Change the world. It needs it! – Bertolt Brecht
An angel staring at his own city from the sky. Another angel who with his eyes wide open, mouth open, wings outstretched, sees one catastrophe that relentlessly accumulates ruins upon ruins.
Gianluca Costantini’s drawing and its graphic rendering transport us to the 7th edition of POLIS Teatro Festival, paying homage to the famous film with which Wim Wenders, two years before the Wall came down, found in the Berlin sky the only element that brought together two different peoples speaking the same language. But also Walter Benjamin’s Angel of History, who from Paul Klee’s painting observes the catastrophe entangled in the storm of progress.
In a similar way this year international focus concentrates on contemporary theater in the German-speaking area. It takes place between May 7th and 12th in Ravenna’s major cultural venues with an extraordinary prologue on April 24th at Teatro Alighieri, in collaboration with La Stagione dei Teatri, bringing together artists who are united by the same sky, though they come from different countries, and with great concern lay their gaze on the ruins of our present.
More than 25 events, including important names of the international theater scene, national premieres, co-productions with major European theaters, and moments of discussion among international artists, scholars and professionals, will draw the attention of critics and spectators from all over Europe, confirming the festival’s distinctive artistic proposal of the highest relevance.
Among the guests and co-productions there is the ErosAntEros’ new international and multilingual work, Saint Joan of the Stockyards by Bertolt Brecht, featuring the involvement of the Slovenian cult band Laibach, co-produced with Emilia Romagna Teatro ERT / Teatro Nazionale, Slovensko Mladinsko Gledališče, TNL – Théâtre National du Luxembourg, Teatro Stabile di Bolzano and hosted in Ravenna in a unique and unmissable occasion, on April 24th, 2024.
Among the national premieres by major artists of the European contemporary theater scene: the Berlin-based feminist collective She She Pop with Besessen – A collective monologue that renews the concept of “theater without an audience” through a polyphonic monologue in which the community has its say. Among the important international hospitalities: Rimini Protokoll, one of the most recognized groups from Berlin, with The Walks, an itinerant performance that uses public space as a theatrical setting; Swiss artist Mats Staub with Death and Birth in My Life, which addresses universal themes through individual testimonies by creating an intimate place to make a common experience; and the Italian-German company Barletti/Waas with the well-known production Selbstbezichtigung by Austrian Nobel Price Peter Handke.
Another co-production of the festival: On the Difficulty of Telling the Truth by ErosAntEros, based on Brecht’s political-literary essay Writing the truth: five difficulties, engages the company’s sound-vocal research with reality images by photographer Michele Lapini. The performance will also be presented in a matinée as a special project for Ravenna’s secondary schools, in the formula already successfully tested in 2023.
POLIS program is enriched by hospitality, residencies and co-productions by younger European artists: with Millenovecento/89 the female duo Le Cerbottane who, in the now traditional Sunday lunchtime format at Teatro Socjale in Piangipane, narrate the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the P.C.I. mixing family and historical memories; Caterina Marino, selected through the national network supporting emerging creativity In-Box, which with Still Alive analyzes the unease of a generation that is unable to project itself into the future; two productions chosen by the spectators of Ravenna through the national project L’Italia dei Visionari.
A rich program, which accompanies the performances with moments of international meetings and conferences with artists, critics and scholars, educational activities and participatory projects developing throughout the year (Suspended Tickets, Under30 Tickets, Visionari Project, Theater Workshops for university students), in a perspective of inclusion and active citizenship that has been the soul of the festival since the first edition.
