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In autumn 2023 we arrive at the heart of the ‘celebrations’ of fifty years of theatre, a heart that beats on the stage, in productions and co-productions. King Lear by Shakespeare marks the beginning of the season. Ferdinand Bruni And Francesco Frongia (also authors of sets and costumes) direct the show entrusting to Elio De Capitani the protagonist role of the old and tormented king and to Elena Ghiaurov, Elena Russo Arman and the young Viola Marietti the roles of the daughters. Thus they initiate a reflection on the self-destructive nature of power (of the king’s authority, like that of the father), on maturity and youth. These themes that cross the season, declined from different angles. “The one who talks about us in the King Lear – the directors say – it is contemporary because it is eternal, it touches us closely because it is the story of one of man’s most harrowing journeys towards his true essence. Perhaps now we have the right age to make this journey through the most famous stormy night of Western culture and to ask ourselves how much of the load we drag with us as we go through life is made up of important things or is it a weight that prevents us from seeing the thing in itself'”. A show that, starting from the translation, is built with «artisanal humility, word after word, sign after sign, with the slowness of the ancient workshops. For the painting of the large canvases that close the scene, for the embroideries on the costumes or for the most effective construction of a sentence. With our hearts and with our hands.” Co-produced by the Teatro Stabile dell’Umbria, the show is staged first in Perugia and then arrives in Milan from 25 October to 19 November.
Remember the future
In October, the second project designed for Elfo50 also makes its debut, Remember the future, a large fresco made up of five one-act plays (proposed individually and in a marathon), commissioned by the Elf to the younger generations of artists of the Paolo Grassi School of Dramatic Art. Graduating playwrights, directors and actors recount fifty years of Italian history in five shows with emblematic titles: Wrench, Eppilend, Gli Scarroccianti-Comedians from the Second Republic, Little Light, Endling (October 21st/November 5th), thus revealing the gaze of today’s twenty-year-olds on the past, the present and also the future.
elizabeth’s bodies
After King Lear, a second and equally acute analysis of power, in this case declined in the feminine, opens 2024: Elizabeth’s bodies (January 17/February 11) is a work, unpublished in Italy, by the British author Ella Hickson, translated by Monica Capuani. Directed jointly by Elio De Capitani and Cristina Crippa, the show looks to the past to speak with great relevance to the present: at the center is the character of Elizabeth I, who managed to reign for 44 years with cunning, seduction and intelligence, remaining the only unmarried queen of the history of England. The show takes us into the secret rooms of the court, imagining Elizabeth as a teenager and then queen (played by Maria Caggianelli Villani and Elena Russo Arman), determined to use every means to exercise her power in a patriarchal society and to get what she wants (intimately and carnally) as a woman. The cast is completed by Enzo Curcurù and Cristian Giammarini; the costumes are designed by Ferdinando Bruni and the sets by Carlo Sala are made by the Elfo laboratory.
collaborations with other theatres
Among the most eagerly awaited novelties is the show of Orpheus body shop, a co-production that sees the Elfo collaborate with the Marche Theater, the National Theater of Genoa and the Naples Theater Foundation – Bellini Theater. After having investigated the world of the least, the excluded and the losers in the latest creations, We will save the world before dawn he mercilessly photographs the world of well-being, the ruling class, the rich, caught in the environment of a luxury rehabilitation clinic and tells it with the usual biting and comic-grotesque stamp (9/28 April).
The elf and the young talents
L’Elfo is an open place where young artists find support and the opportunity to interact with a lively and intergenerational audience. Also back on stageSilvio d’Amico Academy of Dramatic Arts; since 2020, the Elfo has been productively supporting the shows of its new graduates. This year the work directed by Andrea Lucchetta is expected, written by Asilo Republic, Shame cultures (12/17 December), on the case of suicide “for study reasons”: a student decides to lie to his relatives and friends about his university career, fixes the day of his fake degree and decides to take his own life on that day . Among the young talents, who have found a place of fertile exchange at Elfo Puccini, is Carolina Cametti, an actress often present in the company’s shows, who also stood out at the Scenario Award as a playwright. Now she returns, again produced by the Elfo, with her last two works: the monologue Bluemax (October 26/November 5) e Burn skins, which he wrote and performs with Claudia Salvatore, focusing the spotlight on the relationship between a mother and a daughter (November 9/November 19). The Elf’s house has also been the company’s residence for years background echo who presents his shows here (this season is expected Orpheus and Eurydice, 17/21 June) and extensive educational projects (the second edition of Theatrical immersion). Another frequent presence is that of Umberto Petranca who is proposing this year I stop here (January 9/28), theatrical account of a walking trip in Italy.
Source-tg24.sky.it