A child witnesses the spectacle of war. It’s Orestes: from being innocent he will become capable of killing. It is a scandal that we have become accustomed to seeing, and therefore we witness it, accomplices and participants. In Veleia, however, the power of the theater discovered our heart of darkness to remind us that “seeing the light is the sweetest thing for mortals”. All thanks to the show “Iphigenia in Aulis. A scandalous miracle,” on stage on 21 and 22 June in the national premiere, with the imaginative and extraordinary direction of Fausto Russo Alesi who worked with the actors and actresses of Bottega XNL Fare Teatro, a project conceived and directed by Paola Pedrazzini.
Euripides’ tragedy, in Letizia Russo’s translation and adaptation, took shape in voices, bodies, movements, of these 22 young performers, selected from many candidates from all over Italy. They immersed themselves in the ancient word for four intense weeks, to make it present today: a revolt against war. Because no war is just; the sacrifice of no innocent is right
They worked for weeks in the spaces of XNL Piacenza, the Center for contemporary art, cinema, theater and music, wanted and supported by the Piacenza and Vigevano Foundation. They re-emerged by staging all the power of this tragedy in a unique space, revealed for the occasion to the public of the Ancient Theater Festival of Veleia: the cistern – amphitheatre, an area of the archaeological area never used for shows, which is located upstream from the forum and which the director Russo Alesi wanted to be transformed in Aulis, a metaphorical place. Aulis is the center of the world and – to quote the director’s notes – “the center of the human being, that place of choices close to the most intimate truths and the authentic and disarmed play of childhood. That place to which we should remain connected to evolve and know our impulses, that place where we learn to lose.”
The last performance, on Sunday 23 June, was moved to Bottega
The article by Donata Meneghelli – Fphoto by Gianfranco Negri
