Last year’s Fringe saw an impressive showcase of Italian theatre that came under the umbrella name Impatto Totale. It was organised and co-ordinated by Dr Stefania Del Bravo, the director of Edinburgh’s Italian Cultural Institute, and 2014 sees the ICI support another programme of some of the finest and most exciting performers produced by Italy today.
For the last three years, the Italian Cultural Institute and the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities have joined forces with Edinburgh’s Dance Base to curate and showcase the best contemporary choreographers from Italy. The 2014 dance programme exemplifies this with Elvis’s Stardust from Teatro Delle Moire; Athletes from Riccardo Buscarini and Tir Danza, which won the prestigious The Place Prize 2013 ; The Cut Tuk Show from Naturalis Labor, that features an award-winning chef in a maribou bikini, iLove from Fattoria Vittadini; and Will from Deja Donne.
Among the wide variety of drama represented is an international multi-award-winning masterpiece of physical theatre, inspired by the ILVA steelworks scandal, Made in Ilva - The Contemporary Herylemit from Istabili Vaganti Experimental Theatre. The piece is based on the eye witness accounts of the factory workers and combines physicality, sound, music, voice and video projections in a damning indictment of the impact of industry on the environment and the results of the humans being reduced to machines.
The predicament of two characters Mikail and HotCal, who share an ability to irradiate light and who are tempted to enter a unique Faustian pact with a mysterious artist known as The Greek is at the core of Light Killer from Scottish-Italian company Charioteer Theatre.
Inspired by Herman Hesse’s tale of Prince Siddhartha’s quest for spiritual enlightenment, Siddhartha, the Musical, from Gloria Grace Alanis and Broadway International Entertainment’s will be premièred the Fringe. This show is collaboration between writer/director Isabella ‘Isabeau’ Biffi and producer Alanis and features Italian and South Asian-influenced pop-rock score. It evolved as part of an inmate rehabilitation programme in Milan’s Maximum Security Prison and has since gone on to successfully tour the USA and Europe.
The ICI (based in Nicolson Street) is host to the electro-folk hypnotic musical Song of the Earth performed by Susanna Paisio. The artist uses the image of a garden and the thoughts of Hildegard of Bingen, Raimon Panikkar, Pierre Rabhi and Vita Sackville West to explore metaphysical truths.
In a perfect Italian combination of food and music, classical soprano Frederica Gatta returns to VinCaffe in Multrees Walk where guests can enjoy a three-course Italian dinner followed by a stunning repertoire of Italian opera arias and classic songs. And for one night only (4 August) DiapasonG Choir present a concert programme that ranges from classic choir music to easy listening.
For guitar aficionados, award-winning multi-instrumentalist Antonio Forcione brings his show No Strings Attached, while Luca Villani has three shows, performing Bach in the atmospheric Greyfriars Kirk and his own original music, plus modern 20th century classics for guitar, at Valvona & Crolla in Elm Row.
Comedy comes in various forms with Ennio Marchetto returning to the Fringe with his Living Paper Cartoon show and Carlo Jacucci with his previous Fringe sell-out Vitamin. Award-winning comedian Francesco De Carlo makes his Fringe debut with a journey through Italian culture and mores with Italians Do It Later and i Bugiardini’s Shhh – An Improvised Silent Movie does what it says on the tin only with ragtime piano accompaniment!
Two Italian book illustrators, Gemano Ovani and Martina Peluso, will exhibit their work at the Scottish Storytelling Centre and alongside a story-telling event, L’immagine/Imagining Stories, designed to encourage children to learn the basics of the Italian language. A short dance piece, No Matter What Colour, inspired by the illustrations will be performed by Federica Esposito and Giulia Montalbano.
Fans of dance mime and physical theatre can check Compagnia Teatro in Centro with Pathos: Can You Kill for Love?; Ursa Maior Teatro’s homage to Duchamp with Marcel Vol 1 – Italian Politics as a Work of Art; Teatro Instabile and Theandric Teatrononviolento’s Antigone with active audience participation throughout; Sonics display aerial acrobatics in Sonics in Duum while Motion&Motion explores the nature of human emotion in a digital age via dance and projection while Pss Pss by Baccalà Clown (winners of the Cirque du Soleil Prize, Bronze Award, in Moscow and China) play out a silent game of desire through their acrobatic skills.
There is clearly something for everyone in this Italian themed Fringe programme whose common thread is that they represent some of the finest and most exciting performers produced by Italy today. Andiamo!
