{"id":576,"date":"2025-11-23T16:23:55","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T16:23:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/?p=576"},"modified":"2025-11-28T16:13:54","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T16:13:54","slug":"castelluccis-amorous-berenice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/32\/castelluccis-amorous-berenice\/","title":{"rendered":"Castellucci\u2019s Amorous B\u00e9r\u00e9nice<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Antonia Tsamouris<\/strong>*<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

B\u00e9r\u00e9nice<\/em>, freely inspired by Jean Racine. Concept & Direction by Romeo Castellucci. Original Music: Scott Gibbons. Costumes: Iris Van Herpen. Cast: Isabelle Huppert. Participating: Alejandro Ioannidis, Harry Paps, Christos Christopoulos, Dimitris Sarantopoulos, Vangelis Malliaridis, Foivos Michos-Rammos, Giorgos Chatzitheodorou, Ioannis Sidiropoulos, Konstantinos Kounellas, Panagiotis Tzaferis, Pascal Genios, Stelios Kechriotis. Staged at Onassis Stegi, Athens, Greece, 26 to 30 March 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jean Racine\u2019s B\u00e9r\u00e9nice<\/em>, written in 1670, is among his Oriental tragedies, along with Bajazet<\/em> and Mithridate<\/em>, although, according to Georges Forestier, B\u00e9r\u00e9nice<\/em> is not actually a tragedy, since it contains neither murders nor deaths nor bloodshed (Jean Racine<\/em>, Gallimard, 1999). Racine depicted the seductiveness of the Orient, as imagined by seventeenth century Western Europe, but when the \u201clove affair becomes an \u2018affaire d\u2019\u00c9tat\u2019<\/em>, the heroine turns from a representative of eroticism to an enemy of the State, as Mitchell Greenberg argues (Racine: From Ancient Myth to Tragic Modernity<\/em>, University of Minnesota Press, 2010).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The play starts with B\u00e9r\u00e9nice\u2019s and Titus\u2019 return from Egypt, where they lived happily for five years. They are now planning to get married. The Roman Senate, however, advises Titus not to go through with the marriage, if he wishes to become emperor. B\u00e9r\u00e9nice, in the end, is deserted by her lover and scorned by the people of Rome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Director Romeo Castellucci has envisioned Racine\u2019s B\u00e9r\u00e9nice<\/em> in an innovative and intriguing way, turning the tragedy into a monologue for the heroine, stressing her feelings and thoughts since Titus\u2019 betrayal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Castellucci\u2019s mise-en-sc\u00e8ne<\/em> focused on love, it discussed politics as well. In particular, the director underlined Titus\u2019 split between being a lover and a future emperor, emphasizing the duality between private and public life, and largely criticizing the prohibitions and restrictions that laid the foundations for patriarchal societies. Titus, as an integral part of a male-constructed society, could not but abide by the rules of the Roman world and leave the \u2018barbarian\u2019 B\u00e9r\u00e9nice.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Isabelle Huppert as B\u00e9r\u00e9nice feeling desperate as she realizes that Titus will abandon her. Photo: Andreas Simopoulos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Romeo Castellucci emphasized the way B\u00e9r\u00e9nice\u2019s life changed from hope into misery. The heroine\u2019s desperate and emotionally charged monologue was contrasted with various silent tableaux vivants <\/em>involving the fourteen male actors only. Castellucci kept them all silent, allowing only the woman to speak, throughout the one-and-a half hour duration of the performance. What she had to say turned into a scream to which, nonetheless, no one will listen, making B\u00e9r\u00e9nice\u2019s monologue resemble an inner soliloquy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Castellucci placed B\u00e9r\u00e9nice in a cage-like transparent box. The heroine was neither allowed nor able to break free from this space, where she remained like a trapped animal, being gazed at. Later, a flashing wreath, descending from the sky and filling B\u00e9r\u00e9nice\u2019s vital space, highlighted how authority and politics overbear humanity. At the end, when the box\u2019s fourth wall was lifted, B\u00e9r\u00e9nice was apparently freed from her seclusion, but she had nowhere to go. Rejecting the male gaze and her imminent objectification, B\u00e9r\u00e9nice yelled \u201cDo not look at me\u201d (\u201cNe me regardez pas\u201d), directing her scream to each member of the Roman Senate, as well as to each member of the audience. Castellucci\u2019s postmodern addition to the play brought the 