The name Romeo Castellucci was on everyone’s lips after his representative work “Hey Girl!” was presented at F/T 09 Spring. This autumn the Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio leader returns to Japan with the consecutive staging of “Inferno”,“Purgatorio” and “Paradiso”, a trilogy that has already shaken audiences across the world.

Purgatory hidden in everyday life. Nauseatingly beautiful afterimages.

At a first glance we are presented to the ideal bourgeois family. The beautiful mother is preparing supper; however the impeccably dressed son suffers from a headache. Then the father returns, fatigued with troubles at work..
Unlike “Inferno” and “Paradiso”, where there is no notion of time, “Purgatorio” is the double of the earth; it is human life in its daily repetition, familiarity with everyday tasks, and the trap of routine. In this hyper-real world without shadows a pure soul has to be sacrificed in order for the sinner to find salvation..
The second part of Dante’s Divine Comedy is an allegory telling of the climb of Dante up the Mount of Purgatory, guided by the Roman poet Virgil. In Castellucci’s “Purgatorio” the climb up the mountain is symbolized by the staircase leading up to the second floor, where the son’s bedroom is located.

Creating his own “La Divina Commedia”

When he was appointed associated artist at the 2008 Avignon Festival, Castellucci chose to work with one of the most important literary works of Western civilization; Dante’s The Divine Comedy. The worldview according to The Divine Comedy continually exerts heavy influence on both the Western culture and the rest of the world. Maintaining that every attempt to stage Dante’s magnum opus would be an impossible task, Castellucci has chosen to face the work by “becoming Dante”. Loosely inspired by the masterpiece, Castellucci’s re-interpretation approaches the majestic spectacle dealing with the themes of life and death, from a contemporary point of view.