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Language under Attack: The Iconoclastic Theatre of Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2009

GABRIELLA CALCHI NOVATI
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Abstract

The Italian theatre company Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio, led by Romeo Castellucci, began its passionate incursion into Italian theatre in the 1980s. Through an analysis of their most challenging critical texts and manifestos, as yet unpublished in English, this paper will examine the theoretical foundations of Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio's oeuvre and the profound implications of the iconoclasm of their performances, and propose new means of deciphering their work. During the 1980s the company forged new linguistic and visual theatrical techniques, which were further developed through the 2002–2004 project, Tragedia Endogonidia. I argue that the relevance of their early work lies in their theoretical and practical widening of the parameters of representation. Excerpts from manifestos and texts written by Romeo and Claudia Castellucci, along with critical texts related to their work, are unless otherwise indicated translated into English by the present author.

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Research International , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , March 2009 , pp. 50 - 65
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 2009

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References

NOTES

1 Tiezzi, Federico, ‘L'anima mentale e l'anima passionale. La memoria di un incontro’, in Colusso, Tiziana, ed., Società Raffaello Sanzio. Il Teatro Iconoclasta (Ravenna: Edizioni Essegi, 1986), pp. 53–57, here p. 53Google Scholar.

2 Ibid.

3 Oliviero Ponte di Pino, ‘L'angoscia e l'estasi. La parabola dei gruppi’ (1988) at http://www.trax.it/olivieropdp/intro88.htm (accessed 6 July 2006).

4 Which in 1979 changed its name, becoming initially Magazzini Criminali and finally Magazzini.

5 The so-called ‘Teatri 90’ generation, in which the company Teatro del Lemming, founded by Massimo Munaro in 1987 in Rovigo (Venice) should also be included. For further reading on contemporary Italian theatre see Chinzari, Stefania and Ruffini, Paolo, Nuova Scena Italiana. Il Teatro dell'Ultima Generazione (Roma: Castelvecchi, 2000)Google Scholar; di Pino, Oliviero Ponte, Il Nuovo Teatro Italiano 1975–1988 (Firenze: La Casa Usher, 1988)Google Scholar; Molinari, Renata and Ventrucci, Cristina, eds., Fanny & Alexander, Masque Teatro, Motus, Teatrino Clandestino. Certi prototipi di teatro. Storie, poetiche, politiche e sogni di quattro gruppi teatrali (Milano: Ubulibri, 2000)Google Scholar.

6 Tiezzi, ‘L'anima mentale e l'anima passionale’, p. 53

7 For an in-depth analysis of Tragedia Endogonidia see Castellucci, Claudia, Castellucci, Romeo, Guidi, Chiara, Keller, Joe and Rodout, Nicholas, The Theatre of Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio (London and New York: Routledge, 2007)Google Scholar.

8 Colusso, Tiziana, ed., Società Raffaello Sanzio. Il Teatro Iconoclasta (Ravenna: Edizioni Essegi, 1989)Google Scholar.

9 Castellucci, Claudia and Castellucci, Romeo, Il Teatro della Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio, dal Teatro Iconoclasta alla Super-Icona (Milano: Ubulibri, 1992)Google Scholar.

10 Castellucci, Romeo, Castellucci, Claudia and Guidi, Chiara, Epopea della Polvere. Il Teatro della Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio 1992–1999. Amleto, Masoch, Orestea, Giulio Cesare, Genesi (Milano: Ubulibri, 2001)Google Scholar.

11 Chinzari, Stefania and Ruffini, Paolo, Nuova Scena Italiana. Il Teatro dell'Ultima Generazione (Roma: Castelvecchi, 2000), p. 87Google Scholar. See also Giannachi, Gabriella and Kaye, Nick, Staging the Post-Avant-Garde: Italian Experimental Performance after 1970 (Bern: Peter Lang, 2002), p. 137Google Scholar.

12 Chinzari and Ruffini, Nuova Scena Italiana, p. 88.

13 Lombardi, Sandro, in Bartolucci, Giuseppe and Mango, Lorenzo, Per un teatro analitico esistenziale (Torino: Studio Forma, 1980), p. 78Google Scholar; cited in Giannachi and Kaye, Staging the Post-Avant-Garde, p. 37.

14 Romeo Catellucci in Riga Italia n. 8, Marco Belpoliti and Elio Grazioli, eds., p. 149. Quoted in Chinzari and Ruffini, Nuova Scena Italiana, p. 88.

15 Romeo Castellucci was awarded two diplomas, one in Painting and the other one in Scenography at the Academy of Fine Arts; Claudia Castellucci was awarded the diploma in Painting and Chiara Guidi graduated in Arts, with a specialization in Art History.

16 Oliviero Ponte di Pino, ‘Una nuova lingua per miti vecchi e nuovi. Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio. Conversazione con Romeo Castellucci, Paolo Guidi e Claudia Castellucci’ (1988), at http://www.trax.it/olivieropdp/raffaello88.htm (accessed 6 July 2006).

