After last year’s success, thanks to the patronage of the Municipality of Cefalù, the contemporary theatre season “Cosa porta il vento” returns to the “Salvatore Cicero” Municipal Theatre, curated by the Circo dell’avvenire association, with artistic direction by Tiziana Giordano.
The season, national in scope, will run from February to April 2025 and carries the subtitle “Ritratti di umanità” (Portraits of Humanity), a common thread linking the five shows on offer.
“The authors, directors, characters and stories we will meet will show us different facets of humanity, from the most delicate and fragile to the poetic and visionary, the painful and the incredible. Totò, Vicè, Pascalina, Stracci, Lena, Vita, the man in the coat, the man in the hat, the man in pyjamas, Danilo: a gallery of portraits that look inside us, inviting us not to lower our gaze or our listening, so as to keep high or rediscover our sense of humanity, increasingly numbed by a present that normalises violence, indifference and war”, with these words Tiziana Giordano introduces the season. She adds: “‘Cosa porta il vento’ brings a theatre that aims to nurture reflection and collective socio-cultural growth, and tries to be a bastion of humanity in increasingly dark times”.
The season begins on Sunday 23 February with “Totò e Vicè. Operina musicata per ombre e voci”, from the text by Franco Scaldati, adapted and directed by Giuseppe Cutino, with Rosario Palazzolo, Anton Giulio Pandolfo, Egle Mazzamuto, Sabrina Petyx, music by Maurizio Curcio performed live with Daniele Tesauro, produced by Energie Alter-native. In 2024 the show received the ANCT (Italian National Association of Theatre Critics) award for best direction, and the citation reads: “With his direction, Cutino ferries us into a figural space free from the constraints of coherence and logic, transforming Scaldati’s text into a visual and sound score that evokes a metaphysical elsewhere, in which life and death, visible and invisible, merge and go beyond the boundaries of the real, a work of rare balance and intense depth.”
It will be followed on Sunday 9 March by “Dissonorata. Un delitto d’onore in Calabria”, written, directed and performed by Saverio La Ruina, with original music performed live by Gianfranco De Franco, produced by Scena Verticale. A show that has marked the history of contemporary theatre, which in 2007 received the Ubu awards for best Italian text and best Italian actor respectively, and in 2010 the Hystrio Prize for dramaturgy, which wrote of Saverio La Ruina: “he teaches us not to grow lazy in the face of the superficiality of contemporary grammars, below and above the stage. To dig into the hidden richness of the street, of dialects as of literatures. With a formal elegance able to bend to invective as to bar-room chatter, to the play of irony as to the delicacy of certain passions full of humility. And suddenly, even the harshest stories speak the language of poetry.”
Sunday 23 March continues with “La Passione di Stracci”, written, directed and performed by Gigi Borruso, with Valeria D’aquila, Alessandra Guagliardito, produced by Museo Sociale Danisinni. A show that recalls the poetics of the writer, director and poet Pier Paolo Pasolini, on the fiftieth anniversary of his death. Borruso takes loose inspiration from the film “La ricotta”, which becomes its prelude, bringing to the stage the dramatic tension in the lives of those at the bottom of society whom Pasolini investigated so deeply.
Sunday 6 and Monday 7 April it continues with “Ciò che accadde all’improvviso”, written, directed and performed by Rosario Palazzolo, on stage with Francesco Gulizzi and Anton Giulio Pandolfo, assistant director Angelo Grasso, produced by Circo dell’avvenire. The first prose work by the Palermo-born playwright, writer and director, who uses a surrealism played with the timing of comic comedy that often twists into thriller, settles into the grotesque, and arrives at a dramatic ending.
Closing the season on Sunday 27 and Monday 28 April is the show “La ricetta di Danilo”, written and performed by Totò Galati, directed by Claudio Zappalà, with original music performed live by Nathan Tagliavini, produced by Barbe à Papa Teatro and Associazione Città Teatro. The show tells of the social, educational and community work of Danilo Dolci, who through nonviolent struggles, hunger strikes and peace marches brought about some of the most significant changes in western Sicily from the 1950s onwards. The show is part of the initiatives promoted for the Centenary of the birth of Danilo Dolci, curated by the Centro per lo Sviluppo Creativo Danilo Dolci.
A programme of five dates staged on Sunday afternoons at 6:00 pm for the local community, and two repeat performances on Monday mornings at 11:00 am for secondary schools, with free admission for the public until seats run out.
“The Administration – says Mayor Daniele Tumminello – continues to invest in culture, aware that the arts, like theatre, serve not only to help us understand and reflect on the present, but also offer a further quality attraction for those who choose Cefalù as a tourist destination for its beauty and for the enrichment to be gained from the initiatives we programme throughout the year”.
Click here to download the poster with all the scheduled events.
