Discovering the GeCA project, a portal for Italian agricultural identity, with the director of the Central Institute for Intangible Heritage.
He takes over from Sergio Escobar, who led the theatre with passion and authority for the previous 22 years.
Well aware of the problems that are threatening the planet today, at the moment of his nomination Longhi immediately declared that he wanted to put the theme of sustainability at the centre of the new direction taken by his leadership, certain of the role of responsibility that culture and theatre can perform in times of change:
"Today, the artistic, civil and political responsibilities of art direction are even more decisive for the creation of not only a new theatrical culture, but above all a new society."
We can see the evidence of this desire in their participation in the STAGES project (Sustainable Theatre Alliance for a Green European Shift), and, as the first theatre in Europe to do so, in the New European Bauhaus platform, a privileged vehicle for the promotion of the European Green Deal. The Piccolo Teatro Foundation has also opened up a dialogue with the Milan Polytechnic, to coordinate ethical, cultural, technical and management choices in line with sustainability policies.
Claudio Longhi entrusted the direction of his first summer season (June-September 2021) to an artistic trio that organised the festival Ogni volta unica la fine del mondo: esercizi di sostenibilità per grandi e piccini (Every time the end of the world is unique: exercises in sustainability for young and old), which aimed to promote a solid, in-depth culture of sustainability, divided up into its various meanings: environmental, economic, human, social and artistic.
The 2022 season was presented by the new director as a season that would shine a spotlight on new theatre and the younger generations, with an international perspective and attention to sustainability:
"We find ourselves in a liminal phase, where we have to grapple with a system that was already cracking before the pandemic, and has now been put to the test in order to find a new balance. In this context, it is fundamental to listen to young people, as they are the most sensitive witnesses and astute interpreters of this transformation. Piccolo Teatro is a public theatre, and never before has its role been so necessary in the community - we must fully take on this responsibility."
A crucial, representative point in this new journey is Piccolo Teatro's participation in the Sustainable theatre? project created by Katie Mitchell, an English director, and Jérôme Bel, of Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, in collaboration with the Centre for Sustainability Skills at the University of Lausanne: A play for the living in a time of extinction.
A theatrical creation with international reach, which respects sustainability standards both in terms of its content and in the production process, with a view to saving energy and CO2, and reducing waste.
An ambitious experiment, thanks to its global vision that interweaves economic, social, cultural and environmental elements, and aims to redesign the idea of production and distribution of a performance: indeed, the partner theatres are called to reinterpret the original creations in local versions produced with their own resources, in a sustainable way. The show no longer travels physically, but instead in the form of a script, and is then recreated in every partner theatre by a local cast.
And Claudio Longhi has risen to the challenge.
It was Lisa Ferlazzo Natoli and Marco D'Agostin who staged the Piccolo Teatro version in March 2022, and they will bring it back in January 2023.
A play for the living in a time of extinction pushes the audience to think about origins, heritage and survival.
The text follows the five great extinctions that changed life on Earth, finally arriving at the uniqueness of the sixth: the end of the present as we know it.
In the semicircle of the Teatro Studio Melato (formerly Teatro Studio), the play is powered by the energy produced live by four bicycles ridden by amateur cyclists, which is constantly measured by displays positioned on the stage. The production and consumption of energy are fully visible.
Looking at the figures: a play at the theatre uses between 30,000 and 150,000 watts on average, equivalent to a building of 100 apartments all fully lit, or a large cruise ship. This show lives on 240 watts. Furthermore, every evening the four bicycles cover a little over 100km between them. This is as if, despite staying still, over the 22 performances in Milan, they covered almost 2,500km: an imaginary journey from Milan to Marrakesh.
The festival Present indicative: for Giorgio Strehler, which celebrated 100 years since the birth of the theatre's historical founder, has recently finished. This festival was strongly supported by Claudio Longhi himself, and through it he expressed his foundational ideas on the role of theatre and culture that is open to the themes of the crisis of the Anthropocene and the future of the planet. The second run of Sustainable theatre? is already planned for January 2023, with the young artists' collective Lacasadargilla and Marco D'Agostin.
Sustainability is therefore the mark that Piccolo will leave on every future project, including its participation in various European projects.
They are betting on the idea that theatre can become a place of reflection on themes of environmental sustainability - eco-theatre - thanks to its ability to serve as a vehicle for a new ecological feeling, with formulas that could sit alongside more classic ones; it is the right tool for speaking about environmental topics, because it can transform them into stories people can identify with, and see the effects directly on the stage.
Without focusing on the more apocalyptic and sensationalist scenarios, this is the key to normalising environmental themes and making them part of the conversation everywhere, whether in the theatre or the cinema, or in literature.
Images Credits:
©MasiarPasquali
Discovering the GeCA project, a portal for Italian agricultural identity, with the director of the Central Institute for Intangible Heritage.
An exhibition on the connection between design and sustainability through the excellence of Italian creations, at Art Basel Miami.
