It can be summed up in seven slogans Venice Theater Biennale 2024 which opens on Saturday 15 June:
1) Outside the theaters, beyond the theatre: the inauguration of the 52nd International Theater Festival, on Saturday 15 June 2024, will be at 11 in the morning in Oadiglione 30 of Forte Marghera, and not in the evening in the usual theater hall at the Arsenale. It begins with a real artistic installation, ‘Elephants in Rooms or 14 windows on the world’, signed by the winners of the Silver Lion, the Gob Squad collective, English by origin but Berlin by adoption. Moreover, the search for new languages beyond the traditional ones in theaters, post-theatre, is the trend of the moment.
2) Password, inclusiveness: if the Silver Lions Gob Squad dedicate a new ‘Dorian’ to Oscar Wilde’s gay icon, for the grand finale on 28 and 29 June Back to Back Theatre, the Australian company of disabled artists, arrives from Australia for the first time in Italy. Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, in the name of strong emotions, also for the show they will propose again, ‘Food Court’. More handkerchiefs for everyone, he really laughs and cries.
3) Class is not water: wanting to also include a bit of egalitarian spirit, ‘Have a good day!’ comes from Lithuania. by Vaiva Grainytė, Lina Lapelytė and Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, a very singular ‘work for 10 cashiers, supermarket sounds and piano’. For the pro-immigration side, the filming of the dramatic ‘Blind Runner’ – two illegal immigrants in the Channel Tunnel – by Iranian expat Amir Reza Koohestani stands out.
4) More shock for everyone: there are those who enjoy going to see the so-called ‘trigger warnings’ (sensitivity warnings) of the shows, which are de rigueur in many European countries. On the website of the Belgian theater NTGent, for the new ‘Medea’s Kinderen’ by guru director Milo Rau, the great closing event, we read: ‘contains scenes that refer directly or indirectly to suicide, infanticide, pedophilia and contains scenes with the use of fake blood’. It is a spectacular invective on prejudices and stereotypes against LGBTQ+ people, ‘Phobia’ by Markus Öhrn and Karol Radziszewski, expected for June 25/26: strictly forbidden to minors already at the premiere at Nowy in Warsaw and in Ljubljana.
5) The ghost of yesterday: the multi-year direction of Stefano Ricci and Gianni Forte, who arrived ricci/forte but now officially separated at home, comes to an end with this Biennial ‘Niger et Albus’. Perhaps the balance sheet is also a bit unclear: they have presented – and still do so this year – some excellent international shows, but the comparison with their predecessor Antonio Latella is unequal, especially as regards the laboratory of new Italian talents.
6) Will the recovery be silent? Still with the unknown of the shows and readings of the various winners of the Biennale College and various prizes, this year we are still expecting some kind of innovation from Italy, thanks to the emerging company Muta Imago, with an innovative and visionary version of ‘Three Sisters’. And maybe even from ‘Cenere’ Georgina Pi with Stefano Fortin and from ‘Sleeping beauty’ Fabrizio Arcuri with Caterina Balucani.
7) Arsonist in name only. It is the first Theater Biennial of the new president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, appointed by the minister of the ‘cultural counter-hegemony’ of Fratelli d’Italia Sangiuliano. He doesn’t seem to have bat an eyelid when faced with a program that is anything but in line with Meloni. Soon Buttafuoco will have to appoint the future managers of Dance, Music and Theatre, but beyond chatter about the conductor Beatrice Venezi, no indiscretions fly. Who knows if, instead of some unlikely sympathizers of the right, Buttafuoco will look for a glimmer among the free hitters frowned upon by the usual clique. There would be one or two names…
