The Tale of Tales MITEM
„Telling tales or listening to them is always an exhilarating experience! It is allowing yourself to be driven by the giddy depths of imagination, to meander along the paths of the unknown, to risk suddenly encountering our ʻnaked souls’ in the dark forest of ourselves” – writes the Swiss theatre director of Columbian origin, Omar Porras, about the show. Myths and legends have often inspired the works of his company, Teatro Malandro, which now celebrates its 30th anniversary. This time, the company draws on centuries of oral tradition, the spirit of vernacular language and its poetic crudeness. ‘The Tale of Tales’ is based on a piece by Giambattista Basile, Il Pentamerone, a treasure trove of tales collected in 17th Century Italy, from the pubs and streets of Naples, Tuscany, Sicily and Venice.
“These stories are the source that inspired famous writers such as Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, Poe, Irving, and so on, throughout centuries. They reinterpreted and refined them to transfer such variations to us that keep circulating in our memory. Il Pentamerone itself is an unpolished diamond, untouched, cruel, incredibly entertaining and powerful.”
The company of Teatro Malandro started its 30-year adventure in a squat called the Garage, in Geneva, from where their path led to the Dramatic Theatre of Geneva, a workshop they formed in the Sécheron district, and then to the TKM Théatre Kléber-Méleau in Lausanne, where they have been active since 2015.
The present performance is now being created, with a première planned in March 2020, and starting its first tour abroad at the MITEM. (Photos by Ciryl Romoli)