Once again the Alpe Adria Puppet Festival welcomes Claudio Montagna, considered one of the fathers of the great 1970s season of theatrical animation and the use of theatrical language within the community and socially disadvantaged contexts.
Playwright, actor, and director, amongst the founders of Teatro dell’Angolo in Torino, today artistic director of Teatro e Società, Montagna follows up his presentation of the very unique Table Theatre, in which he combines fine dramaturgy supported by the charm of words, with simple but evocative figurations.
Claudio Montagna has been investigating and relating to the world of young people for over 40 years, setting up shows, animation projects, and workshops. At the same time, he collaborates with the Chair of Sociology of Law of the Department of Law of the University of Turin on theatre projects at the Lorusso e Cutugno Prison in Turin.
Trascinato sulla via del disonore (Dragged along the path of dishonour). Turin, 1918: Nello, an 18-year-old accomplice to a murder, writes a letter from prison to ask forgiveness from the victim's children. Eighty-four pages in an attempt to recover at least his lost dignity, it is the story of a brief existence only illuminated by an instantaneous love story; for the rest, dark, tempted and led astray, according to the author, by bad company: ‘I hear a voice in my soul: Repent but do not grieve, unfortunate you were but not wicked. Dragged along the path of dishonour and crime you were by wicked creatures.’
The letter is in the archives of the Lombroso Museum in Turin, it is not known whether it served its purpose or not. Nothing more is known of Nello.
IL TEATRO DA TAVOLO (TABLE THEATRE)
A form of ‘countercurrent’ performance, for an audience of a maximum of 30/40 people per performance, in which the author is seated in front of his laptop computer that acts as his ‘cue card’ and music console. The raised lid of the computer is instead used as a backdrop for the drawings, objects and figures that act in interpreting and commenting on what is being told.
A choice of theatrical craftsmanship, where spectators have the impression of being the sole recipients, the protagonists of the ritual in which they participate. This way of doing theatre provides an intense experience of relationship; an enjoyment among a few of a performance, as if it were a privilege, in an era where every artistic production is endlessly replicated on a global scale.
A work capable of taking the spectators by the hand and transporting them into a dimension of discovery and reflection. Not least because oral storytelling takes us back to oral traditions that are lost in time. And each word digs a path that goes deeper and deeper within us, creating a world of sounds, images, suggestions, memories buried for generations.
