I had the privilege of attending Sogno in a truly evocative historic setting.
I was not familiar with the sound stages on Via della Vasca Navale in Rome, which once housed the Ponti/De Laurentiis Film Studios. Countless interior scenes were filmed there, and new approaches to filmmaking were experimented with.
Today, these historic structures are home to Spazio Rossellini.
And being there really feels like stepping into one of those sound stages where Italian Neorealism was born.
Nothing seems to have changed.
There is no stage towering above the audience.
Everything takes place in an open space, where the audience becomes immersed in the performance.
“Watching” Sogno is probably the least appropriate way to describe the experience.
You don’t simply watch it. You are completely drawn into an oneiric performance.
Sogno is a choreographic work that evokes Shakespeare’s dreamlike world, creating a unique narrative universe in which reality and dreams seem to merge, without clearly defined boundaries.
Everything begins in a “bar in the woods” in Athens, which is supposed to organize the wedding of Theseus.
But, dramatically, the imaginary world of beauty, dance, music and love collides with the pettiness of reality, overshadowed by debts, taxes and economic failure.
With a distinctly Felliniesque spirit, director and choreographer Loredana Parrella offers us a perspective on human beings and society that engages with the concept of limits, blending reality and dreams. It is a world in which characters are explored through grotesque elements and caricature.
Crushed between the commands of the gods and the tragic boundaries of mortal existence, the protagonists desperately try to organize the event. Yet time and again they are forced to confront deeply human flaws such as envy, revenge, abuse of power and the inability to recognize one’s own limits. These are traits that the Greek gods themselves represent in myth, as if in a distorted mirror.
Mortals must eat. They must be paid for their work. They have a finite amount of time that marks the course of their existence.
This eternal contradiction is embodied by the wise Puck, a man dressed as a woman, grotesquely tragicomic, who struggles to resist the vortex of despair.
They are our dreams. They are projections of our nightmares, of our mortal and profoundly human eternal struggle between ideals and harsh reality.
An engaging, rhythmic and frenetic performance, full of twists and surprises.
Absolutely not to be missed.
SOGNO
Freely inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream by W. Shakespeare. A creation for 10 performers.
Direction and choreography: Loredana Parrella
Text: Aleksandros Memetaj
Lighting design: Loredana Parrella
Choreographic assistant: Yoris Petrillo
Live music: Fabio Recchia
Performers: Caroline Loiseau, Aleksandros Memetaj, Yoris Petrillo, Anne-Gaëlle Stephant, Camille Cibrot, Sebastian Zamaro, Dinu Corminboeuf, Catarina Ramos Nunes, Matteo Vairo
Produced by Twain Centro Produzione Danza.
Co-produced with Festival Abano Danza; Fondazione Entroterre; Mirabilia Festival.
In collaboration with Narni Città Teatro.
Residency at Supercinema and Teatro Il Rivellino – Tuscania, Teatro Luciano Bonaparte – Canino.
With the support of MiC – Italian Ministry of Culture, Lazio Region, Roma Capitale, Municipality of Viterbo, Municipality of Tuscania, Municipality of Canino, Fondazione Carivit.
DIRECTOR’S NOTES: The characters in SOGNO move within an atmosphere of folklore and superstition, in the heat of summer, amid the madness of uninhibited natural impulses.
We encounter Theseus and Hippolyta, whose court provides the setting for the love story; the Four Lovers who flee Athens, whose adventures in the forest form the central plot; Oberon and Titania with their romantic troubles; Puck, whose mistake sets the destiny of the four lovers in motion; and a group of amateur actors, including Bottom, who, with his donkey’s head, shares a visionary love with Titania, Queen of the Fairies, who transforms vulgar things into sublime forms.
The performance revolves around two questions: Can the meaning of “dream” be transformed into that of “vision”? Is it love and dreaming that transform reality?
We might say that when we love, we dream; in the “moment
Web Reporter iscritta Wrep.EU. Ha studiato Sociologia presso Libera Università di Urbino.
leggendo la tua recensione ho capito che assistere allo spettacolo “Sogno” è stato per te proprio un sogno. Le tematiche trattate interessanti e attuali.Roma da’ possibilità uniche. Brava.