Teatro delle Ariette in Paris
Teatro delle Ariette’s “Kitchen-Theatre” is very well-liked in France (and not only) and the reason for this success, as several critics have pointed out, lies in their conception of theatre: a "community" theatre, that passes through the sharing of a moment in which persons are moved together, forget that they are spectators and feel "at home".
The Italian Cultural Institute in Paris too became fond of Teatro delle Ariette: after hosting their historic and successful show Theatre to eat?, the Institute renews the invitation by dedicating a special space to the Ariette in its programme.
The company will present two shows in French premiere: Thirty Years of Wheat. Autobiography of a field, staged from February 18 to 21, and We are a Minestrone [Imagine], from February 25 to 28.
Thirty Years of Wheat, first performed at Matera European Capital of Culture 2019, is a diary of daily life during summer 2019, the thirtieth summer lived by farmer-actors Paola Berselli and Stefano Pasquini at Ariette, their small farm on the Bologna hills.
The narration of the wheat is woven into the narration of our present, with its contradictions, its intolerances not only to food, and the relationship we live with land, animals, plants, mankind and the society we all live in.
We are a Minestrone [Imagine] also wants to create a bond of proximity with the audience. «Rather than a show, it is better to think of it as a meeting, a piece of time, an hour of time lived poetically looking for what is before the words and what remains after they have been pronounced and forgotten» – we read in the director’s notes.
«Like a minestrone, we are made of water. We are more than a mix of forms, species, and genres. We are relationship. (…) Relationship changes things. Water and flour, encountering, lose their respective identities and find a new one called bread. Carrots, potatoes, chard, and zucchinis do the same. They meet in a pot, inside the boiling water, and will never be what they were before; they will only retain a memory of what they were».
Both shows will be performed in French and Italian version.