Teatro da mangiare?

The story of the grain which turned into flour, somewhere between an autobiography and an anti-economics parable, accompanies the meal of the small group which has formed around the table. The theatre is in the gestures used during the cooking which takes place at the same time as a letter or a song.

- Gianni Manzella, Il Manifesto

In Teatro da mangiare? (Theatre to Eat?) the actors, Paola Berselli, Maurizio Ferraresi and Stefano Pasquini cook products grown on their farm, La Arlette, for 26 members of the audience who become guests round a table in which the organic products and intimate thoughts and emotions - openly expressed - are the protagonists.

These three Italians, who one day decided to give up everything and go back to a life in the country, give us a production which, during its 10 year itinerary, has transformed itself into a living organism growing, maturing and enriching itself through the experience of more than 500 performances in Italy and the rest of Europe. According to the Teatro delle Ariette: "Much has changed in our lifetimes, right from the first day, but the infectious force of this "self-portrait", this autobiographical public confession, continues to surprise us... Around the table, actors and spectators share a lunch or a dinner and something happens which we can't explain. A ritual so profoundly human takes place that brings us right to the present, directly to the absolute here-and-now moment, to the evident truth of our lives."

An undoubted dinner of emotions, garnished with bread, tagliatelle and wine. A theatre built on the experience that gave its chefs and actors the nomination for the UBU Prize in 2001.

Teatro da mangiare? premiered at the Festival Volterrateatro (Volterra, Tuscany, Italy) on July 18, 2000.

www.teatrodelleariette.it