25. 10. 2009.

Press Conference and Round Table Discussion – Isabella's Room and Made in Italy

A press conference and critical round table were held on Sunday, 25 October 2009 between 10.30  and 14.00 at the Hotel Bosna, dedicated to the two performances held last night – Isabella's Room and Made in Italy.

First addressing the audience at the press conference was the director of Isabella’s Room, Jan Lauwers, who pointed out the importance of his expression and manner of addressing the audience at the beginning of the play, used so as to give the play credibility on a wider plane. The discussants present were mostly interested in the work of the ensemble, seeing as the play was staged in very unconventional conditions – Lauwers first chose his cast, and then wrote a screenplay inspired by the real stories from the lives of the actors he selected. Lauwers also argued that this need for authenticity, for a deconstruction of classic theatre, is in fact the consequence of a constant search for new models in art, and of an attempt to redefine theatre. Apart from that, humour and irony play a significant role in the transporting of these tragic, but credible stories to the stage, a quality noticed by viewers and defended by Lauwers as indicating the presence of a sense of humanity, expressed in a wish to overcome even the most tragic of circumstances.

During the first part of the round table discussion, which was also dedicated to Isabella’s Room, Lauwers was joined by actress Viviane De Muynck, who expounded on the singularity of the work of the ensemble, who are, to a large extent, acting out their own lives, but also placed the entire play in greater Belgian and European political contexts. The play’s political focus, in De Muynck’s words, is embodied in its direct protest against a nationalistic creation of fear, making the entire play relevant in the social and cultural contexts of Bosnia today. For that reason, the applause they received from the local audiences meant a great deal to the crew of the production. 

Also addressing the press conference and round table were the directors and performers of Made in Italy – Enrico Castellani and Valeria Raimondi. They first spoke about the negative reactions that the performance had in Italy, and expressed their surprise at the level of acceptance and understanding of the play shown by audiences in Sarajevo present at last night’s performance in SARTR Theatre. They pointed out that the play was created on the basis of an imperative to testify about the current social reality of Italy, which has, in an age of omnipresent consumerism and pornography of the media, forced the actors to come to terms with their own liability for this situation. The situation presented and analysed by this play is, according to the performers, undoubtedly relevant for them as citizens, inspiring them to infuse the play with authentic testimonies of racism and nationalism, that they too have suffered. They went on to emphasize that it was not their intention to offer a mono-dramatic critical reflection of the social situation, but to, in adopting different strategies of indoctrination, adopt a language of the new age, break it down and wear it out. The result of this intention are the many registers and performative expressions that the play realises itself in.

Such poetics are a really uproar in Italian theatre – the performers themselves argued that their poetics are a much better fit for the theatrical trends promoted by this year’s MESS than for the general state and ideology of theatre in Italy, which has, as Castellani and Raimondi point out, in the past twenty years or so completely forgotten all idea of current affairs.  (M.S.)