from the book by Francesca Mannocchi and Gianluca Costantini (Mondadori 2019)
As the artist-activist Gianluca Costantini has done by proposing to the war journalist Francesca Mannocchi to transform her reportages into a work of graphic journalism, so ErosAntEros turns the powerful images and words of Costantini-Mannocchi into a multidisciplinary performance which creates the chance to meet the eclectic musician Bruno Dorella.
There are three fundamental elements: voice, music and animated drawings.
The theme is the Libya of today, but a different Libya from the one shown on the news and on social media:
It is the Libya of the Libyans, the Libya of the lines outside the banks to get a currency that no longer has any value. The Libya of the young people who fought the Gaddafi regime and now regret it because at least, "when he was there", they felt safe; and there was no lack of money, electricity, gasoline. The Libya of the mothers standing at the window waiting for children who will not return. The Libya of the elders who have lived through decades of dictatorship and are always looking over their shoulders. The Libya of ordinary people who suffer daily military blackmail, abuses, kidnappings, and live in constant fear.
For a decade, the Libyan issue has been dividing public opinion: on one side those in favour of armed intervention in 2011, on the other those against; on one side those who think that the flow of migrants to Italian coasts should be stopped by any means - including "legal" and illegal detention centres -, on the other those who believe that migrants imprisoned in Libya have the right to escape and to be saved. Black or white; full or empty; all or nothing. But as always, reality is more complex: we need to know it. This show, like the book from which it is inspired, wants to be one more step towards doing so.
ErosAntEros was born from the union of Davide Sacco, theatre director, and Agata Tomšič, actress and dramaturg, in January 2010. Their artistic research manipulates various kinds of sources and expressive languages, with the aim to connect theatre to life and make the imagination a weapon to transform reality. The group they guide consists of all the persons who are from time to time involved in the realization of their projects. After the first performances they focus on the role of the artist in contemporary society, pursuing two main lines of research: one explore the relationship between voice and sound (On the difficulty of telling the truth, 2014), the other based on dramaturgy, investigate theatrical fictional devices and the relationship with the spectator (Like fireflies, 2015). In 2016 they produce with ERT - Emilia Romagna Teatro Alarms!, a show on contemporary neo-fascism, which premieres at the Arena del Sole in Bologna as part of VIE Festival. Their dedication to an engaged theatre that does not give up the aesthetic value of form continues with 1917, a poetic-musical show dedicated to the October Revolution; We want everything!, a work dedicated to sixty-eight and contemporary movements; Disconcert for rights, vocal-musical research with the consultancy of the Centre for Music Production, Research and Education Tempo Reale and the drawings of the artist-activist Gianluca Costantini, produced with the national theatre Teatro della Toscana in 2019, under the patronage of Amnesty International; CONFINI an international and multilingual production on the history of the European Union, the migrations of the past, the climate emergency and the future of humanity. Since 2018 they are directing POLIS Teatro Festival in Ravenna, programming artists of international importance and implementing participatory projects that involve citizens.
