Bergamo’s “Tascabile” and Cesena’s “Raffaello Sanzio” theatre companies represented Italy at the 19th “Santiago a Mil” International Theatre, Music and Dance Festival. The Festival, which took place in the Chilean capital in January 2012, is one of the country’s major cultural events.
Bergamo’s Teatro Tascabile is an avant-garde company of international fame. For the Festival audience in Chile it performed a new take on the Romeo and Juliet story, “Amor mai non s’addorme: Storie di Montecchi e Capuleti”. The company gave 5 performances in Santiago’s city-centre squares and in other open-air venues on the outskirts of the capital. It also performed in Antofagasta and Iquique.
Invited to take part in the “Special Events” section, the Tascabile actors also gave a master class on Indian theatre and dance, an area the company is currently researching. On 16 January they took part in an event in the Italian Cultural Institute in the presence of Ambassador Vincenzo Palladino. The company gave a short performance illustrating “Interculturalism and the marriage of theatre and dance”, an area they have been working on since 1978.
The Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio company presented Romeo Castellucci’s “Persona”, a reproduction of an ancient Greek mask of Silenus. This reworking of the mask combines archetypal image and modern technology, an innovative combination for which Castellucci and the Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio have won worldwide renown. The work, which was displayed at the Gabriela Mistral Cultural Centre in Santiago, was one of the most admired pieces by both fellow artists and the general public.
