GREEN IS NOT A COLOUR

for “Forest of Deceits”, by João Pedro Vaz

GREEN IS NOT A COLOUR is a scenic installation designed for “Forest of Deceits", directed by João Pedro Vaz and presented in São João National Theatre (Porto, PT).

It is composed of three curtains (6mX9m) in constant movement. Activating such a stage machine (made of technical devices, beams, hydraulic cranes, sequential bearings, arms and hands) it is at the same time a labyrinth, a matrioska and a simple backdrop.

GREEN IS NOT A COLOUR is a one-colour choreography. An abstract landscape of a forest, which is a common place of the collective imaginary.

Removing all the symbols, shapes and effects from the forest, we are left with just one colour. The shapeless, liquid and impalpable green of these three velvet curtains. Placing the colour green inside a black box and mobilising it according to a precise choreography, this device brings out live pictures in “mise en abîme”, creating performative places and situations of a forest beyond its commonplace.
For the construction of these curtains, a theoretical and practical research was carried out about the predominant colours of this fictional and specific “forest”. The forest as a presence, as a body. This research led to the elaboration and making of a colour and was transposed into a velvet tissue that could reflect this choreographic investigation of the colour.
















text
Gil Vicente

direction
João Pedro Vaz

translation
José Bento

set and costume design
Sara Vieira Marques

light design
Filipe Pinheiro

direction assistance
Gonçalo Fonseca

withAfonso Santos, Hugo Paz, Joana Carvalho, João Melo, Lia Carvalho, Mário Santos, Rodrigo Santos e Ananda Miranda (alaúde)


production
Teatro Nacional São João