Bertschy<\/strong> That’s about how I imagine it: the search is in the journey and the question is always the same. There are many unused theatres in Palermo that could be suitable. I already have my eye on one, of course. All I need now is to find a millionaire. (He laughs.)<\/em> The question of financing is central of course. You can’t do anything without money. And in southern Italy, cultural subsidies are less generous than in Germany or France. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s exactly why you should consider whether you would perhaps prefer to found the Mediterranean ensemble in Tunisia. Tunis would be a good place for it. I’m not saying that because I grew up there and love this city. But because in Tunis you can do much more with little money. Everything is much more expensive here and people still earn very little. At the same time, Tunisia is one of the only countries in the Arab region where there is subsidised theatre and the government is actually interested in culture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Does the Mediterranean Ensemble need a location at all? <\/p>\n\n\n\n It doesn’t necessarily need a location. In my mind, however, it is important for it to be located somewhere. Palermo seems interesting to me because of its geographical location in the centre of the Mediterranean. And also because Sicily never really belonged to Europe and Tunisia was always closer than the north of Italy. At the centre of the Mediterranean ensemble, however, is not so much a place as an association of artists, i.e. actors from all the countries around the Mediterranean. \u00ab\u00a0A strange sight, to scrape the seabed and see bodies raining down on you. I have seen millions of them, swimming over Tunis, Palermo, Alexandria, Marseille, Algiers, Athens, Beirut, Barcelona, Tel Aviv, Istanbul, Tangier, Tripoli…\u00a0\u00bb, says Prometheus in our play. It is a matter of developing a common theatrical language, and perhaps even a Mediterranean theatrical circuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bertschy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We took a first step with \u00ab\u00a0Prometeo\u00a0\u00bb by asking actors from Tunisia and Italy to participate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, that brings with it the very pragmatic difficulty that we have to communicate in one language in rehearsals. And then there is the question of which language we speak to the audience. We have only become accustomed to watching theatre from other linguistic areas since we started regularly using surtitles in the theatre. In \u00ab\u00a0Prometeo\u00a0\u00bb, the actors speak Italian and Arabic on stage. It wasn’t that complicated to find actors in Tunisia who also speak Italian. Tunisians have a lot more connections to Italy than you might think at first. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a whole district in Tunis that we call \u00ab\u00a0la petite Sicile\u00a0\u00bb, a former harbour district. We used to have only Italian television at home. The Italian language is very close to me, even though I don’t speak it and had to relearn it for the play. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But it’s also about a physical and gestural expression of the actors that is shaped by theatrical cultures, acting schools and styles that are very different depending on their origin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n These differences are mostly superficial. If you cry on stage as an actor, everyone understands. When we get to what is human, the cultural differences are no longer relevant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So is it about finding a common humanity? <\/p>\n\n\n\n A Tunisian actor who has often played in Italy – a storyteller – used to say, at the beginning of the performance: When we walk along the beach in Italy, we step with our feet into exactly the same sea as in Tunisia. We are fatefully connected to each other. We cannot defend ourselves against it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prometeo: The Blue Kangaroo<\/em><\/strong> gathers a transnational ensemble of actors and artists based in Palermo and Tunis to work on a new theatrical creation \u2013 an original rewriting freely inspired by the figure of Prometheus, directed by Sicilian-born director and set designer Simone Mannino, conceived and written with political writer Lorenzo Marsili. In a time of an incipient climatic collapse and a profound systemic crisis, the work explores the relationship with the flame of techne, oscillating between instrument of liberation and new slavery. The executive production of the piece is executed by the Palermo based Atelier Nostra Signora in co-production with Teatro Biondo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The dramaturge Eva-Maria Bertschy in conversation with director Simone Mannino and actor Jamel Madani Bertschy When we started working on Prometeo, you told me about the idea of founding a Mediterranean ensemble in Palermo. You’ve been on the road a lot as a set designer, artist, director, all over Europe, in Turkey, in Russia, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studiorizoma.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studiorizoma.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studiorizoma.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studiorizoma.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studiorizoma.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/studiorizoma.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":461,"href":"https:\/\/studiorizoma.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449\/revisions\/461"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studiorizoma.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studiorizoma.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studiorizoma.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studiorizoma.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
When we started working on Prometeo, you told me about the idea of founding a Mediterranean ensemble in Palermo. You’ve been on the road a lot as a set designer, artist, director, all over Europe, in Turkey, in Russia, but this would be a project worth committing to in the city where you grew up. You want to build something here. How do you envisage that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mannino<\/strong>
When Peter Brook founded the global Ensemble and the Centre international de Recherche th\u00e9\u00e2trale back then, he was in a crisis. He asked himself the question: Why theatre? So he set out on a two-year journey with an ensemble of actors from different cultures to explore this question and confront new forms of theatre. When they returned from the trip, they had used up all their money. Peter Brook and his wife then travelled to the USA, where they met a millionaire who gave them a few millions. They were thus able to build Le Th\u00e9\u00e2tre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris, in an old theatre \u00e0 l’italienne that had been empty for years and was totally run down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Madani<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bertschy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mannino<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/studiorizoma.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Prometeo_1-1024x644.jpg\")
Mannino<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Madani<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bertschy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Madani<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bertschy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Madani<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n