PESSOA - Since I've been me

Here is an ordinary man, his mind absorbed, contemplating an idea, sitting at a sidewalk café, his eyes wandering in the middle distance and reflecting the clouds as they pass by. The scene is in Lisbon, and the man is Fernando Pessoa, at least that is his name as entered in the official register, but he may prefer other identities such as Alvaro de Campos, Ricardo Reis or Alberto Caeiro. He and some of his heteronymic personalities are the heroes of Robert Wilson’s original work on the poet’s incomparable opus. What started as an idea proposed by the Théâtre de la Ville and the Teatro della Pergola in Florence is now a performance featuring fascinating mirror effects arising from Pessoa’s many and varied styles in texts ranging from The Keeper of Flocks to The Book of Disquiet and Fausto. Such diversity is then reflected in the virtuoso art of the actors as they give physical expression to this iridescent reverie, conveying the words of the poet in an array of languages. 

© Lucie Jansch