TAMAR & AMNON
The central plot of our story comes from the Second Book of Samuel 13:1-22. Amnon, son of King David, falls in love with his sister Tamar. His obsession leads him to rape her. Overcome with revulsion for what he has done he casts her out, leaving her to her shame in the streets.
The performance brings to life not just the tragic moment of the act but the tender moments of childhood shared between the two characters, not shown in the Bible.
Tamar & Amnon is a duet and lasts 50 minutes. Created for small performance spaces that offer minimal theatrical lighting and sound equipment, it reveals the intimate thoughts about the sexual relationship between a brother and sister.
1. Over the course of a year, Corporeal Arts Incorporated developed a gestural dramaturgy for what has become Tamar & Amnon. The gestural dramaturgy was created by experimenting with the non-narrative movement traditions, exploring the impulses behind their movements, and re-expressing those impulses in new physical sequences.
2. As these physical sequences evolved into dramatic scenes, themes—such as brothers and sisters, love and violence—emerged naturally.
3. Based on these themes, we chose the biblical story of the rape of Tamar to complement the gestural dramaturgy. With this story in mind, we selected sculptures, paintings, photographic portraits, and masks as inspiration for new movement to be integrated into the gestural dramaturgy.
4. Once the gesture dramaturgy laid a solid foundation for the performance, we invited an author to collaborate on the textual dramaturgy for Tamar & Amnon. After observing our creative process, he suggested minimal text to complement the physical performance a powerful story from the Old Testament brought to life in a montage of poetry and movement .
The central plot of our story comes from the Second Book of Samuel 13:1-22. Amnon, son of King David, falls in love with his sister Tamar. His obsession leads him to rape her. Overcome with revulsion for what he has done he casts her out, leaving her to her shame in the streets. The performance brings to life not just the tragic moment of the act but the tender moments of childhood shared between the two characters, not shown in the Bible.
Tamar & Amnon is a duet and lasts 50 minutes. Created for small performance spaces that offer minimal theatrical lighting and sound equipment, it reveals the intimate thoughts about the sexual relationship between a brother and sister.
Creative Process
Tamar & Amnon is part of our research that employs non-narrative movement traditions (in this case Decroux Mime, the Korean martial arts, and Flamenco Spanish dance) as the basis of constructing a theatrical performance.1. Over the course of a year, Corporeal Arts Incorporated developed a gestural dramaturgy for what has become Tamar & Amnon. The gestural dramaturgy was created by experimenting with the non-narrative movement traditions, exploring the impulses behind their movements, and re-expressing those impulses in new physical sequences.
2. As these physical sequences evolved into dramatic scenes, themes—such as brothers and sisters, love and violence—emerged naturally.
3. Based on these themes, we chose the biblical story of the rape of Tamar to complement the gestural dramaturgy. With this story in mind, we selected sculptures, paintings, photographic portraits, and masks as inspiration for new movement to be integrated into the gestural dramaturgy.
4. Once the gesture dramaturgy laid a solid foundation for the performance, we invited an author to collaborate on the textual dramaturgy for Tamar & Amnon. After observing our creative process, he suggested minimal text to complement the physical performance a powerful story from the Old Testament brought to life in a montage of poetry and movement .