Speculative Design

Favola in musica by Claudio Monteverdi

Directed and designed by Jiahui Cai

Venue: Schauspielhaus Graz

This is a tragedy.
Is it though?
Whose tragedy is it?

It’s a tragedy of Orfeo who was trapped in his hero fantasy.

It’s a tragedy of women who have no power in their own lives in the masculine hero epic.

It’s a tragedy of love where the focus is not about the rescuing of love but where love is used as an excuse to fulfil the classic hero’s journey.

While the story traditionally centers on Orfeo’s hero’s journey, this production decentralizes him by subtly shifting the perspective to Euridice. Without altering the original music, the scenography presents a deeper exploration of the female characters, using set, costume, and movement to question Orfeo’s dominance.

Even though much of the stage action revolves around Orfeo, the design ensures that Euridice’s experience and voice emerge in contrast to his fantasy-driven narrative. This reorientation is further explored in the following slides.

Color contrast plays a prominent role in the design, highlighting key emotional and thematic shifts. Metaphors are embedded throughout the visual language, from stark costume and set contrasts to recurring motifs like the eyes, which symbolize the pivotal moment when Orfeo looks back at Euridice. These visual metaphors add layers of meaning, enhancing the storytelling and deepening the audience’s understanding of the relationships and power dynamics at play.

The costume design reflects the power dynamics and fantasy-driven relationships within the narrative. To highlight this illusion, all characters except Orfeo wear 2D cut-out costumes(in the scenes within the book), giving them the appearance of flat, graphic figures. This visual treatment underscores how Orfeo’s world is not real but a construct of his mind, where others, especially women, lack depth and autonomy. This design choice critiques traditional storytelling by making visible the patriarchal lens through which Orfeo views his surroundings.