17th<\/sup> century heroine face to face with the 21st<\/sup> century theatre audience, highlighting the objectification of the female body that still exists in contemporary societies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Castellucci meticulously depicted men as totally responsible for the construction of western societies. In the beginning, all the male actors were shown at a meeting of the Roman Senate, but later they were brought to the front of the stage to play ball, fight with each other and act in a childish manner, while physically struggling for authority. The liberty with which the actors alternated in these scenes was also contrasted to B\u00e9r\u00e9nice\u2019s female body, secluded and confined within its glassy box. The images formed by the male actors\u2019 bodies resembled well-known tropes of wars and sacrifices, such as Christ\u2019s crucifixion or Eugene D\u00e9lacroix\u2019s Liberty Leading the People<\/em>. Thus, Castellucci reminded the audience that history has, almost solely, been based on male decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Isabelle Huppert as B\u00e9r\u00e9nice in front, and the male actors as members of the Roman Senate at the back. Photo: Andreas Simopoulos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Isabelle Huppert\u2019s B\u00e9r\u00e9nice first appeared as a sensitive woman, a woman in love, hopeful both for her present and the future. She seemed calm and assured of Titus\u2019 love. As the play proceeded, Huppert\u2019s heroine began to look all the more anxious and insecure. Huppert progressed the feelings and reactions of her heroine, moving from serene love to disquiet and finally to misery. She managed to brilliantly depict the transformation of B\u00e9r\u00e9nice, after her separation from Titus, as she headed towards non-existence, screaming against her objectification.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Isabelle Huppert\u2019s B\u00e9r\u00e9nice tries to break free from the hopeless situation in which she finds herself, but the wreath that descends from above reminds her of her isolation. Photo: Alex Majoli<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The costumes by Iris van Herpen were both elegant and functional. B\u00e9r\u00e9nice\u2019s first dress, in white, signified not only her pure love for Titus, but also the heroine\u2019s subordination to authority, with her body fully covered by the dress and a crown on her head. When B\u00e9r\u00e9nice began to realize that she was losing Titus forever, she removed the gown that restricted her, literally and metaphorically, and appeared in a colourful, less restrictive dress, with her loosened hair underlining her disentanglement from societal restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The role of lighting was also important, as in any Castellucci performance; white in the beginning, unraveling the imminent separation of the two lovers, it became red later, signifying both the heroine\u2019s passion and the blood shed by billions of people in the name of politics.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Isabelle Huppert as B\u00e9r\u00e9nice, confronted with the realization that Titus has betrayed her. The washing machine stands for Titus\u2019 change of mind. Photo: Alex Majoli<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Romeo Castellucci\u2019s production was innovative and stimulating, as it explored the mystery of the human soul in juxtaposition to society. It was a lyrical performance, which proposed that love can endure everything and everyone, except for politics. Underneath the cloak of authority, human beings are left naked and vulnerable, like Castellucci\u2019s male actors in the end, proving, as in the fairy tale, that the \u201cKing is naked.\u201d <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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*<\/a>Antonia Tsamouris<\/strong> holds a PhD and a Post-doctoral thesis from the School of English (Aristotle University). Member of the Greek section of IATC, the Harold Pinter Society, as well as Secretary of Eastern Europe of the Board of Directors\u2019 for the Edward Albee Society. She has contributed with articles and reviews in magazines, books and selected volumes, both in Greece and abroad. Her book on Harold Pinter\u2019s phenomenological analysis of his theatre plays and screenplays was published in Greek in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Copyright \u00a9<\/strong> 2025 Antonia Tsamouris
Critical Stages\/Sc\u00e8nes critiques<\/em>, #32, December 2025
e-ISSN: 2409-7411<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Creative<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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