In a kind of simultaneous narration, LG recounts how he has opened the grave of his deceased companion (NCTV), prompted by voices he has been hearing. In the play enacted, LG assumes and expands on the role of the demoniac, recounting his past condition and describing how he has ended up taking residence in a cemetery. The plot line originates in the Bible incident ( Mark, 5:9), according to which the Gerasene demoniac begs Jesus to spare him from his torments. The story unfolds during the timeline of a calendar day dedicated to the dead, a kind of All Souls' Day or Saturday of Souls. As the lights "on stage" are lowered the performance sets off with the Chorus's opening monologue followed in turn by the sequence of recitations of the other characters. A group of four women in the role of a Chorus and three other protagonists (LG, NCTV, Narrator) are making their final preparations in front of a dilapidated car among machine parts and the noise of a generator. The narrator joins the few members of the audience present and goes on to record in his journal the setting as well as the events taking place "on stage" as the performance is about to begin. The work opens with a first-person account of the narrator of Z213: Exit, who recounts his arrival at a derelict train station named Nichtovo in search of a place where he has been told, an improvised performance is being staged by, what appears to be, a band of social outcasts. With the People from the Bridge follows the main line of narrative of Z213: Exit, the first book of the Poena Damni trilogy.
The work has been categorized by critics to belong to both the Modernist and the Post-Modernist tradition, while at the same time bearing strong affinities to a variety of canonical texts, among others Homer, Dante, Kafka, Joyce and Beckett. The plot-line centers around an Orpheus-like journey of the protagonist LG who joins his deceased companion in the grave and is subsequently led by her to a liminal realm ahead of the imminent Resurrection Day.
The text is encased in a post-theatrical ritual drama form, drawing on various philosophical and literary sources as well as ancient and modern Greek folklore. The book deals with the theme of loss and the return of the dead in the context of Christian teleology. With the People from the Bridge (Greek: Με τους ανθρώπους από τη γέφυρα) is the second part of the Poena Damni trilogy by Greek author Dimitris Lyacos.
0 kommentar(er)
