In 2010, the anonymous owners of a massive Salvador Dali original decided it was time for it to see the light of day again, over six decades since it was last displayed publicly.
Not wanting to simply hand it over to a museum, they contacted Daniele Finzi Pasca, a writer and director who had grabbed their attention with his previous creative endeavours, which include Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo and the 2006 Winter Olympics closing ceremony in Turin. They invited him to incorporate Dali’s oil painting into his work as he saw fit.
Finzi Pasca had already been brainstorming ideas at the time and, armed with Dali’s piece, he wrote and directed La Verita, a multidisciplinary stage show combining surrealism with clown theatre.
“This backdrop was created by Salvador Dali to tour, and in fact, it toured with the [ballet] show Mad Tristan in 1944 in New York,” said Antonio Vergamini, cofounder of Company Finzi Pasca. “The backdrop stayed 60 years in a cave.”
Now, the Dali piece sees the light again in Abu Dhabi as 13 “clown actors” take the stage to sing, dance and perform acrobatic stunts. The show will run for 10 days at ICC Hall, Adnec, between August 21 and 31.
Alien-like figures
Dali’s massive oil painting, inspired by Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde, measured 9-by-15 metres, shows two misshapen, alien-like figures leaning toward each other as if conversing. One has a dandelion for a head and branches twisting out of it; the other is draped in a blue cloth with a wheelbarrow growing out of its back.
A replica will be used as the main backdrop in Abu Dhabi, while the original is displayed during the intermission.
“We are not exactly telling a story from the start to the end, it’s more a lot of images that cross each other,” explained Vergamini, calling the show “acrobatic theatre”.
Split into two 50-minute acts, La Verita combines inventive acrobatic contraptions courtesy of the set designer, Hugo Gargiulo, an original score and small vignette-like stories that draw on the abstract work of Dali for inspiration, rather than a narrative that travels directly from A to B. In Abu Dhabi, it will also include some dialogue in English.
“La Verita is not the life of Salvador Dali — absolutely not — it’s not the history of Tristan und Isolde, like the show Salvador Dali was inspired by,” said Vergamini. “But it’s really how the imaginary world of Salvador Dali meets our world, and our world is a world of clown [and] a world of actors who use their bodies, their acrobacy, their movement, to tell little stories to the audience.”
Music
The music, composed by Maria Bonzanigo, is partially pre-recorded by a symphonic orchestra in Lugano, Switzerland, where Company Finzi Pasca is based, while some of it is created live by the cast members themselves — using accordion, guitar and violin.
As for the name of the show, which translates as ‘Truth’, it’s about what we perceive as real and what we do not, and how to convey something authentic through theatre.
“This is something that we are always questioning. We’re always questioning ourselves, to understand what is true — so, our show is also something about this question.”
The show has travelled the world — from Canada and Great Britain to Brazil, France, Spain and beyond — and has, according to Vergamini, been seen by approximately 200,000 people to date.
