Anhelli: The Howl

Anhelli: The Howl is a musical performance piece composed of Armenian songs, Greek hymns and Orthodox irmoses.

In “Anhelli: The Howl” Teatr ZAR asks the fundamental question of the inability to experience and express death. Death cannot be told, nor can it be represented, so the company focuses on those few minutes of mourning when mourners gather in the house of the departed to bid farewell to her, to send her off. However, this is not just a farewell, but a real disconnection, sending away the soul, perhaps freeing it. Death is not just a moment of transition but a process that takes time.

The piece uses the protagonist of Juliusz Słowacki’s poem “Anhelli” and the characters that accompany him ‒ one of whom is a woman, his beloved, and the other an angel ‒ to explore the process of spiritual separation. “Anhelli: The Howl” speaks only of a few minutes of farewell, but in fact the whole process would take an hour, forty days, a year, or even more, as if time has lost its linearity measured by the clock.

TeatrZAR.net is a digital platform on which the company shares its work. The educational program consists of weekly lectures and meetings with creators regarding the sources, contexts and methods of theatre work, enriched with unique sound and visual recordings. The materials relate to the activities of the Mediterranean confraternities, Georgian polyphony, modal singing and irmoses. Lessons “Meetings in sound” discuss interesting music and voice issues. The artistic block includes a digital version of the performance “Anhelli. The Howl” using most of the sources and techniques discussed.

The TeatrZAR.net project was co-financed by the National Centre for Culture Poland as a part of the “Culture in Net” programme.