Битеф

the musical instruments, microphones, and four sound towers to a side with a capacity of four thousand watts. When the actors are below, the musical theme of AJÖE is outlined, lasting four minutes. AJÖE is the first of the component PARTS of SUZ/O/SUZ. The FIGHT and the preceding scene NEAT form the second PART; action is in the round, and the two combined last fifteen minutes. Both the FIGHT and the remaining PARTS of SUZ/O/SUZ - the POOLS and the RACKS - form animai, ceremonial aspect. Earth, fire, air, music, water set the pace for the specific actions of the performers, who do not so much act as invoke, perform ceremonies, accomplish acts. These three PARTS, united as RITE (fight, pool, racks) have three basic stage pieces (carts, water tanks and towers) that take up half the stage. The actors are inside the towers, inside the tanks, watching; on the carts, moving them. They enter and exit them. They punch holes in them, shift them, jump of them. They

collide, burst, fly, throw themselves about, and during the whole time of ' the PARTS, remain above the heads of the audience. Combined with the expectation generated by the nexuses and the axes, the sequence achieves powerful theatre magnetism by minimal means: the carts (2x1x1.60 m), the tanks (1x1x1.5 m) and the towers (2.5 X 2.5x6 m). And from these basic constructions comes a shower of recognizable elements: flour, coloured dyes, straw which, by means of water, wind or fire create a spectrum, a range of movement; a paradigm of life, of the world. Here, though it isn’t easy, the actor always manage to stand out: his organic quality always projects above the aluvium of elements, images and visual impressions. The actors - man - carry history and legend on their shoulders. Out of all this mixture of organisms and elements hé is the only one capable of going back, and up. Suz/O/Suz. This explains how the PARTS form a thread, a ritual, a history; a story somehow beyond the independant will of LA FURA DELS BAUS. LA FURA DELS BAUS is not

trying to tell anything specific. The only thing needed to germinate history and legend is to posit a human being. The PART which is Rite as well as FIGHT takes place in' theatrical terras on two stage sets, one fixed (the rack), the other moveable (the cart), functioning in pairs. For the same reason there are two aquariums, two towers, two carts. In their vertical form one tower is square, the other triangular. Three actors perform inside them, while two more act in the aquariums and carts. In this way the performance reaches a succession of peaks. The PARTS are developed by actors in twos and threes in specific performances, while the NEXUSES and AXES, combining both the audience and LA FURA DELS BAUS, are the realm of a multi-faceted conception. The three PARTS of the Rite are linked by a NEXUS between the FIGHT and the POOLS and an AXIS that pivots the FIGHT and POOLS with the RA CKS The NEXUS is the PASSAGE OF FIRE. After the FIGHT (a conflict which re-

mains unsolved) the carts emerge from the two towers; they bring fire (light, speed) to the aquariums from the tops of the three and four-sided elements. The AXIS is the ULELE. ULELE is a wild celebration; festivity and pause, before the harshness of the RACKS. Two bathtubs with two hundred litres of water, thirty buckets and the two carts, which have undergone a change: instead of the platform they have a metal bedspring net to rock and cradle the new-born from out of the aquariums. The action takes place at the south end of the stage area and lasts eight minutes. The battery of props needed for the FIGHT includes sheeps’ heads (2), meat (12 entrails), flour (50 kilos), ribbon, wrapping paper, water dyed red (30 litres), wine (2 litres) and olive oil (2 litres). The aquariums or tanks each with a capacity of a thousand litres and glass 2.5 cm thick, are mounted on metal frameworks. These sets are solid but delicate; once' they are set up it takes the water from two to six hours to heat. The towers, or racks (rack; репса.

Репса ia a slang word in Catalan referring to racks of dried cod; the suspended stretched bodies of the actors look like racks of codfish) have a common shape at the base from which rise the two prismatic forms, one square, the other triangular, marking differences within members of the same species. The two structures are provided with sockets to hold the blazing torches (fire), a fan in the bottom part (air) and containers on the platform for water, blood and other materials. The main function of the rack is as a human (coat) hanger. The elements in the triangular rack have an organic meaning (smoke, 6 15-litre buckets of water, three bellows with dye, half a bale of straw, 1 watermelon or, if not obtainable, a cabbage and apple, 6 helpings of custard, 7 fire torches) while the square rack presents elements with a sense of hermeticism (2 buckets of water, one bucket of wheat waste, 2 buckets of flour, 1 basin with coloured mud, one hollowed-out pumpkin holding red dye, and two pyrotechnic decives: smoke and magnesium flash). There is a system of pulleys and scaf-

folding in the two towers to which all the actors are tied except two, who control the scenic movement. All this while the action takes place above the heads of the spectators. Six sketches or positions or procedures with the RACKS take place in each tower. In the triangular, or organic one, there is suspension, makeup, making contact, fire, dye, straw... In the square or hermetic tower there is suspension, smearing, wheat waste, first fall, covering with flour, second fall. The four-wheeled carts weigh 100 kilos. Their structure is simple, of metal, wood and bolts, and they can be taken apart. They measure 2 metres. Their wheels are made of rubber. The carts are pushed by one actor while another rides on top. It is a dizzying ride, rattling during the FIGHT, calmer at the marking of the territorial borderline. Within the belly of the machine there is an electrical device that produces a spark which sets off a dramatic cloud of smoke at the culminating moment of the FIGHT. With the wandering impression produced by the carts the show tends to

drag. When it is all over, after the ceremony of the RACKS, the hanging men take over and, in a murky atmosphere, a halflight tinged with fog, they quickly go back inside; they go over the PART of MEAT and FIGHT once again as the mirrors of the POOLS glimmer and where, we expect, the regressive rite will also be repeated. The complete circuit. Until the house lights once again open the perspective of the AUTOMATONS: acting without actors takes first place. SUZ/O/SUZ. And so on, in succession. SUZ/O/SUZ takes on a spiral motion with the automatons. A bridge joining the beginning and end through acting without actors. At the time of the second presentation of the automatons the show has been going on for an hour and fifteen mb nutes. The automatons are made of metal ; wood and glass and have a 220-volt electric motor installed which prodm ces mechanical movement and the sound sequence. They are sculptures, fixed to the floor and spread out over the whole

area. Their first appearance lasts five minutes, as opposed to one in the final repeat. Not enough time for most spectators to take in all the pieces, which increases the indefinite character of SUZ/O/SUZ. The automatons are supported on three feet (a 1 m equilateral triangle) and in size average 2.70 m high by ft m wide. Their names are taken ffonp slang: Marea, Bomberò, Procesionaria. Folclorica, Heavy, Jazzmen. They must be set up and desmantled for each performance. The sound they emit is calculated to reach an acoustic radius of two hundred people minimum. The sound, consisting of an amplified recording located in each of the six pieces, blends into one. As soon as the audience has occupied the space without seats where the show takes place, the automatons are started. But before the syncopated movements and persistent cacophony can become dull, the sense of space changes. Four ropes fall from a height of twelve metres, and down them comes the IRRUPTION all the actors dressed in white shirt, tie and shoes.

I3ITI=I=