Script for performance - Part 1
Violeta begins reading:
Simeon Solomon painted Sappho and Erinna in a Garden at Mytilene in 1864. Sappho’s eyes are closed, her whole face pressed adoringly against Erinna’s cheek. Sappho’s right hand gently grabs Erinna by the hip. Her hand cusped in Erinna’s hand and hidden just below the shoulder of her dress. Erinna’s gaze is absentminded, and her knee is bent, resting on top of Sappho’s leg.
While reading, Violeta signals to a piece on the floor. Sappho and Erinna, is a sculpture where that image is reproduced in concrete and combined with an alien-like blob. Violeta reads:
Simeon Solomon, who painted Sappho and Erina, was a Jewish British painter, known affectionately as the darling of the Pre-Raphaelites. Almost ten years after painting Sappho and Erina, in 1873, he was arrested and charged with attempting to commit sodomy in a public urinal in London. He was caught with an illiterate, 60-year-old stableman who probably suffered a harsher conviction due to his class. Although he kept painting, his career never recovered.
Joe is the keeper. She intently guards the snake head; that is the token. Eloy is the past. He should embody the dancer and choreographer Neil Bartlett which, in turn, embodies Simeon Solomon. Violeta is the narrator, the only one who directly addresses the audience. None of them smile. Their attitude is serious, solemn. Also mechanical, as if they were doing this series of steps every day.
Eloy and Joe stand in the balcony, above everyone, gazing to the front, looking past the windows. Violeta is downstairs with a mic, facing the audience directly who is seated.
