Irene Ros

Theatre and Performance Practitioner

"It is just the beginning" Blog

"It is just the beginning"

It is not easy to take stock of a nine-month project that burns out in a day.
Done.

The performance premiered in front of about 70 people and it was well received. Some of the following considerations might appear obvious, but bear with me.
These past two months made me finally see the students/performers as other participants in my project. Yes, I have always known they were co-creators, but I guess the difference is in the duty of care you must carry out with these two categories.
I lacked compassion from time to time: I saw them as young adults who embarked on this project and should therefore take on the responsibilities. I thought that was a fair way to overlook the age difference and avoid patronising them. Towards the end, the lack of memory in regard to their lines frustrated me, although I kept repeating to myself as a mantra that I chose to work with non-professionals. I created different tools to help the students: I gave them access to the audio recordings, I re-recorded some lines that were more difficult to understand, and we (other colleagues from the Italian department and me) offered some sessions to revise the pronunciation.
The day before the cancelled show, during the dress rehearsal  (which, as you can infer from my previous posts, was a hell of a day anyways) one of the students shared their experience of school play in a religious school. For the Easter show, primary school children, year after year, staged the crucifixion. The same student unexpectedly could not remember the majority of their lines and seemed to be on the verge of crying. I could finally see these privileged (they are attending higher education, which unfortunately is a privilege) young adults were vulnerable and I had a duty of care towards them.
Two months later we managed to have a couple of rehearsals and I noticed that memory was still a problem for this student and that a couple of transitions between the scenes had been forgotten. The new dress rehearsal went much better, but since it was our filming day (documenting, in the best possible way, for my external examiner) we had multiple interruptions. On the day of the performance, instead, we did one run-through and there I could mentally take note of all the things that would possibly go wrong that night. I was already sure - I had been for a while - that I was honouring the memories of the participants who shared their memories with me; I had then to honour also the young participants' effort and make that a beautiful night to remember and not a stressful and embarrassing experience.
Being on stage with them helped a lot, it was once again a lucky incident (if you read my previous posts, you will know I was not supposed to be on stage). I had the possibility to give cues, physically (winking) or simply saying somebody else's short lines when they forgot them. I managed to miss a couple of cues myself and my focus was probably spread across too many things, but hey, the moment the performance was over they looked at me with big eyes and big smiles and they said: "It all went well!".
Yes, it did.
We had a very short Q&A session and I will write here what collectively we could remember about it (the camera recorded the full performance for 90 minutes and then it switched off).
I will also translate a more articulated feedback that I received by email and that I found particularly moving.
The next step: email the audience in a month and ask them what they remember, because, after all, it is all about spectacularity and memory!

***

" Dear Irene,

I took some time to reflect on the show that was finally staged, and in a delayed burst. I'm not someone who comment in the spur of the moment.

I appreciated the very modern theatrical technique, the gimmicks of the scene (the screen/suitcases, which build the scenography and dismantle it), and the giving body to the voices through various theatrical objects, from tape recorders, to newscasts, to the actors themselves. The hanging and visible stage clothes, which gradually disappear, to mark the passing of the theatrical time, but letting us guess which disguises will be worn on stage.

The transparency of the scene, built by the actors themselves, without the fiction of the curtain that falls and changes the background.

But what I am writing to you for in a delayed burst is the basic thesis that gradually became clear inside me, brooding, - and I am one who broods.

I was a bit bogged down in Pasolini's definition of the 'anthropological mutation' of peasant Italy, made out of the market and the bourgeoisification of the working class. The good and just old Italy, which however was fully and unquestionably patriarchal.

It is true that the market is Evil, which has gentrified, gentrified, massified, commodified...

But it is also true that in the uproar of advertising gingles, the compulsion of Black Friday, the ostentation of consumption... a different, less patriarchal, freer vision has also slowly made its way, especially for women. It is true that beyond the old patriarchal family scheme, blessed by the Church, a different and new idea of ​​family has made its way ("my daughter is gay", is the outing-mantra that undermines the old traditional family where someone always has to sacrifice themselves *.

It made me think that the lead of those years, beyond the colour of the massacres and the accounting of the dead, served as a great dam to change, as a freezer for the sprouts of the new.

In spite of the market, and through the market...

It was the old patriarchal and chauvinist mentality (which men suffer at least up to a certain age) that wanted to prevent the liberation of women, sexuality, rights, opinions and consciences.

This reminds me of the idea (a new comfort zone?) that the old adage of PPP is outdated, it is not enough simply to stop at the condemnation of capitalism and mourn the agricultural (but strongly patriarchal) Italy that no longer exists.

You made me think that we need to make an effort to look inside the faeces of capitalism, at its advertising propaganda to understand that the change is still taking place, and it cannot be stopped, even if they will continue to try to stop it, by all means. "But they haven't won yet", let's not force them, they won't stop us! "

<3