Paolo Panizza
AJAX – HOW TO STAGE A SUICIDE

“Great unfathomable time brings dark things into light and buries the bright in darkness.
Nothing is too strange, time sizes the most dread oath, the most hardened mind”
“Ajax” by Sophocles

Ajax feels in the Greek army second only to Achilles. Therefore, after Achilles death, he claims the warrior weapons for himself. But instead, Odysseus gets them and Ajax, frauded by Athena, murders in revenge a herd thinking it’s the Greek army. The play ends with the hero’s suicide, out of shame.

“Sophocles’ Ajax sees beyond his own tragedy into a universal darkness;
there is a brutal mutability at the heart of things – betrayal,
God-inflicted madness, and degradation are merely its symptoms.
No Sophoclean play is so concerned with time and
so saturated with temporal expressions.”
“Ajax” by Herbert Golder and Richard Pevear

Paolo Panizza is a theatre director, actor and performer based in Milan. Trained as an actor in Milan and New York, he started acting at Teatro Franco Parenti in various productions directed by Fabio Cherstich. In 2016, he got a role in the Italian movie “Che vuoi che sia”, produced by Warner Bros Pictures. While acting, he also started working as assistant director for Lara Franceschetti, Mariano Furlani, Fabio Cherstich and Mattia Giorgetti. Paolo’s first work as an independent director was “The death and the Maiden” by Dorfman, and was titled “Wahrheit Macht Frei”. He directed performances in the Sforza Castle and has two shows currently touring in Italy. He is a member of the cultural association Spazio Verticale, as director and assistant director. Paolo also worked as assistant director for James Conway (English Touring Opera) for “Alcina” by Handel. Since then he has directed scenes from “Il Matrimonio Segreto” by Cimarosa,“Fidelio” by Beethoven,“Orlando” by Handel,“Les Contes d’Hoffmann” by Offenbach and “L’incoronazione di Poppea” by Monteverdi.

Text: “Ajax” by Sophocles, “Petrolio” by Pasolini, “Malagrazia” by Michelangelo Zeno, “Good Morning Vietnam” by Mitch Markovitz and “The Silence of the Lambs” by Thomas Harris.
Collaborators: ANDREA ALBANESE and STEFANO MAZZOTTI (live electronic music), TRIIN UUSTALU (costume), LIISBETH LIIDEMAA (makeup).
Special thanks to Marshall Stay and Ragnar Uustal for their recorded voices and Edoardo Ferrari for the drawing.

Premiere on 1st February 2020 in Von Krahl Theatre (Tallinn)