In Contimi Crassigne, stories of ancient Friulian tradition come to life again thanks to the objects contained in the mysterious drawers of the large baggage - the ‘crassigne’ - of the enigmatic and grumpy grandfather Iaroni. This old man is a cramâr, a travelling salesman from ancient times, a carrier of goods and the teller of stories that came from beyond the mountains. There was a time when such stories were feared, they could be dangerous, bearers of different ideas and cultures.
During his journey, Iaroni meets Gaia, a little girl who is lost in the forest. To help her, he tells her some stories inspired by the objects found in the mysterious drawers of the crassigne.
The four plots recall episodes from Ovid's Metamorphoses: Narcissus, Ceice and Alcyone, Philemon and Baucis, Erisittone. The protagonists are impersonated by two puppets, manipulated on sight by two actor-animators, Giulia Cosolo and Daniele Fior.
A collaboration with the Teatro Stabile Friulano, with scenes and puppets by Donatella Pau of the Is Mascareddas company from Cagliari, which narrates the thaumaturgic power of Fairy Tales and how they convey a profound sense of wisdom and truth. Through these tales, Gaia will find her way out of the forest and old Iaroni will be able to resume his journey.
The idea of a “Teatri Stabil Furlan” has fascinated for many years the Friulian cultural scene, which has long expressed, also in the field of theatre, a very high level of professionalism. To enhance this heritage, it was necessary to create a stable institution that would guarantee means and projects for production, study, research and collaboration with other similar organisations operating in the Region and beyond. For this reason, in the summer of 2019, on the initiative of the Municipality of Udine, the ‘Teatri Stabil Furlan’ Association was born.
The Teatro Stabile Friulano operates in Friuli, a multilingual territory, where today Italian is the dominant language, spoken by everyone, while Friulian is spoken by a large minority as a first language and by a further considerable percentage as a second. Compared to Italian, which has a historical basis in Tuscany, Friulian has an indigenous historical basis.
