I saw light in the buildings at night
I saw light in the windows as I passed them by
On the river. On the ledge. On the bridge
On the side of your face at the bar
It went dark. I saw light

(Kae Tempest)

I Saw Light is the title of the new theatrical project by Motus featuring 10 students from the Accademia Teatrale Carlo Goldoni, created in collaboration with the Teatro Stabile del Veneto. It is also the title of a musical piece by Kae Tempest from her latest album, The Line Is a Curve: a beautiful text/poem composed and performed with Grian Chatten, the lead singer of Fontaines D.C., who also accompanies one of the “heartbreaking” moments of our latest show, Frankenstein (a love story).
This “connection” with our latest work seeks to find light in a dark and ominous story like Mary Shelley’s novel…

This search for/seeing light even when it’s getting dark, especially in these bleak times, is the attempt we want to share with the group of young actors and actresses stepping into the challenging theater landscape. To convey and embody that light, that force that this extraordinary queer London poet and rapper (who recently dropped the name Kate to embrace Kae and declare her non-binarism) brings to the stage and overwhelms.

It will be a collective and choral composition within her overflowing words (from now on we will use masculine pronouns, even though English uses they/them), in various forms: poetry, lyrics, novels, theatrical texts… In her, after all, everything is connected beyond gender barriers, which is why we love this multifaceted artist.
We will be particularly guided by her collection Let Them Eat Chaos (2016), also translated into Italian by the publishing house E/O, which is also the score for the thirteen tracks that make up the album of the same name.

In this collection in particular, but perhaps throughout her work, Kae narrates the disorientation, anxieties, frustrations, and aspirations of the inhabitants of any Western metropolis who wonder where their lives and the world are heading, and she does so by blending genres, creating a vivid and open image that leaves the reader, listener, or spectator the choice of how to engage.

“Picture a vacuum” begins Kae Tempest’s determined voice.

“Imagine a void/an immobile and endless darkness.”

We are in space, suspended outside of time and emotions. From here, Earth is just a bright dot, a soft blue and green surface that looks comforting. A feeling that disappears as the image zooms in, Tempest’s voice picking up rhythm:

As you approach the surface, all the peace
you’ve ever felt is replaced by this furious
passion
you’ve never felt.
You are feeling emotions.
For the people. For life.
Their faces shine inside you. You are feeling emotions.
You want to be close to them.
Even closer.

From here we will start, to begin the research and composition work: a journey through words and music and the scent of bodies that so desperately need new emotions and collective embraces. It will be a choral work where the talents or weaknesses of individuals will not stand out, but the CONNECTIONS… This is the title of the essay that will accompany the work (On Connection, also translated into Italian by Riccardo Duranti for E/O in 2022): her first theoretical treatise where she invites us to focus on another type of connections, beyond the digital ones. No man is an island, to quote John Donne, but can we really define ourselves as connected to one another in this hyper-connected age? Kae invites us, in a hyper-individualistic, competitive, and exploitative society, to break free from our “torpor,” a reaction that has led us to curl up on ourselves in response to the global crisis. This numbness has one, almost obvious, reaction: creativity.

What she appeals to is the creativity that arises precisely to evoke something in others, and it is the key to everything, the generative push that allows us to transcend mere “appearance” dictated by consumption, to connect with others on a deeper level…

And to open our eyes to learn to see the light even where it isn’t.

Screaming at my loved ones to wake up and love more.
Pleading with my loved ones to wake up and love more.