From 1 to 13 September 2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture is going to welcome Mystery 11 ΜΑ, the new work by Romeo Castellucci. Two thousand years after the Eleusinian Mysteries, the internationally renowned Italian director introduces a contemporary ritual, in the context of a site-specific performance specially designed for the Eleusis archaeological site.

ΜΑ – a one-word title interpreted in multiple languages: the first clear word of an infant calling its mother; the root of the word ‘‘matrice,’’ i.e. the womb which opens itself to earth in order to generate, and the mould that gives form to lifeless matter; moreover, in both Italian and Greek, the word MA is used as an exclamation of objection, opposition, but also as a linguistic marker of an oath, an appeal to the divine.

Castellucci’s protagonist is a non-Greek matricide, a foreigner. His arrival at the archaeological site undermines and subverts the original cult, which forbade entry to anyone who had stained their hands with blood. Laying hands on a mother was tantamount to subverting the order of the universe − since a mother gives birth, she can also bring death; a child, as it cannot give birth to its mother, it cannot kill her either. Βarbarians were also prohibited to participate in the Eleusinian Mysteries, because their language was limited and thus had no notion of logos (discourse), of words and silence; they also had no notion of rhythm, which distributes meanings, expectations, pulses and pauses – the measure that restrains and orders chaos.

Without resorting to a representation of the archaic ritual according to archaeological typology, nor to a contemporary re-interpretation and re-articulation of the history of the Eleusinian Mysteries, Romeo Castellucci places the uninitiated, the barbarians and the matricides at the centre of attention, to highlight the symbolism and the allegorical dimension of the drama.

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