The re-use of the Classics as intangible culturale heritage: the Dead Centre case

The speech is a case study of stage practice in the performing arts, discussing the work of Irish theatre company Dead Centre and their penchant for re-using Classics in their performances. The group takes an innovative perspective, using the most advanced contemporary tools and technologies to create performances that always take place traditional theatre spaces. Starting from Classics as intangible cultural heritage, the truly significant point in the work of this ensemble is the use of different languages: the overlap between acting performativity, objects and machines; the use of headphone audio and the resulting immersion for actors and spectators; the role of the constant presence of videos on stage; the investigation about bodies. All of this is always connected to and closely linked to another text from the past, in an eternal renewal of times, thoughts and spaces. Dead Centre is an important case, as it experiments with an interesting declination of scenic practice in relation to the Classics: the work on the Classics consists of selecting, using, rehashing and transforming material that is now part of the intangible asset of a culture, without renouncing the most innovative languages and questions of the present.