Shows

L’ Angelo della Storia

Sotterraneo │ Italy

Start Date: 26-05-2023 - 21:00
End Date: 26-05-2023 - 08:00Start Date: 27-05-2023 - 21:00
End Date: 27-05-2023 - 08:00

Theatre of the Society for Macedonian Studies
26 May and 27 May, 21:00

L’ Angelo della Storia
by Sotterraneo
In his latest work, philosopher Walter Benjamin describes an angel who flies with his gaze turned to the past and his back to the future: rubbles of buildings and ideologies accumulate before his eyes [musical instruments at the bottom of the ocean, malfunctioning radars, beached whales] and the angel would like to stop and mend those rubbles, but a storm swells his wings and drags him relentlessly forward [dead babies, statues in Antarctica, fluorescent rabbits]: we call this storm progress. Although the angel observes the succession of events [hands on piano keys, atomic mushrooms, postcards in the jungle] and tries to resist the storm, he cannot stop and intervene, he cannot glue the pieces back together and rebuild a shared reality, he can do absolutely nothing to help us - maybe only because angels don’ t exist [cyanide cocktails, irrational numbers, tales around the fire]. What other conscious being could try to recompose something broken, take stories apart and - flying or not - finally turn around to project their gaze forward?
The Angel of History is a collection of historical anecdotes from different centuries and geographical areas. They are gestures which narrate the contradictions of different eras, actions which arouse bewilderment or emotion, and moments which might be called paradoxical.

Duration: 85'
Language: Italian
Surtitles: Greek / English

You can watch the discussion with the artistic team HERE.

L’ Angelo della Storia
by Sotterraneo

Created by: Sotterraneo
Concept and direction: Sara Bonaventura, Claudio Cirri, Daniele Villa
On stage: Sara Bonaventura, Claudio Cirri, Lorenza Guerrini, Daniele Pennati, Giulio Santolini
Dramaturgy: Daniele Villa
Light design: Marco Santambrogio
Costumes: Ettore Lombardi
Sound design: Simone Arganini
Choreographic editing: Giulio Santolini
Producer: Eleonora Cavallo
Production assistant: Daniele Pennati
Administration: Federica Giuliano
International promotion: Laura Artoni
Production: Sotterraneo
Coproduction: Marche Teatro, Associazione Teatrale Pistoiese, CSS Teatro stabile di innovazione del FVG, Teatro Nacional D. Maria II
with the contribution of Centrale Fies, La Corte Ospitale, Armunia
with the support of Mic, Regione Toscana, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze artistic residencies Centrale Fies_art work space, La Corte Ospitale, Dialoghi – Residenze delle arti performative a Villa Manin, Armunia, Elsinor/Teatro Cantiere Florida, Associazione Teatrale Pistoiese

Sotterraneo is part of the Fies Factory, is Associate Artist at Piccolo Teatro di Milano and is resident at Associazione Teatrale Pistoiese Production Centre.

Sotterraneo is a theatre collective set up in Florence in 2005. Their pieces are easily recognizable for their avant-pop approach, combining collective imagination with unconventional thinking. Over the years, they have created several shows which were showcased in major national and international theatres – in Spain, Germany, France, Belgium, UK, Portugal, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Russia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Croatia, Chile and China. The shows obtained a number of awards including Premio Lo Straniero, Premio Hystrio, BeFestival First Prize, Silver Laurel Wreath Award/Sarajevo MESS Festival, as well as three UBU awards. Sotterraneo is part of the Fies Factory, is Associate Artist at Piccolo Teatro di Milano and is resident at Associazione Teatrale Pistoiese Production Centre.

Inspired by what philosopher Walter Benjamin called ‘unveiled constellations,’ our aim is to recount these historical facts by making them resonant with the present. Eventually, our personal map of paradox will be created, made up of micro-stories, suspended moments, fatal moments of renowned or unknown people. These facts and thoughts are quite far apart, nonetheless they are united by a web of narratives, beliefs, myths and ideologies which - according to historian Yuval Noah Harari - make up the very matter that History is made of. Today, complexity requires us to come up with new imagery and cognitive processes. And we love to think that theatrical productions have a role to play in recovering narratives and events that Sapiens have embraced over the millennia. We then disassemble, recombine, and distance ourselves from them over time in an attempt to – somehow – replicate that giddiness experienced by an astronaut when observing the Earth as they move away into space.