Theatre has always been a great tool to gather and bond people together. For one night, people that do not know each other share an experience, that they will live only once as each representation of a play is unique, even if it is with the same actors, on the same stage for the same story.
For one night, each spectator melts into one entity: the audience. There, no matter your age, sex, origins, you will be considered as part of a whole.

Stories and food to share, territories to heal

This is an aspect of the theatre that Teatro delle Ariette decided to put on the foreground and use through their artistic project Territori da cucire (Territories to sew). In front of the social rifts caused by geographical borders between countries, regions, municipalities, Teatro delle Ariette thought Territori da cucire to question and contest this division. For that, they chose to gather people around a mix of two of the most social events : theatre and meal. They would play a show telling their story while cooking and then around a sharing meal it would be the turn of some guests from the audience to share their story. The core objective of the project is to erase borders through dialogues and sharing (stories, meals, conversations…).
In the wake of the torrential rains that heavily impacted Valsamoggia, where Teatro delle Ariette takes place, the artistic project Territori da cucire became Territori da curare (Territories to take care of). Such a tragedy raises questions. How can we rebuild and gather inside the territory? “What life do we imagine for the territory we inhabit, for ourselves, for the planet?” (Teatro delle Ariette, website). To express these ideas and questions, Paola Berselli and Stefano Pasquini chose to invest the public space and put on stage with volunteers and workshops’ students Brecht’s play: Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny). What a better place to gather people than the very place of community, cities’ squares?

Mahagonny in Valsamoggia

On Piazza di Castelletto on July the 17th, we were welcomed in Mahagonny, this short-lived city where everything is legal at first and illegal the following day. For a night, everyone is invited in the Castelletto Mahagonny, to follow the story of this city and its inhabitants while enjoying cheese balls and drinks provided by the staff on tables spread in the audience. In the main square of the Castelletto, in front of the pub’s neighbourhood, every onlooker was welcome to attend the show for free.

Before the show began, intrigued bystanders came to eat some food, looking at the staff completing the last details. It looked like going to a village party, reminding these words from Rousseau:

Let’s not adopt these exclusive spectacles that sadly lock away a small number of people in a dark lair […]. No, people, these are not your parties. It is outdoor, under the sky that you should meet.” (“N’adoptons point ces spectacles exclusifs qui renferment tristement un petit nombre de gens dans un antre obscur […]. Non, peuple, ce ne sont pas là vos fêtes. C’est en plein air, c’est sous le ciel qu’il faut vous rassembler.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Lettre sur les spectacles, Amsterdam, 1758, trad. Chloé Pottier).

The Teatro delle Ariette brought the theatre outdoors and turned it into this kind of party under the sky that evokes Rousseau, returning to these ancient parties theatre was at first. Except here and now, the core objectives are different. It is not a religious celebration, but a gathering to heal the territory by creating bonds with it and between citizens. After the show, we were able and invited to share a meal and some thoughts with the artists, the staff members, other members of the audience, etc. We could think about the play we just saw and make it link with our relationship with territories, landscapes, earth. It took the Brechtian play further in its brechtian aspect, as the playwright wanted his plays to be discussed with the audience after it.
The spectacle brought us together, and the sharing meal crystallised it: who can eat a pizza in Italy without befriending the people they share it with after a Brechtian play on community? Territori da cucire were first thought to create and maintain bonds between humans, but also and most of all humanity and landscapes. After the important floods of May, such a project takes much more sense. Nowadays, time is indeed to heal the territory and rebuild the relationship between humans and landscapes, using every tool we have in hand. Teatro delle Ariette showed us that theatre can be useful for some of us.

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