heitmann
Set Photographer: Marcelo Coelho
Lighting Operator: Camilo Bonfanti
Set Construction: José Maria Amorim
Producers: Ligia Lippi, Andre Semenza, Fernanda Lippi
Choreographer: Fernanda Lippi
Director: Andre Semenza
Verissimilitude toured Brazil and Europe.
Duration of performance: 1 hour
A cast of four