IN SHORT ⟶ In one of the most historical and heartfelt places in the City of Rome – the Monumental Cemetery of Verano – El Conde de Torrefiel takes us on a soundwalk inside the unique setting of the city of the dead. A perturbing and exciting place, simultaneously characterised by the presence/absence of people who lived their lives laughing, talking and shouting.
Cuerpos Celestes is a soundwalk that dramatises a public space such as The Monumental Cemetery of Verano, a burial place for at least twenty centuries. It creates a pause in the urban landscape and represents the passage to another dimension made of cypresses and funerary buildings.
Cemeteries are like cities: they are composed of central and peripheral areas, wealthy and poor districts, the host famous and ordinary people. It’s a dormitory town made of stone and cement, with buildings and green areas. The dopplegänger of the city of the living.
Cuerpos Celestes is an eclectic dissertation that accompanies the listeners as they tour the unique setting of the city of the dead. A disturbing and moving place, marked by the simultaneous presence and absence of people who once lived, laughed, talked, and screamed. What would happen if they all woke up for an instant at the same time? Would this place turn into a stadium? Would they give life to an alliance of bodies or to a Carnival?
Cuerpos Celestes is part of
PRISMA — Twilight Zones
El Conde de Torrefiel in the city of Rome
El Conde de Torrefiel is a project led by Tanya Beyeler and Pablo Gisbert, founded in 2010 and based in Barcelona. Their research has given life to an aesthetic that merges theatre, writing by bodies, literature, sound research and plastic arts in its exploration of the ambiguities of contemporary life. Among their main works, GUERRILLA (2016), LA PLAZA (2018), Una imagen interior (2022), La luz de un lago (2024). Their shows and installations toured theatres and festivals in America, Asia and above all Europe: the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels, the Viennaer Festwochen in Vienna, the Festival d’Automne in Paris, the Festival GREC in Barcelona, Short Theatre in Rome, the MMCA in Seoul, the Museo Universitario del Chopo in Mexico, the Transámerique Festival in Montréal and the Festival d’Avignon, among others.
Tanya Beyeler (Lugano, 1980) moved from Switzerland to Spain when she was 20 to study Dramaturgy and Human Sciences in Barcelona – she graduated in Drama in 2005. She began to work in the field of textual theatre but time and experience brought her close to dance and performance.
Pablo Gisbert (Ontinyent, 1982) studied Philosophy at Valencia University and Dramaturgy in Madrid. He graduated in Dramaturgy from the Institut del Teatre of Barcelona in 2011. In the same year he was awarded with the National Accesit prize Marqués de Bradomín for his text A cinema burns and ten people are burned. In 2013 he was selected for the European dramaturgy platform Fabulamundi: playwriting Europe.
idea and creation El Conde de Torrefiel
text Tanya Beyeler and Pablo Gisbert
sound design Pablo Gisbert, cabosanroque
voice Tanya Beyeler
accompaniment and distribution Alessandra Simeoni
presented at Short Theatre 2024 within the project Eco:frequenze funded by Next Generation EU
with the support of Insieme Siamo Arte 2024 by Città Metropolitana di Roma Capitale and ATCL
realised with Otto per Mille funds from the Chiesa Valdese
ph. Lorenza Daverio
