written by Kepler-452 (Aiello, Baraldi, Borghesi)
direction Nicola Borghesi
dramaturg Enrico Baraldi
with Paola Aiello, Nicola Borghesi and, somewhere, F.
lights Vincent Longuemare
set design Vincent Longuemare and Letizia Calori
costumes Letizia Calori
video Chiara Caliò
music Bebo Guidetti
sound Alberto Irrera
coordination Michela Buscema
production Emilia Romagna Teatro Fondazione
lenght 1 hour and 30 minutes
world première
in Italian with English surtitles
Born in 2015 in Bologna, Kepler-452 works on two main axes: on the one hand, the urgency of addressing a specific audience (not inclined to enter theatre halls), realizing shows and organizing festivals, exhibitions, workshops. On the other hand, the company investigates and brings on stage the lives and biographies of non-professionals (“experts of everyday life” in the words of Rimini Protokoll) whose identities are magnified on the scene.
F. cannot join us on stage; and still he is the protagonist of this show, the focus of the tragedy. We met F. on a day when he got close and told us: this is me. Since then, we started rehearsing together a play, which focused on his person, on his history, on who he is, on why he is what he is. Together, we have been trying to remember, we have been faced with black holes, teared and removed pieces, dizzying openings on chasms. Since then, the limits of the theatre space have changed forever.
Italian law does not allow F. to walk on stage and there is nothing we can do about it. All we can do is spend some time with him, listen, create, let this meeting just be and then tell what his absence means to us. F. is not there which is why he is everywhere. The absence we are faced with thus becomes a huge presence that we could not but trying to stage.
We then asked ourselves: how can we make an absent be present on stage? Why F. is kept away from us? Should we fear him for some reason? Is he dangerous? How can he be part of the show without being on stage? What are we interested about in him?
F. is a play about the obstinate intention to meet someone despite meeting him is very complicated; it is a play about a deep bewilderment, about the limit between stage and audience, about what is legal and what is not.
Following Il giardino dei ciliegi – Trent’anni di felicità in comodato d’uso (The cherry orchard – Thirty years of loaned happiness), F. is another fuzzy picture taken along the Via Emilia.
F. is this hardest question: what should be done in this very moment?
F. is, above all, F.
Kepler-452
Funded in Bologna in 2015 by Nicola Borghesi, Enrico Baraldi and Paola Aiello, Kepler-452’s activity focuses on two main axes. On the one hand, they feel the urgency of targeting a specific audience aged between 20 and 30 through shows, festivals, exhibitions and workshops. On the other hand, the company intends to investigate and stage the lives of non-professionals (otherwise called “world-actors”) by glorifying their identities.
Kepler-452 has organised and directed Festival 20 30 as well as signed the following plays: La rivoluzione è facile se sai COME farla (Revolution is easy if you know how to make it), Comizi d’amore (Love Meetings), Il giardino dei ciliegi-Trent’anni di felicità in comodato d’uso (The Cherry Orchard – Thirty years of loaned happiness) (produced by ERT Fondazione), È assurdo pensare che gli aerei volino (It’s absurd to think planes can fly), La grande età (The great age), Lapsus Urbano (Rimozione forzata e Dissenso Unico) – Urban Lapsus (Forced removal and joint dissent).
On December 2018, the company has been awarded Premio Rete Critica for Best Show / Best Company with Il giardino dei ciliegi-Trent’anni di felicità in comodato d’uso – (The Cherry Orchard – Thirty years of loaned happiness.