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C.I.C.T. - Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord Based on the Mahabharata and the play written by Jean-Claude Carrière Adapted and directed by Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne
Thirty years after his legendary sunset-to-sunrise production of The Mahabharata consecrated the BAM Harvey stage, director Peter Brook returns with Battlefield, a breathtaking distillation of the central story in the ancient Sanskrit poem. In the wake of an apocalyptic civil war, a remorseful King Yudishtira—his hands still bloodied from the carnage—desperately seeks some just way to rule over murderers and murdered alike. Silk scarves become rivers and shrouds; four actors are reincarnated as worms and eagles, victims and perpetrators; and a single instrumentalist (a veteran of Brook’s original production) scores the bleak peace of oblivion, giving haunting new life to this staggering Indian epic.
PROGRAM NOTES
Music by Toshi Tsuchitori Lighting design by Philippe Vialatte Costume design by Oria Puppo
A C.I.C.T./Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord production Co-produced by The Grotowski Institute, the PARCO Co. Ltd / Tokyo, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, the Young Vic Theatre / London, the Singapore Repertory Theatre, Le Théâtre de Liège, the C.I.R.T., the Attiki cultural Society / Athens and the Cercle des partenaires des Bouffes du Nord
“You may be heartened to hear that the mystery of life — so brief, so cruel and so infinitely cherishable — is explained. Well, not to you. It’s a secret that is shared on the stage. But somehow the rapt silence that follows this unheard revelation is deeply, warmly comforting.”
The BAM Hamm Archives gives viewers a window into the pivotal role that Peter Brook and the 1987 production of The Mahabharata played in the transformation of the Majestic Theater into today’s Harvey Theater.
Fri, Sep 30, 2016
In conjunction with Battlefield
Talks
Participatory Reading of The Mahabharata
Readers of all ages participate in this public reading of the Indian epic, in conjunction with Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne’s revisiting of its central section in this season’s Battlefield.
Fri, Oct 7, 2016
In conjunction with Battlefied
Classes
Roundtable with Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne
In this intimate gathering, Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne discuss what it means to be a director with emerging practitioners interested in their craft.
Oct 10Oct 20, 2016
In conjunction with Battlefield
Film Series
Peter Brook: Behind the Camera
On the occasion of the US premiere of Battlefield—Peter Brook’s return to the BAM Next Wave Festival—BAMcinématek surveys the visionary director’s equally adventurous, iconoclastic film work.
Explore the Festival
Sep 30Oct 1, 2016
Unsung voices from Ireland’s Great Famine.
Opera
The Hunger
Alarm Will Sound
Composer Donnacha Dennehy’s opera about the Great Famine of 1845-52 brings together new music and old Irish songs, featuring Alarm Will Sound, folk singer Iarla Ó Lionáird, and soprano Katherine Manley.
Nov 9Nov 13, 2016
Corporeal encounters with 5,000 strands of nylon.
Physical Theater
Plexus
Aurélien Bory, Kaori Ito, Compagnie 111
French physical theater maverick Aurélien Bory takes Japanese dancer Kaori Ito, entangled in a dense field of 5,000 black nylon wires, as both muse and instrument.
Dec 6Dec 11, 2016
Poison, prison, and a happy ending nonetheless.
Theater
The Winter’s Tale
Cheek by Jowl
Director Declan Donnellan and Cheek by Jowl take up Shakespeare’s most fundamental questions in this fiercely contemporary staging of the Bard’s late masterpiece of wit and wisdom.
Dec 10Dec 18, 2016
Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker meets 1970s suburbia.
Dance
The Hard Nut
E.T.A. Hoffmann, Mark Morris Dance Group, MMDG Music Ensemble,
The Hard Nut Singers, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Colin Fowler, Mark Morris
Mark Morris Dance Group’s beloved reimagining of The Nutcracker—a lavish, gender-bent love letter that playfully preserves the warm spirit of an essential holiday tradition—returns to BAM for the holidays.