Grand site-specific performance


Nullo Facchini (born 1960). Self-taught director.  Founder and artistic director of Cantabile 2 since 1983.  Head of the Waves Festival and the School of Stage Arts.

Artistic Profile
An abandoned American military facility, dams, lakes, industrial buildings, castles and harbours – these are just a few of the places Cantabile has created its grand site-specific performances. The most famous is the water performance Loreley, which was presented on the Rhine in an artificial lake during EXPO 2000 (Hannover) and in an indoor version at the Kanonhallen theatre (Copenhagen). The theatre also mounts productions in traditional theatre spaces.

The theatre has won international recognition for its extraordinary visual language, with powerful poetic and comical images, and for its work breaking down boundaries between theatre and dance.  Space, sound, light and performer have equal weight in the theatre’s productions, which often have the sensuality of the body as the central focal point.

Cantabile 2 is a regional theatre in Vordingborg (southern Zealand), where it also runs the School of Stage Arts, one of the few alternative Danish acting schools, and Waves, an international biennial festival of the performing arts.

Current Productions

Venus Labyrinten / The Venus Labyrinth
(2006)
A journey through the female brain.  The audience is a guest in a universe inhabited solely by women.  One by one, the members of the audience are allowed into a labyrinth inhabited by 14 women.  Every audience member meets three women, one on one, as spectator and co-actor in their intimate tale.  The venue must have 36 separate spaces.  Local actors may be involved.
Language versions: Danish, English, and the local language.

Inca Cola
(2006)
A wordless dance performance inspired by and, in part, created during Cantabile 2’s trip to Peru and Bolivia in 2005. In markets, villages and dusty mountain roads, the theatre group met many street children: Homeless, fearless, proud children, starved for love. Inca Cola is dance theatre about the memories of the voices and bodies of these children.

Tiden da vi ikke kendte til hinanden / The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other
(2001) 
A wordless performance about the magic of chance meetings.  Just under 200 characters, played by six performers, walk across a central square in a vibrant metropolis.  Their stories are revealed in a universe created by small signs and subtle hints.  With a stage language between dance and theatre, the performance is based on the poetry of small moments and a playful humour.  May be performed inside and outside.

Loreley
(2000)
A water performance inspired by the many myths and tales of mermaids.  The stories of Echo, Narcissus, the Little Mermaid, Ondine and Loreley, among others, are told through underwater passages, enormous walls of water and a monumental fluid staging.  The play is to be performed by a lake or river bank; a 30,000-litre water basin is required for indoor performances.
Language versions: The Scandinavian languages and English.

Review Extracts

”Cantabile 2 machen Theater für die Sinne. Sie lassen Bilder in der Landschaft entstehen, die ein Fellini erinnern.”
Herford (DE), Tiden da vi ikke kendte til hinanden

”An impressive journey into magical realism ....  The human mosaic of the performance is very beautifully framed by staging made up of strongly coloured light, stairs and moving walkways .... The essence of great poetry.”
Berlingske Tidende (DK), Tiden da vi ikke kendte til hinanden

”Ein grandioses spektakel – ein ebenso farbiges wie intelligentes Bildertheater, das in immer neuen Anläufen und stets wechselen Phantasiekostümen vom Einander-Fremdbleiben auch in der hingebingsvillsten Zweierbeziehung erzählt.”
Allgemeine Zeitung (DE), Loreley
 

International Tours

2005
Fira de Teatre (Tarrega/ES)
International Mime Festival (Aarschot/BE)

2004
Myte og Menneske [Myth and Man] (Fuglefjord/FO)
Actores Alidos (Quartu S. Elena/IT)