From Hell to Heterotopia: Romeo Castellucci’s Inferno

Abstract

From the narratives on the Underworld in Homer and Ancient Tragedy to the Christian distinction between Heaven and Hell, the concept of the place of the dead went through major reconfigurations. Enlightenment and modernism brought forth the need for knowledge and scientific explanation. According to Jacques Derrida, death is in itself impossible: humans can perhaps perish (périr), but they cannot die (mourir). Emmanuel Levinas presents death as the ultimate separation of the self from historical time, the liberation of personal existence from the conventional perception of history. The beyond takes shape according to contemporary perceptions of death and the work of mourning: each era builds its own heterotopia of the dead, and theatre is where this can be best presented. The vertical axis of ancient Greek thought that connects humans to the transcendental was gradually replaced by a horizontal perspective: hell resembles everyday life. The question of representation has always intrigued theatre practitioners, especially when it comes to uncanny - as per Freud - matters. Romeo Castellucci has always been innovative, rejecting conventions, including illusion. Dante’s Commedia Divina is the trace – according to Benjamin - upon which Castellucci develops Inferno; he transposes the rings of hell to contemporary society, where anonymity and the anxiety to belong prevail. Through the analysis of the most striking episodes from the performance, I am exploring his aesthetics and his practice as he re-constructs a heterotopia on stage with human experience at its centre.