BEASTS: The courtyard philosophical circus

a project by
Paola Berselli & Stefano Pasquini

with
Paola Berselli, Maurizio Ferraresi, Gregorio Fiorentini,
Rosa Massari, Stefano Pasquini, Claudio Ponzana, Giancarlo Sissa
e the Ariette animals

research in literature and writing by
Paola Berselli, Maurizio Ferraresi,
Stefano Massari, Stefano Pasquini, Giancarlo Sissa

research in music ed elaboration of sounds by
Gregorio Fiorentini, Stefano Massari,
Stefano Pasquini, Claudio Ponzana

direction of sounds by
Maurizio Ferraresi
sets and costumes
Teatro delle Ariette
organization
Claudio Ponzana

directed by
Stefano Pasquini

TEATRO DELLE ARIETTE - 2006

A co-production with Volterrateatro

With the support of Festival Bella Ciao,
Echidna Cultura-Progetto F.I.L.I., Rassegna Crinali,
Regione Emilia Romagna, