THE MANIFESTO OF OUR THEATRE

In a world that loves labels, someone tries to stick one to us too. At this point, given that the fury risks being misleading, we try a clarification.

Western modern theatre is identified under the common name of “Serious Theatre”. Whether the Classics are staged, whether they become Avant-garde Theatre or that they adhere to the so-called Third Theatre, everything is thrown into the same pot. But we are not in the pot!

If we really need to define our theatrical expressivity, let us say then that it is “poetical theatre”. By contrast, and not only.

First of all, we note that for us there is no gap between East and West. We consider ourselves children of the great Indo-European civilization, which incorporates in itself all the various cultures formed within the entire Eurasian area, which represents in our eyes several facets of the only one, whose diversification brings further enrichment. Unity in diversity is our motto.

Moreover, we are not at all inclined to consider the serious-theatre” with superiority, much less, with contempt. Simply, we declare our substantial divergence from its stylistic features.

We admire the so-called “Classical Theatre” (that is, of those who are used to revisit the great and immortal dramaturgy of antiquity, from Eschilo to Plauto, to Shakespeare, to Molière, to Calderón, to Goldoni, to Wilde and so on).

We also appreciate most of the inspiring instances of the various currents of the so-called “Avant-garde Theatre” (otherwise known as «Experimental Theatre»): from the effort of the Futurist Theatre in trying to subtract the scenic representation from vulgar commercial ends, to the will of the Expressionist Theatre to induce the spectator to question himself, to the exploration of the Theatre of the Absurd towards expressive forms free from the rigid language of reason, to the critical analysis of the society accomplished by the Epic Theatre and its consequent objective of inducing a conscience in the viewer criticism, inviting him to active reasoning and a position (not just politics).

And, of course, we are extremely stimulated by the so-called “Third Theatre” which, from Grotowski to the present day, wants to promote an authentic regeneration that starts from inside and spreads outwards.

We try, as far as possible, to incorporate in our theatre the best we can get from all these theatrical expressions and, nevertheless, our performative art does not intend to be a merely eclectic attempt, and we categorically avoid any form of syncretism.

Ours is a poetical theatre, as we said. And for us, poetry, in theatre, is expressed on two interconnected and fused levels:

the poetry of the dramaturgical text;
the poetry of the physical actions.

Therefore, we only consider texts of dramatic poetry. The rhythmical word appears to us the only one able to give life to our way of being on stage and to express Beauty (Is not this the highest goddess adored by all artists?). But in the theatre, for us, the poetic word is indissolubly and intriguingly intertwined with the poetry of the actors’ bodies (as well as all the other performative artists we work with: dancers, singers, mimes, etc.), both individually and in their indispensable choral quality.

In the end, we underline how in our commitment we have always had (and always will have) the utmost care to keep away from traders and any attempt to institutionalize and commercialize the theatrical art, which would no longer be an art but a industry with artistic pretensions (such as cinema is).