concept Davide Sacco and Agata Tomsic / ErosAntEros
text Emanuele Aldrovandi
direction Davide Sacco
dramaturg Agata Tomsic
with Marco Cavicchioli, Giusto Cucchiarini, Luca Mammoli, Massimo Scola, Agata Tomsic
space Davide Sacco and Agata Tomsic
costumes Laura Dondoli
music design Davide Sacco
lights Vincenzo Bonaffini and Davide Sacco
video Francesco Tedde
illustrations Gianluca Costantini
animations and photo Gianluca Sacco
sound engineer Giampiero Berti and Davide Sacco
rehearsal assistant Jessica Sedda e Marta Ruggiero
organization Roberto Carletti
technical direction Marco Carletti
press office Silvia Pacciarini and Donatella Franzoni
Set objects are realized by Elena Stanzani in the laboratory of Arena del Sole
production Emilia Romagna Teatro Fondazione
Duration 1h 50′
World première
Played in Italian with English subtitles
The show is born by an idea of Davide Sacco and Agata Tomsic founders of ErosAntEros, an artistic research path, which uses the theatrical form to deal with a multitude of expressive languages and to manipulate various sources, such as philosophy, politics, history, art, science and current affairs.
Alarms! tells the story of a group of terrorists who want to overthrow the established power by violence. They spread their ideas and seek recruits through the network, physically prepare their bodies to make the revolution. They do not believe in democracy, they hate immigrants and want to establish a new dictatorship in Europe. In her bedroom, a very special leader, devises a plan to fix her name in history forever.
In recent years the reflection on the role of the artist in contemporary society has brought us towards a politicization of the research objects of ErosAntEros and to an opening of our forms to a wider and more active participation.
When at the end of 2014 we were conceiving our new spectacular project a series of current events have brought us to say “we want to talk about neo-fascism”; about this frightening phenomenon that continues to affect Europe and the world, also thanks to the economic crisis and immigration from countries hit by hunger and wars.
Unlike our previous works, we decided to compare our research to a living author and create with him a narration, on which trigger the performative devices which are typical of our theater work.
This is why we asked Emanuele Aldrovandi to write a text for us. It was a fundamental meeting and the collaboration which was born surprised all three. Starting from our suggestions Emanuele offered us a subject, expanded with themes and figures that we would never imagine. With the passing of months, meetings and phone calls, our ideas have enriched each other until they have been transformed in the play that we have put to the test with the actors.
The result is a sharp and ironic work, which wants to let the spectator free to reflect and decide, himself, who to condemn or who to save. The actors-performers flow in multiple roles through rapid exchange games, stepping over the borders of the various levels of the story, including theatrical fiction and its backgrounds. Theatrical artifices become an integral part of the narration, sometimes emphasizing the pathos of acting and transform it into parody.
Davide Sacco and Agata Tomsic
ErosAntEros
ErosAntEros is an artistic research path, which uses the theatrical form to deal with a multitude of expressive languages and to manipulate various sources, such as philosophy, politics, history, art, science and current affairs. The company was born from the union of Davide Sacco and Agata Tomsic.
In the summer of 2009, Davide Sacco, previously music designer with Teatro delle Albe and performer with Fanny & Alexander, began to work on the first phase of asprakounelia (Treno Fantasma)‘s creation, during which he met Agata Tomsic, who had a background of University studies in Performing Arts and workshop experiences with several groups of contemporary theatre.
After the debut of the show (May 2010), the pair began a research project on the nymph figure, which gave life to a new creation, Nympha, mane! (January 2012), and generated at the same time other new forms. Born this way was the Mnestic contagions, a plot of meetings whose aim is to contaminate the public through nymphal imaginaries, and TranScend – Synthetic concert for expressive figures (July 2011), a performance made to discover the work with sensors from a technical and a formal point of view, which is a concept present since the conception of the project for Nympha, mane!. In the same period the due meets the French company Pardès Rimonim, with whom they collaborate during the third phase of the international project of creative residencies, Je suis le garçon qui ne parlera pas as co-authors, set designers and performers.
Between 2012 and 2015, they had given life, along with Fanny & Alexander, gruppo nanou and Menoventi to the cooperative E and collaborated for three years in the artistic direction of the festival Fèsta and of Ravenna viso-in-aria, the season of contemporary theatre of Teatro delle Albe.
From 2013 the duo focuses their research on a new project which starts from a question around the use and space that art and artists have in the current society, with a play called Like fireflies, created during different periods of residency and presented to the public in various occasions in form of study.
Moved by the same questions the duo took a new path of research on sound and voice, based on a political essay by Bertolt Brecht, which led to the performance On the difficulty of telling the truth and was guest of Odin Teatret / Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium for an artistic residency between September and October 2014.
Since November 2013 they participates as guides to the non-scuola project with teens by Teatro delle Albe.
From 2014 they intensify collaborations with independent Italian groups of contemporary theater (Ateliersi, Bluemotion, Accademia degli Artefatti) and focus their interests on the actor’s work by following some workshops conducted by the Odin Teatret (with Eugenio Barba, Julia Varley and Roberta Carreri in 2014, again Roberta Carreri and Odin Week Festival in 2015) and the F.I.N.D. Plus 2015 (Schaubühne, Berlin), thanks to Prospero project and the national theatre ERT – Emilia Romagna Teatro Fondazione.
From 2015 they work again, through some residencies, on Like fireflies project, rethinking its form with two new performers involved and begin producing a new show with ERT – Emilia Romagna Teatro Fondazione, entitled Alarms!, which will question the contemporary neo-fascist movements collaborating with the playwright Emanuele Aldrovandi.