Nicolás Lange
The Killing of the First Person
Santiago de Chile, Amsterdam
«The Killing of the First Person» questions the speaking self as the centre of theatre and identity. Chilean author, director and performer Nicolás Lange combines lecture performance and contemporary dance in a poetic exploration of language, bodies and memory. The work draws on his research into the persecution of homosexual and queer people in fifteenth-century Florence. The performance searches for forms of storytelling beyond confession and fixed identity – as a shared language that shifts and speaks in many voices.
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«The Killing of the First Person» begins with an attempt to erase the self. That speaking subject which, in theatre, usually steps into the light and tells its own story. In the beginning was the word – and with it the first person, the authority of one’s own voice, the claim to visibility.
Chilean author, director and performer Nicolás Lange, following periods in Florence and a Master’s degree at DAS Theatre in Amsterdam, turns his work against this order of speech. Together with a dancer, he opens up a space on stage in which language is not used to confess, but to transform bodies.
The performance draws on his longterm research into the persecution and burning of homosexual and queer people in late fifteenth-century Florence. For Lange, these acts of burning mark the beginning of a violence that continues to this day. What remains of a body after the fire? What kind of language emerges where someone has been erased?
Lecture performance and contemporary dance come together in a search for another form of storytelling: away from confession, away from identity as a fixed category. The third person emerges as a way of avoiding classification – as a way of speaking that is shared, displaced and multiplied, speaking to and through others.
Dates and Tickets
shows from today- Fr 14.08. 19:30 - 20:30 CHF 40.–/20.–
- Sa 15.08. 19:30 - 20:30 CHF 40.–/20.–
- Su 16.08. 20:00 - 21:00 CHF 40.–/20.–
Accessibility
Easy to read
«The Killing of the First Person» is a theatre piece by Nicolás Lange from Chile. He is a writer, director and performer. In this piece, he combines a lecture, theatre and abstract dance.
The piece looks at how people see themselves and how they tell their own stories. It asks who gets to speak and who gets to be seen.
The artist researched the history of homosexual and queer people in Florence, Italy, in the 15th century. Many of them were persecuted and killed. The piece tells part of this history.
The performance is also about identity. It shows that identity is not fixed and can change over time. Different people can tell different versions of a story. The piece asks how stories are shared and whose voices are heard.
Content & Sensory Notes
The performance deals with homophobia and includes descriptions of violence and murder in the Middle Ages.
There is partial nudity (upper body) and a scene referring to oral sex between two male characters.
The performance contains a large amount of theatrical smoke, a scene with stroboscopic lights, the scent of fennel in the space and the abrupt falling of small objects from the ceiling.
Artistic direction and cast
| Text, Konzept & Regie | Nicolás Lange |
|---|---|
| Performance | Nicolás Lange, Nazar Rakhmanov |
| Sounddesign | Diane Mahin |
| Visuals & Klavierkomposition | Robin Plenio |
| Technik | Alec Mateo |
| Visuals Credits | Enrique A Gutierrez |
| Œil extérieur | Veronika Abdul Visocka |
| Choreografische Beratung | Jana Jacuka |
| Tutor | Zhana Ivanova |
| Externe Beratung | Tine Milz, Dries Verhoeven, Josefin Arnell |
| Dokumentation | Peteris Viksna |
| Distribution | Fundación Teatro a Mil Santiago de Chile |
| Übersetzung | Dòra Kapusta |
| Foto | Peteris Viksna |
Production
| Produktion | Fundación Teatro a Mil in Zusammenarbeit mit DAS Theatre |
|---|---|
| Unterstützung | Frascati |
| Dank | L’Office national de diffusion artistique (ONDA), Ivan Cidrian, Raul Riquelme, Matías Segura, Maria Ignacia Walker, Elias Adam, Zahra Mohseni, Isidora Goncić |
| Premiere | August 2026, Zürcher Theater Spektakel |
Süd
Site map
Lecture performance. Dance. Anti-queer violence. Language & identity
Première. Nominated for the ZKB Patronage Prize
Duration
60 min.
Language
English
Surtitles
German
Age
16 years plus