We are a caravan of false actors, of masqueraders and idiots

searching for a place to set up camp

for a while.

Don’t take us too seriously, we don’t want

the genes of mathematics or “scientific spiritualism"

to live on after us.

We are simply expressions, dreams, with the few roots that life

allows us to put down, with our feet on this

earth and our heads in the clouds.

Whoever wants to join us should first

get to know us for what we are: orphans.

Orphans of an existence that for us no longer has the face of deception

adorned with false expectations.

Let us perform barefoot,

we are dancers in a world which itself dances in the cosmos.

We are the listeners to the voice, to the voice that is behind

all the others, behind every mask

and every theatre.

Gli Ascoltatori della Voce

[The Hearers of the Voice]

Theatre Company

Gli Allievi di Monsieur Gurdjieff

[Monsieur Gurdjieff’s disciples]

An interview with the company

What is the message of "Gli Allievi di Monsieur Gurdjieff"?

The message will be an experience to share with all those who come to see us. It is interwoven with the very notes of De Hartmann, with the words and gestures of the actors, with the fragrances that the public will sense, with the symbolism used, with the emotions aroused... The entire show is based on the sacred symbolism of the Middle-Eastern peoples, but also on typically Western symbolisms, such as the clown. "Gli allievi di monsieur Gurdjieff" actually represent the journey that each one of us needs to make within ourselves, to contrast the shattering of our identity and try to free ourselves of it.  

Who was Gurdjieff?

Much has been said and written about this personality who lived at the beginning of last century. Just think that he influenced psychological ideas on the identity of the ego or self - indeed, G. retained that man does not have an identity that he can define as ME, but is split into a multitude of MEs - but he also brought to the west a form of eastern art in the dances, known as "Movements", which left an indelible mark. He established a new way of philosophical, theological and ethical thinking. He took an interest in theatre, music, logic and many other learned and artistic subjects. He transformed the lives of many of his disciples, educating them in the Movements at the priory in Avon, central France. He was the inspiration and master of many twentieth-century greats, such as Katherine Mansfield, Peter Brook, Louis Pauwels and many others.

Where is the show set?

There are five characters who intersect each other, with the necessary pauses to listen to pieces composed by Gurdjieff and De Hartmann, which will be played on piano and violin. The performance of this music, which Gurdjieff defined as "objective art ", highly suggestive and intense music, will leave an indelible memory in the audience’s hearts and minds.

The setting for the scene is the Priory where Gurdjieff took refuge with his disciples to carry out the Work. The show will simulate a perfectly normal day of testing inside the priory, with invisible disciples (the audience itself) preparing to do the tests. From this frame will arise Gurdjieff’s wife, Julia Ostrowska, speaking with her husband on her death bed; the words of the consumptive Katherine Mansfield, being nursed in the stables in accordance with the master’s will, telling of how much this was useful to her and in what way; the complaints of Dmitri, the Master’s brother, illustrating all the thoughts and obstacles that a disciple comes up against whilst Working on himself. Finally, a "false master", as Gurdjieff himself was defined by many critics for his abrupt, cold manner, and lastly Staveley, who for us represents a model disciple, will round off the show.

The finale will highlight the biggest obstacle underlying any failure to understand (and develop) something of the transcendent human being: greed.

Are you a school of the Fourth Way?

We don’t present ourselves as a school of the Fourth Way. We are men and women working on ourselves with a Director, but this isn’t the central theme. We just want to give a theatrical representation of two concepts: man is actually mechanical, this is not theorism or intellectual abstraction - memory is the first and only way to begin a new methodology of development, Gurdjieff called it "Memory of Self".

And can a theatre show help in the memory of self?

Of course it can! It can do it better than any ouspenskyan lesson, because it doesn’t allow the spectator any passivity. Indeed, the spectator is provoked, shaken, subjected to interior actions and reactions... the spectator is illuminated.

“Gli allievi di Monsieur Gurdjieff” cannot be defined simply as a concert, but nor can it be circumscribed into just theatre: it is the fruit of men and women working on themselves, on the thousand masks, the contradictions, they are consciously trying to be creative. It is actually a ritual, perhaps one of the most ancient, where everything reminds man of the reason for his existence and the need to return to his roots.

But above all it is a homage to the memory of Gurdjieff and some of his disciples, letting everyone know that the Work is not over, but continues, even at the dawning of a third millennium.

Currently in Italy la Compagnia 

is touring with the show

Monsieur Gurdjieff’s disciples

Click Here for more information