Jonah, prophet of the Old Testament, refuses to follow God’s order to go to Ninive and preach the conversion of its inhabitants. He stubbornly chooses to sail in the opposite direction. Suddenly the sea rises and Jonah, knowing that it is God’s rage to create the storm, asks his companions on the boat to throw him into the water. At that point the waves calm down and Jonah is swallowed by a huge fish and there he remains for three days and three nights, during which he prays God and promises to offer Him sacrifices and fulfil his vows. ”And then the Eternal spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah on the dry soil”.
Thereafter Jonah obeys and goes to Ninive, where his words bring its inhabitants to repent and obtain the divine mercy: this angers Jonah, since he thought they should have been punished for all the evil they had done. But God has a castor bean plant spring from the soil which deeply delights Jonah and the consequent drying out of the plant which brings him great grief helps him understand what true compassion is.

In these last few years Compagnia Xe has given through consideration to the relationship between issues described in biblical texts and those which pertain to the contemporary human being. The research carried out produced a first performance inspired by the Book of Psalms … e d’oro le sue piume (2013). Then it was the Book of Qoelet that originated C’è un tempo (2019), a show that has given the impulse to investigate Jonah’s Book, a text that has been a source of inspiration for writers as Carlo Lorenzini and Henry Melville.

choreography: Julie Ann Anzilotti
with Paola Bedoni and Paolo Piancastelli
original music composition: Steven Brown and Luc Van Lieshout
assistant choreography: Giulia Ciani
scenography: Tiziana Draghi
video: Francesco Margarolo
costumes: Loretta Mugnai
head sculpture and tree: Monica Sarsini
lights: Andrea Margarolo
organization: Lorenza Tosi
assistant: Sara Ladu
production: Compagnia Xe
supported by Italian Ministry of Culture, Toscana Region, Municipality of San Casciano Val di Pesa, Fondazione Toscana Spettacolo onlus

photo: Lucia Baldini