Il fuoco era la cura / Fire Was the Cure

Première 9. 4. 2024, Teatro Fabbricone, Prato (IT)
Running time 1 hour and 25 minutes, no intermission.

Concept and direction Sara Bonaventura, Claudio Cirri, Daniele Villa
Playwright Daniele Villa
Lighting designer Marco Santambrogio
Costume designer Ettore Lombardi
Sound designer Simone Arganini
Choreographer Giulio Santolini
Props designer Eva Sgrò
Technical coordinator Marco Serafino Cecchi
Technical assistant Giulia Giardi
Stage technician Massimiliano Fierli
Tour Manager Luisa Bosi

Cast
Flavia Comi, Davide Fasano, Fabio Mascagni, Radu Murarasu, Cristiana Tramparulo

Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 paints a dystopian world in which reading fiction is forbidden, screens extend into free time, and thinking causes discomfort. Firefighters no longer put fires out, they burn banned books – and, if need be, also their owners. The 1953 novel is set in the 21st century, that is, the present day. Was Bradbury wrong? The answer depends on our perception: is dystopia a foretelling of a future that is then either confirmed or disproved, or is it a warning for a present that repeats itself?

The production plays with the novel as if it were a well-read, worn-out book, full of notes and memories: five performers dive deep into the story of the novel, they identify with the characters, explore blind spots, things that Bradbury didn’t explain or tell, they create parallel narrative threads and theoretical digressions while also recording the chronicle of our time between the present and the anti-civilisational future, in which dumbing down saves us from the burden of complex thinking. What if Bradbury wasn’t wrong? If Fahrenheit 451 becomes a reality – what will we do?

Production Teatro Metastasio di Prato, Sotterraneo, Piccolo Teatro di Milano – Teatro d’Europa, Emilia Romagna Teatro ERT / Teatro Nazionale
The project was created with the support of Centrale Fies/Passo Nord.
Artistic residencies Centro di Residenza della Toscana (Fundacija Armunia Castiglioncello – CapoTrave/Kilowatt Sansepolcro), La Corte Ospitale, Centrale Fies/Passo Nord
Sotterraneo is an associated artist of Piccolo Teatro di Milano, a partner in the project Fies Factory and a resident of ATP Teatri di Pistoia.