The lingering now

The Lingering Now is the second panel of the diptych Our Odyssey. In 2017, we started to work around Homer’s Odyssey, the first panel being Ithaca. We used a theatrical approach, staging the last part of the story, when Odysseus tries to get home, exhausted by ten long years of journey. He is getting ready to leave Calypso’s island. The stage was divided in half so the audience could see both locations: on one side Calypso’s island, on the other Ithaca where Penelope is fighting with all her resources to keep the power away from her suitors, all of this clearly making allusion to the current situation in Brazil. The Lingering Now deepens, adds layers to the original production but also widens it since this is a more ample passage from the story. (…)The Lingering Now is not a play. To paraphrase the opening of What if they went to Moscow?, it’s maybe a movie and maybe it isn’t. It’s maybe a play but it starts like a movie. The heart of the piece is cinematic. But it’s through the film that we get on stage, so it is also an odyssey that leads us to theatre. There are innumerable odysseys themselves made up of other odysseys. We went to certain places in the world to film people living their own odysseys, not to produce a documentary, but rather to offer them a fiction through which they could recount what they are experiencing. A play built from The Odyssey with passages from the original but which respects my language and where reality and fiction are constantly combining with each other. We filmed in Palestine, Libya, Greece, South Africa and in Amazonia. A sort of relay race between many Odysseuses – men and women. The story goes from one place to another, a single journey with multiple actors in a virtual space. Even if they don’t meet each other, the story continues and numerous facets of the work are multiplied in the film and on the stage to eventually touch us in our hearts.

By
Christiane Jatahy

Based on
L’Odyssée d’Homère
With
Abbas Abdulelah Al’Shukra
Abdul Lanjesi
Abed Aidy
Adnan Ibrahim Nghnghia
Ahmed Tobasi
Bepkapoy
Blessing Opoko
Corina Sabbas
Emilie Franco
Faisal Abu Alhayjaa
Fepa Teixeira
Frank Sithole
Iketi Kayapó
Irengri Kayapó
Ivan Tirtiaux
Jehad Obeid
Joseph Gaylard
Jovial Mbenga
Kroti
Laerte Késsimos
Leon David Salazar
Linda Michael Mkhwanasi
Maroine Amimi
Mbali Ncube
Melina Martin
Mustafa Sheta
Nadège Meden
Nambulelo Meolongwara
Noji Gaylard
Ojo Kayapó
Omar Al Sbaai
Phana
Pitchou Lambo
Pravinah Nehwati
Pykatire
Ramyar Hussaini
Ranin Odeh
Renata Hardy
Vitor Araújo
Yara Ktaish

Concept, staging and direction (movie)
Christiane Jatahy
Artistic adviser, set design and lighting
Thomas Walgrave
Director of photography
Paulo Camacho

Music
Domenico Lancelotti
Vitor Araujo
Sound design
Alex Fostier
Company collaboration and coordination
Henrique Mariano
Production and touring
Daphné Seale
Juliette Thieme

Staging (film) Christiane Jatahy, Paulo Camacho
Cameraman (film) Paulo Camacho
Second camera (film) Thomas Walgrave
Mixage (film) Breno Furtado, Pedro Vituri

Stage manager Benoît Ausloos
Video direction Matthieu Bourdon
Light operator Juan Borrego
Sound operator David Defour
The all team of the Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles

Palestine
Local production – Jénine
The Freedom Theatre – Ahmed Tobasi, Mustafa Sheta
Sound operator Issa J Qumsyeh

Lebanon
Sound operator – Beyrouth / Vallée de la Vallée de la Beqaa – Nour Salman
Lokal translator – Hiba Hussein

Greece
Local production – Athènes – Daphné Tolis
Sound operator – Emmanuil Manousakis

South Africa
Local production – Johannesburg
Outreach Foundation – Linda Michael Mkhwanasi, Malvin Phana Dube, Gérard Bester
Sound operator – Paul Van Zyl

Brazil
Local production – Amazonie
Rafael Cabral, Clara Aruac
Sound operator – Breno Furtado

Création Studio Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles

Production
Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles, SESC São Paulo
Co-production
Ruhrtriennale (Allemagne), Comédie de Genève (Suisse), Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe (France), Teatro Municipal São Luiz (Portugal), Festival d’Avignon (France), Le Maillon-Théâtre de Strasbourg Scène européenne (France), Riksteatern (Suède), Temporada Alta (Espagne).
Sets construction and costumes
Ateliers du Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles

Christiane Jatahy is an international associate artist in Centquatre-Paris/France, at the Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe and the Schauspielhaus Zürich (Zwitserland).

With the support of
The Freedom Theatre (Palestine), Outreach Foundation (South Africa)
With the international support of
Ambassade du Brésil en France, Ambassade de France au Brésil, Bureau de représentation du Brésil à Ramallah, Ambassade du Brésil au Liban, Ambassade du Brésil en Grèce, Ambassade de Belgique au Liban