There are shows that can be defined as necessary, not so much and not only for their theatrical qualities, but because they bring together much more with real theatre: first of all a social perspective, and therefore relationships between generations, the emptiness in the most crowded metropolises, school problems, integration conflicts and more. If all this is then expressed on a stage by young minors with direct experiences, in the midst of a personal and human evolution that contemporary society seems to make uncertain if not conflictual, one can understand how what on the surface may appear to be the small final show of a workshop is instead an important moment of reflection, far from an end in itself.
It is once again Angelo Campolo, the actor, author and director from Messina who has long dedicated much of his activity to social commitment, who leads the way with a show, produced by the Franco Parenti Theatre, where it was performed, in collaboration with Daf Project and Cooperativa La Strada.
Leading a group of girls and boys with profoundly different backgrounds and experiences (with the assistance of Arianna Sangiuliano and Giacomo Lisoni), he started from two questions: how much do we really listen to the words of teenagers? How much real space are we capable of offering them? To understand it, Campolo left the word to the kids, to the expression of their experiences, made up of many misunderstandings (with their parents first of all, but also with school and social situations) until he drew a story which, between fantasy and reality, became a spectacle, that of Marta, 16 years old, in a Milan invaded by a sudden forest. His path, Campolo explains, becomes a metaphor for a necessary passage: confronting judgement, going through error, finding the courage to speak up.
Starting from these concepts everything appears logical and consequent: the imperfect acting, the words that disappear in the throat instead of being clear and strong, the involution while seeking evolution. It is the perfect representation of all the difficulties of the path of adolescence, of its fragilities sometimes masked by bold attitudes to go beyond that forest which, threatening and dark, seems to be able to clip its wings forever. But also of the enthusiasm always ready to rekindle in the hearts and minds of those who are young and, within themselves, imagine a winning future: not the one full of economic successes and revenge planned by parents who themselves have many uncertainties, rather the one to be built with one’s own aptitudes, full of the desire to live and do as one is capable of doing.
These are not easy topics and the text that Campolo wrote during the days of the laboratory does not offer magical solutions, if anything it invites adults to renew their ability to listen, to all together cross a territory made up “of clashes, silences, escape attempts and the stubborn need to be recognized”.
On stage Campolo and Lisoni lead Omar Aboella, Samuele Alami, Tommy Aucatoma, Giulia Campanini, Emma Carioni, Giulia Anna D’Addetta, Giulia Giovannini, Mei Jun Hu, Octavio Jimenez, Giulia Maria Marino, Hashini Perera, Bianca Picchi, Anil Lodovico Pitscheider, Jan Vizzini, Stefania Wamwayi, Laila Weijesinghe, Natasha Weijesinghe, Kamilia Zitoc.