Lighting Design, Scenography & Executive Production
Darwin’s tortoise (La tortuga de Darwin) by Juan Mayorga
Stage Directors: Flavia Gresores & Iván Rojas
Cinnober Teater
Gothenburg, Sweden
September 2019
Project description: In 1835 Charles Darwin made his famous voyage to the Galapagos Islands. He brought back a tortoise, Harriet. Harriet lived for nearly 200 years, through some of the major atrocities of the twentieth century. In Darwin’s Tortoise Harriet has a starring role as a witness to history with plenty to say about how humanity has failed itself. She is the past come to warn the future, but it is unlikely that anyone will listen.
Harriet promises to give the Professor the inside story of every major event of the twentieth century that she has lived through. In return, the Professor must help secure her passage back to the Galapagos. Nevertheless two more characters are interest in Harriet, Betty who is Professor's wife, she wants to make money out thanks to a talkative tortoise, and the Doctor wants to use Harriet to have a reliable reputation.
Harriet sadly discovers everyone's plan and finds that humanity is failing. She makes a wise choice, poison them all and not allow them to continue to spread those kinds of thoughts. Harriet wonders what she will do now. The answer is simple. She will do what she has always done: adapt.
Work description: My proposal was to create a neutral white space, which can be the different spaces that the story required. The material of the scenography allowed me to play with shadows and projections.
Creating dreamlike, subjective, and futuristic images that emphasized the text and support the aesthetic of the work.
