Go Down, Moses

This work transfigures the various moments of the life of Moses, as they are narrated in the Book of Exodus. In the events of this man’s life there is something that inheres in the substance of our time. As with Michelangelo’s Moses – described in the text that Freud dedicated to this work – the prophet of monotheism is presented here as a man forced to react when faced with the difficulties that this God – without name and without image – puts before him, starting from the abandonment of his newborn body in the waters of the Nile. The character Moses is dissolved across the scenes, disregarding biographical narration to extend himself over concepts, sentiments and premonitions of a revelation that acts now, in our time. Moses is brought closer to the spectator’s gaze, embodied in every element of the performance, which is conceived in tableaus and fragments, psychic vibrations that emerge like ripples across the space-time of life, he is at once routine and obscurely perceived as an exile.

The title evokes the famous spiritual sung by the slaves of America, who identified themselves with the Judaic people, a presage of their return to Africa. The Israelites, able to return from their exile in Babylonia and – thanks to Moses – from their slavery in Egypt, were the symbol of their next liberation. Today, the singing of the slaves in America may refer to the condition of our slavery, incorporeal, exiled from being.

All that lies between is the object of this work.

• Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio
• Direction, set, costumes and lights — Romeo Castellucci
• Text — Claudia Castellucci and Romeo Castellucci
• Performers — Rascia Darwish, Gloria Dorliguzzo, Luca Nava, Stefano Questorio, Sergio Scarlatella and with three Extras
• Music — Scott Gibbons
• Collaboration to the set design — Massimiliano Scuto
• Sculptures on stage, prosthesis and machinery — Giovanna Amoroso, Istvan Zimmermann
• Costume’s realization — Laura Dondoli
• Production — Benedetta Briglia, Cosetta Nicolini
• Premiere — 4 November 2014