Viva Pasolini!

On November 2, 2015, forty years have passed since the world was robbed of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s sharp and prophetic eye. Over the years, CSS Teatro stabile di innovazione del FVG has continued to pay homage to Pasolini, and following the monograph dedicated to him in 1981 and Un viaggio lungo un anno in 1995 to mark the 20th anniversary of his death, it is only natural for us to return once more to pay tribute to a writer who bequeathed to Friuli such a rich artistic heritage.

Taking up the thread of a theme that was central to both Pasolini’s work and life – the dichotomous relationship between the public/private domains - CSS is launching its own tribute to Pasolini in 2015 with a three year project which will bring together some of the key directors and modern-day disciples of Pasolini’s work with a view to creating a series of productions that will build on the writer’s legacy. Starting from his body of work and own personal story, these pieces will also seek to explore Pasolini’s heritage through the work of other writers who have taken up his intellectual and cultural baton. 
 
Starting from this summer, Virgilio Sieni, Giuseppe Battiston, Luigi Lo Cascio, ricci/forte, Fabrizio Arcuri and Rita Maffei will each oversee one of six productions which will debut in Udine between November 2015 and June 2016.

On November 1 there will be an entire evening of events created to mark the fortieth anniversary of Pasolini's death. In Fuga Pasolini_Ballo 1922 (November 1-10), choreographer Virgilio Sieni, will explore Pasolini’s legacy through a dance performance created for Udine and its citizens. Boasting a cast of fifty, the show will feature amateur performers from a wide cross-section of the public, including non-professional dancers, elderly citizens, mums, dads, and children. Other highlights include Non c’è acqua più fresca (November 1-12), which will explore the places Pasolini evokes in poems such as the autobiographical Terra di temporali e primule (the land of storms and primroses). Created and performed by Giuseppe Battiston, the piece will reflect on the beauty of Pasolini’s experimental poetry in the Friulian language and the importance of his emotional legacy in our collective memory.
Taking initial inspiration from Pasolini’s celebrated Corriere della Sera article, “Cos’è questo golpe? Io so” ("What is this coup? I know), Fabrizio Arcuri builds a thematic link with Antonio Tarantino’s Materiali per una tragedia tedesca (November 28-December 8 / June 10-18), a dense drama inspired by the political turmoil of the so-called anni di Piombo, to create a series of episodic dramas which will debut in November 2015.

Luigi Lo Cascio, who has worked with CSS on previous occasions, returns to Udine in November with Il sole e gli sguardi (November 25-December 5), a show exploring Pasolini's poetry in the Italian language. Weaving performance and video animation, the piece will draw on Pasolin’s rich poetic corpus in an effort to examine the relationship between his private and public personas and the powerful role he played as public prophet and visionary.

Pasolini’s poetry also provides the focus of Rita Maffei’s Il treno (January 28-March 5), a performance inspired by the poet’s train journey from Friuli to Rome in 1950. Staged in episodes, the piece journeys between past and present as it interweaves extracts from Pasolini’s work, the key places that informed his experience, and the living heritage that remains rooted within us today.

Acclaimed playwright duo ricci/forte will return to Udine to pay their own tribute to Pasolini with PPP Ultimo inventario prima di liquidazione (January 28-31). The show, which will debut in early 2016 following a prior site-specific performance La ramificazione del pidocchio (December 15-22) in December, will explore the issues that motivate Europe’s new  generations, most particularly the demand for ethics that spilled forth from Pasolini pages.