A public call has brought a long list of performers that are not necessarily professionals onto the stage. The nature of this work means that it is actually preferable that they are ordinary people from the street. You'll find them dressed in uniforms that bring American police officers from the 1960s to mind. They have joined a formal pact according to which they commit to blindly following the instructions of the director, even if they understand absolutely nothing. They'll go on stage having only a short briefing the day before and will have no lines, since the production foregoes almost all words. They only have to precisely carry out the specific and individual actions they're asked to do through headsets. That way, as Romeo Castellucci himself says, "there is no improvisation, only the abyss of the absolute present". The performers do not act or improvise, but rather execute the actions they're ordered to do.
The result is an organised movement of performers who execute predetermined actions in such a unsettling way that it shows the darker aspects that derive from blind obedience, but it also makes us laugh. Silent film, with images of police officers that seem to be infinite clones of a single character, is one of the possible visual references of this simultaneously comical and violent production. It leaves itself open to interpretation, with each spectator having their own individual reflections. Is a society without police forces possible? What individual responsibility for their acts do these members of a social force and subject to discipline have?
It's the new creation from an artist born in Cesena (Italy) in 1960. Playwright and director, he's the creator of theatrical works brimming with images of enormous plasticity and complexity, often full of references to Christian culture and iconography. Considered one of the great reformers of the European stage, in 2005 he was named director of the theatre section of the Biennale di Venezia, and in 2008 he was named ‘associate artist’ for the artistic management of the 62nd edition of the Avignon Festival. In 2009, his trilogy inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy was seen at the Grec festival, comprised of the productions Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise. In 2011, also as part of the Grec programme, the artist recruited members of the public to participate in the religiously-inspired scenes that were part of a kind of secular and stage-adapted Way of the Cross, called On the Concept of the Face, Regarding the Son of God. This artist's most recent creations include the scene from the Strauss opera Salomé for the 2018 Salzburger Festspiele, Mozart's Requiem brought to the 2019 Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, and, in 2021, a transgressive and extravagant scene from Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Salzburg Festival and a performance of Pavane für Prometheus at last year's edition of Beethovenfest.
Produced by Societas.
Coproduced by Kunsten Festival des Arts Brussels ; Printemps des Comédiens Montpellier 2021 ; LAC Lugano Arte Cultura; Maillon Théâtre de Strasbourg - Scène Européenne; Temporada Alta 2021 Manège-Maubeuge Scène nationale; Le Phénix Scène nationale Pôle européen de création Valenciennes; MC93 Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis; ERT Emilia Romagna Teatro Italy; Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen; Holland Festival Amsterdam; V-A-C Foundation; Triennale Milano Teatro; National Taichung Theater, Taiwan.
Due to the high volume of the sound at one point in the show, spectators will be offered earplugs.
Created and directed by: Romeo Castellucci, Music: Scott Gibbons, With: Valer Dellakeza, with agents Luca Nava and Sergio Scarlatella and men from the street (to be determined), Collaboration in dramaturgy: Piersandra Di Matteo, Director Assistants: Silvano Voltolina, Filippo Ferraresi, Standards Writing: Claudia Castellucci, Technical director: Eugenio Resta, Stage technician: Andrei Benchea, Lighting technician: Andrea Sanson, Sound engineering: Claudio Tortorici, Costumes: Chiara Venturini, Stage sculptures and automated systems: Plastikart Studio, Costume maker: Grazia Bagnaresi, Latin translation: Stefano Bartolini, Production director: Benedetta Briglia, Head of production: Giulia Colla, Distribution: Gilda Biasini, Technical team: Carmen Castellucci, Francesca Di Serio, Gionni Gardini, Administration: Michela Medri, Elisa Bruno, Simona Barducci, Financial consultant: Massimiliano Coli Photography: Luca del Pia, Jean Michel Blasco
