1. A theatrical festival can in itself be considered an anomalous event: an ephemeral
location, as is theatre, that for a limited period of time attempts to recreate a
community gathered under the same sign and the same desires. Adding the dimension
of the piazza (or Square) to this, it quickly becomes a place belonging to nobody and
belonging to everybody: organisers, workers, guests, and the willing and unwilling
public.
The Venice Open Stage has – in the panorama of Italian theatrical festivals – a very
unique history. It was born almost out of a request for release: it is as though the
location, that has been welcoming it for what has now been four years, with its
uneven paving stones and its wonky bell, had declared: “If you wish to make all this
racket every time, at least stay here a while longer, remain here for longer! Let the
excitement hit us too!” If it’s true that every now and again one may talk to the walls,
it bides well to let them talk or (in sheer madness), why not even listen to them. We
wanted to listen to these genius loci, ever encouraging. And those stones, which have
seen the two repeat performances that year after year have been offered by the
handmade workshops of the university in the short span of a week, contributed and
bore witness to the transformation of this initiative.
It is like so that, even harder than the stones, we put in all of our energy to give way
to this exciting yet short workshop, until it had reached the format of a festival – of an
unpredictable and variable duration, just like its esprit – that lives and breathes in an
international atmosphere (an atmosphere to which Venice is already accustomed), but
through a completely innovative means, the theatre.
That which is most incredible about a festival is its ability to create a type of mirror.
Such mirror that – at times is deformed in advance and at other times refracts in
contrast – of a society and its history, its politics, and the existence of each one: of
everything that co-exists and surrounds us.
It is for this reason that year after year, regardless of the youthful ages, it proves to be
a discovery and a surprise to see the shows that present themselves. In their own way,
going beyond that which they wish to consciously tell, they inevitably represent the
artistic tendencies of that particular period, the hottest topics of the moment or, quite
simply, they provide an answer to the needs. That’s when everything magically makes
sense, the square circle, and it all comes back. And like so this year, amidst old
friends and new encounters, the open theatre of Campazzo San Sebastiano will host
multiple forms of national theatre but above all, international theatre.
The opening day will bear witness to the Althea Company starting off the dances with
‘There’s no place like’, a bar show in the true sense of the word, one which deals with
an encounter between an autochthonous customer and a foreign barman, in a dialogue
that ends in questioning the sense of belonging to ones homeland and how easy it is to
feel a foreigner in so far as ones home.
The same themes come to be dealt with by the Exil[s] of the Stage Ensemble, albeit in
a more veiled poetic tone. As their name implies, they will investigate the meaning of
the word ‘exile’ under different lights and not just in the political sense, to outline a
bloody and informed portrait of contemporary France, torn between its own
contradictions and its ghosts of a not so distant past.

2. Exile is in some way the key word that accompanies, in a physical reinterpretation,
the work of Barcelona’s Cia Zapia, who takes and patterns after Marjane Satrapi’s
renowned graphic novel Persepolis, a story that revolves around a young Iranian girl
who, after having emigrated to Europe due to the war in Iraq, comes to realise just
how important one’s own identity truly is.
The 4th edition of the festival does, however, also give space to the great classics, and
rightly so. The anniversary of Shakespeare’s death sees the return of the BİLGİ
University of Istanbul’s show, which calls Macbeth into play, but this time in the
kitchen, transforming the tortured characters of a symbol of tragedy into forks, knives,
eggs and spices.
Space is also given to the reinterpretation of great literature by the company
‘L’Elefante’ (The Elephant), who take Michail Bulgakov’s bestseller and turn it into
Margherita the devil knows it and the company ‘Servomuto’ who in an Ioneschian
spirit presents their show Nightmare n° 7. Also in the regional showcase is the Arrigo
Pedrollo Conservatory of Vicenza who will present a diptych titled Metamorphosis II,
putting on display one of the oldest texts of classical theatre of Aeschylus, The
Persians, which tells us the background of the Battle of Salamis.
Along with all of this there is also space for the performance, the hybrid form of
excellence, in which the Dimitri Theatre School with Insomnia and the Aristotle
University with Icon each demonstrate what can be done with the primary means, as
is one’s body and paper.
This 4th edition makes an attempt to “grow” and “inspire growth”, taking many risks
and opening itself up even more, thanks to the generosity of many, not to anything
new but to which has been born again or is being born. And perhaps the newness lies
in the stubborn attempt to put the ancient and long-enduring questions into the
centrefold.
This is a festival to build and defend a particular vision, and it is done together with
who there is and who there will be, but also with who is not here or who is no longer
here, in the many forms of absence that exist. It is a festival and a way to converse
with lack and with anticipation. An act of love and an act of the future, hurled towards
the unknown.