Atmosfere e tonalità emotive: Nachlass – Pièces sans personnes di Rimini Protokoll, Everywoman di Milo Rau

Abstract

This article aims to contribute to current research on emotional atmospheres and affective tonalities in contemporary theatre by focusing on two highly significant works by internationally renowned artists: Nachlass – Pièces sans personnes (2016) by Rimini Protokoll, Everywoman by Milo Rau. Nachlass by the Swiss-German collective poses a fundamental question: what does a human being wish to leave behind after death – what kind of legacy (Nachlass) do they intend to pass on to the living? Nachlass constitutes a profound inquiry into the path each person takes toward the final step, the meanings they assign to life, their approach to death and absence, memory, and the question of the “after”. Many of these themes resonate in Rau’s Everywoman, which – while marked by obvious and necessary differences – shares with Nachlass a general vision of theatre, along with similar emotional atmospheres and affective tonalities. This study will focus specifically on these elements, paying particular attention to the interplay between emotional atmospheres and affective tonalities and the spatial, material, and bodily dimensions of performance – including the presence and absence of bodies, theatrical space, and objects.