We sat down for a quick chat with Michael Bontatibus about his latest project. Witness brings its 8-hour Oresteia adaptation, Ritual, to London, featuring an actor performing the entire duration in an immersive space where audiences are free to watch and explore.
Ritual is such an ambitious piece – what first drew you to this project personally?
The Oresteia is epic and expansive and involves so many different characters and stories from other Greek tragedies in addition to its own. But it’s also a domestic drama that occurs in one location. So it seemed a natural fit for a site-specific piece, and I’d been turning it over as an idea for a bit. Then in 2021 we got a small post-pandemic arts recovery grant in New York, which afforded us the ability to hire a small storefront gallery, but nothing larger. Lacking the ability to capture that epic, expansive nature of The Oresteia across a very big physical space, we decided to bank in the other direction and use an intimate space over a very long period of time. And that unlocked a completely different type of play.
How does it feel bringing this work to London after its New York run?
It’s the first time we’ve had a second run of a show in a new location, and restaging a site-specific piece – with a new site to be specific to – has led to a lot of discoveries. We’re looking at each moment through a new physical and cultural lens, and figuring out what stays the same, what changes by degree, and what needs reimagining from the ground up. It’s been a fun challenge.
This isn’t a traditional sit-down performance – audiences can roam and stay as long as they wish. What excites you most about that freedom?
It’s always fascinating to see how different people approach the play. Some people treat it like an art installation: they dip in for a few minutes, have a look around and get on with their day. Others are completists and like to see as much of it as they can. Some people like to rummage through the set, some people stay watching the performance. And each of these is a valid way to experience the show. I hope people find that freedom exciting and engaging – and as a creator, it’s quite a lot of fun to watch how different minds focus on different aspects.
How did you balance honouring the original Greek tragedy while creating something entirely new?
Each element of the show is a direct textual pull – if not from The Oresteia, then from another related Greek myth or tragedy. So despite the fact that this is a somewhat modern adaptation, and one that demanded some original invention over the eight-hour runtime, it’s all nonetheless rooted in something authentic and true to the source.
What has been the most challenging part of staging something on this scale?
Making every moment feel intentional and necessary – you can’t just be throwing in random filler to pad out time. On the flip side, trying to fill every minute with something very active, like you’d see in a conventional dialogue drama, wouldn’t work – beyond being unsustainable for the performer, the whole show would end up overloaded and incoherent. So to strike that balance, it’s a matter of leaning into the more elongated, durational action that the runtime demands, while still making sure that action is motivated by story and character.
And what has been joyful whilst taking on Ritual?
This is the first public production we’ve been able to put up in the UK, so while we’ve brought over the original core team from New York, we’re getting to know a whole new stable of talented crew and creatives here in London. This country has such a rich, unique history of site-specific theatre and it’s a pleasure to feel like a part of that continuum – if only for a weekend.