La Gioia / Joy

Running time 2 hours. No interval.
The performance is in Italian with Slovenian surtitles.

Première: 1. 3. 2018, Arena del Sole Bologna (IT)

Author and director Pippo Delbono

Floral composition designer Thierry Boutemy
Composers Pippo Delbono, Antoine Bataille, Nicola Toscano in drugi avtorji
Lighting designer Orlando Bolognesi
Sound designer Pietro Tirella
Costume designer Elena Giampaoli
Set designer Gianluca Bolla
Production manager Alessandra Vinanti
Organisation Silvia Cassanelli
Technical director Fabio Sajiz

Cast
Dolly Albertin, Gianluca Ballarè, Bobò, Margherita Clemente, Pippo Delbono, Ilaria Distante, Simone Goggiano, Mario Intruglio, Nelson Lariccia, Gianni Parenti, Pepe Robledo, Zakria Safi, Grazia Spinella

Every theatre performance can become a journey, moving through different situations, moods, perceptions, it can always surprise us. Not only an iterative repertoire event - a ritual can be apparition, an act of connection.

To stage a performance about joy means searching for that one circumstance, the crossing of the river of extreme sentiment - fear, happiness, pain, enthusiasm - just to catch (or at least glimpse) a momentary explosion of joy. Pippo Delbono and his ensemble don't freeze inside the images, sounds and movements, but rather attempt, in each performance and completely intuitively, to step forward towards the endless exaltation. And the clowns come, and the circus, and the dance. And the memory of a shaman who liberates souls through madness. Melancholic tango chords and muted calls from the upper floors. The splendour of images form a kaleidoscope, images come to life and fade into the next frame; hundreds of paper boats and colourful carpets, messed up like the rough waves of Mare nostro in Erri De Luca's secular prayer, all the way to the grand finale - an explosion of flowers. The actors mix among the audience. Each one of them chooses a spectator as a travel companion and takes her or him to the stage by hand, to include him into this endless search. Personal stories, masks, clowning, memories … all fleeting human attempts to reach happiness.

Every night, a new dot on the map, each piece of the performance is a step along the way. The journey never ends, the kaleidoscope of images and emotions continues to turn. Every evening ready for a new surprise in the rhythm of the group on the path of the eternal search for joy.

Warning: a stroboscope is used in the performance.