Caligula is the first imaginative work concerned with the problem of the absurd, premiering in 1945, about a character who determines that others should share his lucid awareness of the world’s absurdity. It’s an illustration of the dangers involved in going too far in acting out the consequences of living in a world without values. By treating human life as expendable, the main character is aware that death destroys all plans and reduces them to nothingness, so he is determined, as an absurd man, to accumulate a range of sensual experience in defiance of death. In this way, happiness is a by-product of self-realisation. He who lives the absurd realises human existence to the fullest, and is therefore… happy.
Presented November 4th-8th, 2008 at Dancers’ Studio West (Calgary AB)
Starring Val Duncan, Marcy Lannan, Kevin MacDonnell, Elan Pratt, Mike Rogers, and Elaine Weryshko.
Designed by Lindsay Everatt and John Hale (Set & Costume); Brian MacNeil (Lights); Gillian Pinckney and Dan Guiry (Sound); Ana Lopez (Make-Up and Hair); and Poster and Illustration (Aimee Qiu).
Stage Management by Gillian Pinckney; Language Coaching by Aimee Qiu and Blaine Gruenwald; Movement Facilitation by Elan Pratt; Script Rendering by Michael Fenton and Mike Unrau.