Confrontation between apathetic body and restless mind is at the heart of the show ‘Inertia’

Perhaps one of the biggest challenges when dealing with depression is the apathetic state – when the person doesn’t feel like doing almost anything. But what if, unlike the body that gives in, the mind works restlessly as it does in adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)? This contrast is one of the mottos of the performance show. Inertia, staged by actor, director and researcher Ricardo Zigomático. He premieres his first monologue at 8:30 pm this Wednesday, at Sala Carlos Carvalho at Casa de Cultura Mário Quintana (Rua dos Andradas, 736). The play is part of the programming of the 24th Porto Verão Alegre and will have another session in the same place and at the same time, on Thursday.

“The text does not touch on this subject, but conveys the experience of what it is like to have a depression crisis, of a person who cannot get up, who can only exist thinking”, summarizes the artist. “Once ADHD causes agitation inside the head, then this person who is depressed also lives with a lot of things going on in the mind: verbiage, different images. In the play, it’s as if the audience could access this brain”.

Zigomático used his own writings (gathered since 2015) and those of other people, such as his grandfather, Ênnio Mércio, and the poet Guilherme Mayer, a longtime friend of his. “I had wanted to carry out this work for some time, and I saw in Porto Verão Alegre the opportunity to present at the festival – which is integrating several languages ​​- my current research, of media and technologies within the theater, which I am developing with the GRIPE group, from the Department of Dramatic Arts at UFRGS, under the guidance of professor Chico Machado”, he comments.

Before this first face-to-face monologue, he had already done a solo work, for the virtual environment. named Web Theater Definitive Manual (2020), the play in class format addressed with humor and irony the strategies and techniques for creating a work for the internet. In Inertia, in addition to showing the audience what it’s like to live with depression and adult ADHD, Zygomático also exposes, on stage, all the tiredness of the consumer society and the prostration “that keeps us moving even when we are still”. Lying down inside a trapdoor of a cart that serves as a mini-stage, the actor also works with the issue of body restraint.

From inside the trap door where he remains, Zigomático uses a cell phone, a compact keyboard (to create and play the voice and soundtrack) and a mini projector. “In addition to projecting images onto my face, I also project an image of my face onto the top of the cart,” he explains. Through an accessibility application for the visually impaired, he regulates his voice tone to give the text on his cell phone. The lighting is also up to him, who first appears with his back to the audience, and, little by little, turns towards the audience. “This cart that serves as a mini stage keeps turning. On the top, there is a tube television and another one made of led projecting other parts of the body, in addition to my face”, explains the artist.

The joke in relation to inertia and continuous movement, typical of a routine imposed by various situations linked to capitalism, explains the wear and tear of “being forced to always be producing” something. With a career spanning 15 years, Zigomático created the design, performance, direction, dramaturgy, lighting, costumes and scenery for his first solo show. The production is also his, in partnership with Ursula Collischonn and Chico Machado.

This montage was carried out by Teatro Sarcáustico (a group that the artist has been part of since 2008) and GRIPE The latter is a group that researches creative processes in the performing arts, based on technical issues of the shows, and also the insubordination between the scenic texts . “We understand that dramaturgy is also in light, acting and scenery, elements that are related in a non-hierarchical way, with the same weight within the work”, he explains.

Zigomático says that he has always been interested in the technical issues of the show as a trigger for creative processes. Before the current research, which mixes sound art and scenic arts, with the use of objects that can create dramaturgy, he had already carried out some experiments in previous shows – acting in The Last Piece (directed by Gabriela Poester) and directing the show Millions Against One, both productions also staged in this edition of Porto Verão Alegre. “I understand theater as a space for creation together with the public. However, in Inertia the interaction is more with the shadows that are created; in this case, the audience ended up being much more passive. What I wanted in this work was really to provide a more visual experience of what this body with depression is like, what a crisis is, this weight.”