Procida 2022, the theatre is made by the citizens: on stage 'The Immortal' by Borges

Procida 2022, the theatre is made by the citizens: on stage “The Immortal” by Borges
Non-professional actors for an extraordinary experience that intertwines the literary masterpiece with unpublished dramatic material taken from personal stories: the performance that closes the laboratory path on 23 and 24 September

Women and men, artists, merchants, students, teachers, booksellers, pensioners, children and the elderly become temporary actors for an extraordinary community theatre experience that stages a collective living writing.

Friday 23 and Saturday 24 September (19.30:2022 pm, former church of San Giacomo, free reservations at www.procidaXNUMX.com) the final performance will conclude the journey of “Happening of Human books”, a project of Procida Italian Capital of Culture curated by Officinae Efesti which has brought together, in a long workshop journey started in May, the island community to recreate the dreamlike journey of the story “The Immortal” by Jorge Luis Borges, a masterpiece on the theme of isolation and the search for immortality, intertwined with additional unpublished dramaturgical material by the participants involved.

The final happening is therefore a 'chorus' of "human books" (living books), a "reconstruction" of the "most authentic voice" of the participants through dialogues, life stories and intimate memories interpolated into the vibrant pages of Borges.

Involving 160 citizens, the project included four monthly sessions of intensive theatre seminars focused on the body as a natural resonator: physical training and body dramaturgy actions, practical workshops of vibratory songs and ritual music, theatre-dance actions.

"All participants immersed themselves fully in the process, carving out time between their busy schedules as parents, teachers, shopkeepers, and factory workers," explains Stefania Piccolo, the project's creator and artistic director, with the assistance of Lidia Cangiano. "Officinae Efesti has been promoting community-based creative processes for 20 years as a natural extension of socio-cultural innovation projects that reach urban fringes and social boundaries.

The temporary performers worked with physical theater techniques. For us, human life and theater coincide perfectly and everyone can draw the details better than they think. Through our work, we try to shape the gaze as a sculptor would do with a piece of marble”.