Pinocchio, dalle radici al cielo | sixth residence

“Pinocchio – dalle radici al cielo” is the title of the new residency, a new multidisciplinary project conceived by musician Emanuele Balsamo, which will involve the selected performers for two weeks.
In this theatrical/musical reinterpretation of Carlo Collodi’s masterpiece, the famous wooden puppet becomes a representation of the chaos of contemporary life, in which the lack of direction translates into disorder, misadventure and death. To become human, Pinocchio must learn to see everything within himself that is mechanical, that responds to life’s stimuli without awareness, and follow the path that allows him to go beyond himself: as long as we remain machines driven by accidental events – and this is something the fairy tale speaks about very deeply – nothing truly good can happen.

Central to the work is the reference to school: Collodi seems to speak to us not so much of a school to which we must submit in order to conform to what society considers culturally right, but rather of a system of knowledge in which our most capricious nature, incapable of will, recognises that a new way of living, a broader universe, can exist, and therefore consciously chooses, through effort, to
move towards it.

To become human, Pinocchio must find that School and that Master capable of helping him discover what truly belongs to his deepest nature.
And indeed, the final test will be love for another person. Nothing more. That is ultimately what makes us human.
The plot, already rich in evocative elements, is explored here through its most grotesque nuances (the Cat and the Fox, the Dogfish, etc.) and its redemptive ones (the Blue Fairy, the Talking Cricket), brought to the stage through
masks specially created during the days of the residency.

Everything is amplified by a musical repertoire with a strong evocative and fairy-tale quality: Renaissance
music – or, more generally, so-called early music – whose style, in some respects simpler than that of other historical periods, allows for a fascinating reinterpretation of the material through a contemporary ensemble that also includes electronic elements.
Music therefore takes on a central role, explored in different dimensions and combinations, in dialogue
with the performative abilities of the actors/dancers. They interpret selected parts of the original text, combining them with an interweaving of expressive languages in which poetics and stage action merge.

As with every residency, the performance will be presented in two performances. The first will take place at the “Teatro di Paglia”, in the enchanting setting of Lake Nemi, near Rome: an open-air venue
particularly suited to the existential spirit of the work, immersed in nature and surprisingly “outside the world”, despite its proximity to the city.

The second performance will take place in Kazakhstan, where, thanks to the partnership with Almaty’s leading art academy,
the prestigious T.K. Zhurgenov Kazakh National Academy of Arts, the performance
will take shape in a new staging at the Uyghur Theater.