17 Ibid.

18 Lorenzo Mango, ‘Il teatro contro lo spettacolo’, in Colusso, Società Raffaello Sanzio, pp. 35–52, here p. 35.

19 Ibid., p. 42.

20 Ibid.

21 Claudia Castellucci, ‘OAO’(1983), in Colusso, Società Raffaello Sanzio, p. 75.

22 Ibid.; italics mine.

23 Ibid., p. 76.

24 Ibid.

25 Ibid.

26 Ibid., pp. 76–7.

27 Ibid., p. 77.

28 Ibid.

29 Ibid.; italics mine.

30 Ibid.

31 Ibid., p. 78.

32 Lorenzo Mango, ‘Il teatro contro lo spettacolo’, p. 38.

33 Ibid., p. 39.

34 Ibid.

35 Ibid.

36 Colusso, Società Raffaello Sanzio, p. 92.

37 Programme notes to Cenno, 1 November 1980, in Colusso, Società Raffaello Sanzio, p. 95.

38 Ibid., p. 97 (Emphasis in original)

39 Achille Mango, ‘Visioni’, in Colusso, Società Raffaello Sanzio, pp. 7–21, here p. 11.

40 Lorenzo Mango, ‘Il teatro contro lo spettacolo’, p. 43.

41 Claudia Castellucci, ‘Teatro Avulso’ (1987), in Colusso, Società Raffaello Sanzio, pp. 98–9. Also in Castellucci and Castellucci, Il Teatro della Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio, pp. 96–9. This text was delivered during the Conference Memorie e Utopie (Memories and Utopias) in Ivrea on 25 September 1987.

42 Claudia Castellucci, ‘Il Teatro dei Murati’ (1987), in Castellucci and Castellucci, Il Teatro della Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio, pp. 100–3. This text was delivered during the Conference Il teatro come pensiero teatrale (Theatre as Theatrical Thought), organized by Achille Mango in the University of Salerno on 15 December 1987.

43 Claudia Castellucci, in Colusso, Società Raffaello Sanzio, p. 98.

44 Ibid., p. 102.

45 Ibid., p. 98.

46 Ibid.

47 Ibid., p. 99.

48 Ibid., p. 100.

49 Ibid., p. 99.

50 Claudia Castellucci, ‘I Miserabili’(1986), in Castellucci and Castellucci, Il Teatro della Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio, pp. 67–77, here p. 67.

51 Romeo Castellucci, ‘I Miserabili. “Miserere per i creatori”’ (1989), in Castellucci and Castellucci, Il Teatro della Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio, pp. 80–95, here p. 81.

52 Claudia Castellucci, in Castellucci and Castellucci, Il Teatro della Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio, p. 100. (Emphasis in original)

53 Ponte di Pino, ‘Una nuova lingua per miti vecchi e nuovi’.

54 Colusso, Società Raffaello Sanzio, p. 94.

55 Tohû Wâ Bohû is the Hebrew expression for the biblical words of Genesis 1:2 that are usually translated in English as ‘without form, and void’.

56 Colusso, Società Raffaello Sanzio, p. 94. Claudia Manikon and Chiara Ipertheòs are different ‘incarnations’ of Claudia Castellucci and Chiara Guidi.

57 Castellucci and Castellucci, Il Teatro della Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio, p. 10.

58 Ibid., pp. 67–77.

59 Ponte di Pino, ‘Una nuova lingua per miti vecchi e nuovi’.

60 Programme notes to Santa Sofia, Teatro Khmer by Caludia Castellucci, November 1985, in Castellucci and Castellucci, Il Teatro della Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio, p. 9. (Emphasis mine, G.C-N.)

61 Ponte di Pino, ‘Una nuova lingua per miti vecchi e nuovi’.

62 Castellucci and Castellucci, Il Teatro della Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio, p. 181.

63 Ibid., pp. 68, 70 and 71.

64 Ibid., p. 75.

65 Tiezzi, ‘L'anima mentale e l'anima passionale’, p. 54.

66 More specifically, we can find in Colusso, Società Raffaello Sanzio, p. 93, an article signed by I Monaci delle Colonne entitled ‘Resoconto della lingua coniata dalla Soc. Raffaello Sanzio e chiamata Generalissima’ (Account of the Language Coined by Soc. Raffaello Sanzio and Called Generalissima), which witnesses the interconnection between these two theatrical devices: religion and language.

67 Ponte di Pino, ‘Una nuova lingua per miti vecchi e nuovi’.

68 Tiezzi, ‘L'anima mentale e l'anima passionale’, p. 54.

69 Ponte di Pino, ‘Una nuova lingua per miti vecchi e nuovi’.

70 Chinzari and Ruffini, Nuova Scena Italiana, p. 89; italics mine.

71 Claudia Castellucci, in Castellucci and Castellucci, Il Teatro della Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio, p. 60.

72 Romeo Castellucci, in Castellucci and Castellucci, Il Teatro della Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio, p. 94.

73 Tiezzi, ‘L'anima mentale e l'anima passionale’, p. 54. Inti-Illimani is a Chilean band founded in 1967 in the University of Santiago.

74 Romeo Castellucci, ‘La Discesa di Inanna’ (1989), in Castellucci and Castellucci, Il Teatro della Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio, pp. 108–112, here p. 112.

75 Ibid., p. 118.

76 Romeo Castellucci, ‘Letter about the Goat that Once Gave Its Name to Tragedy’, translated by Valentina Guidi, in Idioma, Clima Crono I (2002), p. 3.

77 Ibid.

78 Ibid.

79 Although there is a distinct resonance for the terms ‘becoming animal’ in Deleuzian theory, this present paper will not analyse this passage through that specific critical lens. The development of the theory ‘becoming animal’ can be found in Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus (London and New York: Continuum, 2004).

80 Céline Astrié, ‘A.#02’, translated by Valentina Guidi, in Idioma, Clima Crono I (2003), p. 3.

81 Causey, Matthew, Theatre and Performance in Digital Culture: From Simulation to Embeddedness (London and New York: Routledge, 2006)Google Scholar.

82 Adele Cacciagrano, ‘Sulla Tragedia Endogonidia’, in Prove di Drammaturgia, X, 2 (December 2004), pp. 5–10, here p. 8.

83 Romeo Castellucci, ‘The Universal: The Simplest Place Possible’, translated by Jane House, in PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, PAJ 77, (Volume 26, Number 2), May 2004, pp. 16–25, here p. 17.