In the first year in which Europe and the world are officially out of the pandemic, the Puppets & Design Festival restarts from Italy (Gorizia, Muggia, Grado, Acquileia) and Slovenia (Nova Gorica).

The European Festival it’s in fact set up in the ambit of 31st edition of the Alpe Adria Puppet Festival which this year has several new features and a varied offering of proposals suitable for all ages and all tastes: shows, workshops, participatory events and special projects aim to be the key to reactivating a synergistic relationship with the urban, cultural and tourist fabric of the various centers that will host the various stages, between Italy and Slovenia.

Companies from different parts of Europe will present an overview of new forms of theatricality rich in contamination and, precisely for this reason, aimed at different age groups: theater of objects, marionettes and puppets, but also music, circus, experimentation with lights and special machinery; spaces for reflection on important contemporary themes and active participation of the public who is involved in the performances in an increasingly inclusive way.

Those intrigued by new forms of participatory theatricality cannot miss the appointment with Book is a Book a Book and Eutopia, proposed by the Trickster company (Switzerland). The first is a performance in which the book becomes a space to explore, a real journey made of images, words, sounds where the spectator immerses himself in the sound atmospheres, in the real space that changes and gives himself over to the pleasure of the imagination . With Eutopia, however, the public is involved in a multi-sensory and playful participatory experience on the great themes of the earth and nature. Combining performance, installation and game design, it draws the audience into an engaging show with an always different and unexpected ending.

Is there a preference for puppetry, the contemporary one, but at the same time are you fascinated by music? Then the appointment with Exit will be perfect, a new production by Fekete Seretlek & Studio Damúza of Prague for the European project Puppet & Design, which combines object theatre, cabaret and electronic folk music.

Introspection and the music of a cello instead accompany M.A.R. by Andrea Díaz Reboredo, who in this work intertwines two stories: the life of a house, with a century of social, family and economic history, and a reflection on spaces and their meaning. Silos, the new work by Claudio Montagna, is also thoughtful and innovative, a fantastic tale of the hypothetical discovery of a young man, in the year 2099, of Pier Paolo Pasolini and his works. So far away in time but very close to the feeling of him. Montagna, a very fine playwright, creates table shows of great seductive intensity, combining the charm of the word at the service of the story with simple but evocative figurations.

Kumulunimbu, by the Catalan company Ortiga, delves into topics such as migration, injustice and friendship with extreme delicacy, while the exhibition-show Non sono nell’Orco, by Francesca Bettini and Gyula Molnár, will be a theatrical presentation to enter the book, conducted by the same authors….

Those who love technical experimentation on stage will be enchanted by the workshop-laboratory of the show Dal Vivo!, in which Philippe Lefebvre/Flop (France) gives life to unused materials accumulated over the years: kitchen utensils, small mechanical systems, hand-crank dimmers , lenses, mirrors and slides come to life and, through the poetry of their autonomous mechanics, are transformed into moving images. Without technological filters, with only light and movement.

These are just some examples of the multiplicity of proposals arriving from 20th August to 4th September with the Puppets & Design Festival and Alpe Adria Puppet Festival. The entire program and all its stages will soon be on the website www.ctagorizia.it which today already presents the innovative manifesto, also the result of contamination between classic graphics and the group of young writers Menti Acriliche, led by artist Mattia Campo Dall’Orto.

INFO:

Centro Teatro Animazione e Figure
via Coronini, 17 | 34170 Gorizia (all’interno di Parco Coronini Cronberg)
t. +39 0481.537280 f. +39 0481.545204 info@ctagorizia.it