2009 : Bicentenary of the birth of Charles Darwin and 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species

On the occasion of the celebration of the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species, in 2009, Teatro del Silencio will lead a journey of research and creation across the work and the life of Darwin.

Scholar and man of science, inexhaustible thinker, his discoveries have profoundly changed science, philosophy, religion, and man in his nature and continue to question them even today.

World-famous, Darwin remains a mystery for the great majority of the public. A man whose importance is known by everybody but whose work finally is relatively unknown. A "stranger", confined in his thoughts and reflections.

We’ll speak about the man, we’ll question the current world and the world of tomorrow - as in our works on Arthur Rimbaud (Malasangre or the 1001 nights of the poet) and on Antonin Artaud (Nanaqui - Dossier 262 602 ) - with our own means of researchers and creators: poetry, words, music, pantomime, theater and dance…

Emma Darwin : a mirror look

Out of this need to dig, to question ourselves, this first proposition was born.
To speak about Darwin through Emma, his faithful partner and "counsellor", across a double mirror look.

Emma will be the feminine voice, which, with her doubts, reflections, memories, and flashbacks, will lead our work of writing.

The one who, through her look, will sketch our own look. The one who, through her monologue and her own contradictions, will guide our reflections and questions on Darwin.

Mauricio Celedon's letter of intent
Artistic director of Teatro del Silencio

Why Darwin ?
Maybe we had to wait 200 years to be able to get tangled with languages which are not ours.
So much time was necessary to understand a genius.
But can we imagine the world without Darwin ? Without the deep marks he left ?
We chose to continue our theatrical research on this character who shines nowadays and who can enlighten us all.
Charles and Emma Darwin. We are going to go through their biographies, their lives, to hand them once more in the theatrical lucidity.
Theatre is man’s fantasy, that’s why we speak about a soul so dear as the one of Charles Darwin and we wish to create this magnificent story by ways as only theatre can make it.
We question ourselves on our existence and our evolution.
We still remain an occult poem. It is why I like to make theatre.

She speaks to us about him.
He speaks to us about her.
She speaks to us about her journey aboard The Beagle in Patagonia, in Brazil, in Ecuador, in Argentina, in Chile, in Tierra del Fuego.
He speaks to us about Down, about this infinite suffering of the death of his daughter: Annie.
She speaks to us about his doubts about the existence of God, about this sick man.

Disguise of memories : she carries his memory. And he carries the memory of the Patagonia, the Amazonia. Then, pure greenery, end of street of the sun, Tierra del Fuego, exuberance of unfathomable forests like this world we do not know.
She will then become that wild victorian, that woman who is transformed and carries words that come from a long way away, from a deep earth, from the Pacific, to the compass of a music that moves our souls