ALTAMURA – Paolo Ruffini will be on stage at the Mercadante Theater in Altamura with his show Up&Down next May 7th at 8.30 pm.
Can Ruffini explain to us his artistic evolution towards highly relevant social issues?
«I believe I have changed a lot psychologically over time and consequently my creativity has also changed. Today I think the time has come to make the public reflect on fundamental social issues beyond the “social” current. I am convinced that if Aristotle came back to life, he would reiterate that man is a social animal, not a social animal and that therefore it is necessary to focus on concrete social problems, tackling them with a little lightness, certainly not with superficiality, also through ‘audiovisual”.
This is where the theater work Up&Down was born from?
«Since the creation of the “Up&Down” project which concerns people with Down syndrome, I have felt great satisfaction in addressing social issues, arousing inner enrichment within me. Personally, I don’t believe that there is always a need to experience human tragedy first-hand to realize that there are great difficulties in life. I enjoyed exploring the world of disability, the world of neurology, the world of psychiatry. There are some themes that in my opinion are very interesting and as a creative person, as an author, I wanted to address them with the light-hearted gaze of someone approaching them for the first time. Art, with its most fascinating facets from cinema to theatre, has little to do with normality in the broadest sense. Life itself does not ask us to be normal, life is a hymn to diversity: we are all differently normal and equally different. In Up&Down we talk about ability and disability to happiness, beauty, wonder towards the things we experience every day. Working with the actors of this company I discovered a confidence in the life that they possess and that we so-called “normal” people have lost. I learned the true essence of resilience: a limit that turns into an opportunity.”
Was the film about Alzheimer’s a further demonstration of your professional turn towards social work?
«Exactly, and I’m very attracted to the idea of creating a constructive connection between social cinema and comedy».
Can cinema and theater have a therapeutic effect on people who are affected by pathologies, including neurological ones?
“Certainly! Greek culture taught us this, the Hellenic culture which considered theater as catharsis, as a cathartic ability to face life, according to the philosophy of Plato and others; over the centuries the theater as a therapeutic tool has worked miracles.”
Does your sensitivity depend on a classical cultural education?
«Probably yes, I attended classical high school and graduated in Literature».
She faces social problems with a smile; what is comedy?
«It’s the only real solution we have to combat the ugliness of the world. When faced with a bad thing, even anger, one should never use violence but only laughter at most.”
