Three strangers meet on a train. In one hour, the train will crash and they will all die
From the Spanish company that created the BE FESTIVAL-winning Solfatara comes a new show exploring ideas of paradise through the meeting of three strangers on a train that’s about to crash. Locus Amoenus takes its title from a Latin term meaning “pleasant place”, characterised in literature and visual arts throughout history as a sunlit glade or meadow. Through a series of conversations and situations, efforts to understand and be understood, the show asks what paradise means to each person and, as the train speeds towards to its fatal conclusion, do we pay enough attention on the journey there?
Locus Amoenus is performed mostly in English with additional projected text that acts as a narrator and guide to the inner thoughts of the characters. Not knowing that they are about to die, the characters go about their lives: connecting to each other and isolating themselves, understanding and misunderstanding, getting hung up on trivialities and not saying what they most want to say. What new meaning does the hour have if it’s their last?
Company member Albert Pérez Hidalgo said, “The inspiration for our work comes from a number of sources, including everyday life and situations, sitting on a fine line between biography and fiction. In Locus Amoenus, the three characters partly represent ourselves and through the course of their final hour, we see their dreams, fears and hidden desires. We drew on a variety of source material including Freidrich Dürrenmatt’s novel The Tunnel and films such as Lars von Trier’s Europe. Some of the imagery was inspired by our travels around the UK on tour as well as the beautiful parkland at mac in Birmingham where we first began work on the piece.”
ATRESBANDES is a young theatre company from Barcelona which is rapidly establishing a reputation as creators of sharp, perceptive work for international audiences. They have won numerous awards including First Prize and Audience Prize at BE Festival 2012 for Solfatara, and Best Direction at Skena Up 2014 in Kosovo for Locus Amoenus. The company was formed by Mònica Almirall Batet, Miquel Segovia Garrell and Albert Pérez Hidalgo in 2008 with aims to question everything around them, following their belief that doubt and uncertainty are as important as mutual understanding.
28 Jan The Lowry, Salford
Pier 8, The Quays, Salford, M50 3AZ
8pm | £12 (£10 concs)
www.thelowry.com | 0843 208 6000
