Odysseus versus Polyphemus
ESI - ITALIAN SCHOOL INSTITUTION IN THE NETHERLANDS
in collaboration with the
CONSULATE GENERAL OF ITALY

presents
ODYSSEY AGAINST POLYPHEMUS

odisse1

Single Act of the Italian Theater Company SANSFAÇON of Taranto

Francesco Zigrino recounts Canto IX of the Odyssey

Theater THE BONBONNIERE

Behind the Comedy 1 –  Maastricht

Wednesday 26 May 2004 – Ore 16.30 (time: 1 Now)

Other representations:

Thursday 27 May: The hague (Corbulo College)

Friday 28 May:  Nijmegen (DHD Center)

Saturday 29 May: Amsterdam (Italian Cultural Institute)

The Cyclops: this is the first adventure that Odysseus (Ulisse) tells Alcinoo and the Phaeacians gathered in a festive hospitable banquet. In the story, the fable elements are assembled in such a way as to radically contrast the corporate state with a pre-corporate one. Homer, which shows a particular attention to the human context, a sign of the degree of civilization of a group, offers its audience a first detailed description, in an ethnographic key, of otherness, aiming to arouse in the viewer on the one hand a sense of rejection for the proposed model, on the other, a new and stronger self-awareness. The match between Odysseus and Polyphemus, the Canto IX, it is an important manifesto of Homer's ideological culture. It describes an ideal of civilization against another, excluding any mediation, once the communication impossibility has been ascertained. Thus the cultural form of Western civilization is outlined.