When the sun has gone down and the unfamiliar nature of the night casts its shadows upon us, the time has come to be prepared. To be armed with garlic and crucifix, a sharpened stake or holy water against those who roam among us, hungry and with sharp teeth, not dead and yet not alive. But where exactly is the line between the living and the dead? Today’s medical criteria try to create unambiguity. In the old days, this uncertainty made people lose sleep. What if the dead, mourned and buried, suddenly rise again? This myth, both terrible and fascinating, set out from Europe in the pale shape of the vampire to vanquish the whole world. And it underwent an astounding transformation: The horrible beast became a romantic ideal of a modern, rational and transcendent intellectual full of timeless wisdom. What remained were two prominent characteristics that keep the ambivalence of the vampire suspended between the poles of overwhelming potency and absolute vulnerability: immortality – and the burden of the insatiable desire for blood.
The Chilean author, director and musician Manuela Infante will use an age-old myth to investigate the Western construction of a line between the healthy and the diseased, the animal and the human, superiority and vulnerability. Her long-time creative collaborator Diego Noguera will develop the sound design of this work, which will set an acoustic focus through the use of voices and sound.