Minotauro

Friedrich Dürrenmatt's "Minotaur, a Ballad" is a reimagining of the

Greek myth. The roles of the main characters are reversed; the Minotaur

is the victim, no longer the monstrous, murderous being, unlike

Theseus, who deceives and shatters the bull-man's dreams and kills him. For Dürrenmatt, the

walls of the labyrinth of Knossos are covered with mirrors. The

mirror is a symbol of reflection, of the search for the self, but also of duality,

illusion, and utopia, a reference to the topos that accompanies much

of Dürrenmatt's work: "Truth or Justice?" A reinterpretation that emphasizes

the tragedy of human existential experience, of the individual

in the face of nature and of the individual in the face of diversity. Donata Berra,

translator of "Minotaur" for Adelphi, maintains that "Dürrenmatt's writing

proceeds through images rather than logical thought," and from

these the show takes its impetus.