And there was light

In the beginning, there was a theatre company: the Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio of Cesena, Italy. Winner of the Masque for best foreign production for Orestea, presented at the Festival de Théâtre des Amériques in ’97, the company returns for three nights with Genesi, From the Museum of Sleep. The stage triptych loosely based on the book of Genesis is part of Théâtres du monde.

Appropriately, the piece begins in darkness, but instead of God or Adam, the figure who appears is scientist Marie Curie, discoverer of radium.

The second act, titled “Auschwitz,” apparently conveys all the horror of the Holocaust with “nary a shadow of barbed wire.” The third section is the only one with any direct reference to Genesis. It’s a retelling, against a red background, of the story of Cain and Abel. The kicker? All of this is apparently conveyed without a word being spoken. At Théâtre Denise-Pelletier, May 9–11, 8 p.m. $27–32. Tickets: 844-2172/790-1245. :

—Amy Barratt