It goes on stage at Future HallThursday May 2 at 8.45pm (with repeats until the 5th) “Style exercises” Of Raymond Queneau in the Italian version by Umberto Eco, directed by Emanuela Pistone and on stage Francesco Foti, the same Emanuela Pistone and Agostino Zumbo. Style exercises it’s a entertainment in which a banal episode is told 99 times with as many variations. A masterpiece of rhetoric and comedy, which reveals the infinite possibilities of the conscious use of language.
The history of this text comes from afar. In chapter 33 of the First Book of De copie verborum et rerum (1512), Erasmus of Rotterdam took two very simple sentences and offered 150 variations of one and 200 of the other. After a few centuries, in 1947, Gallimard published in France for the first time the Exercises by Raymond Queneau which were based on Erasmus’ variations. Until 1983 when Einaudi decided to publish the Italian version edited by Umberto Eco. A real rewriting, not a translation, considered a masterpiece.
Today, 40 years after the first Italian edition of Eco, the Teatro Stabile of Catania has decided to re-propose this text. The show is a real challenge for any actor. The repetition of the same story in infinite variations (99 in total, but 40 will be created at the Sala Futura) turns out to be a compelling puzzle game.
“In fact, the game was my key to understanding this staging – he writes in the director’s notes Emanuela Pistone – Through the kaleidoscopic progression of Queneau/Eco’s writing I ‘saw’ a show halfway between a circus and a variety show, where different numbers follow each other, comic pieces, songs, dances, even some magic, without a common thread that connects them unite. In this circus of ours of the word, in this Variety of language, the interpreters move on an imaginary blank page where, from a pile of letters that continuously change position, the 40 variations that we propose come to life with as many characters. Even the titles of each variation are proposed in game form, through the animated projection that introduces the show”.
Form
2 – 5 May 2024 Sala Futura Catania
STYLE EXERCISES
Of Raymond Queneau Italian version by Umberto Eco
Direction and dramaturgy Emanuela Pistone
with Francesco Foti, Emanuela Pistone, Agostino Zumbo
Scene Andrea Taddei
Costumes Riccardo Cappello
Lights and graphic animation Gaetano La Mela
Volunteer assistant director Daniele Gaetano Corsaro
Production Stabile Theater of Catania
CALENDAR
Thursday 2 May at 8.45pm
Friday 3 May at 5.15pm
Saturday 4 May at 8.45pm
Sunday 5 May at 6pm
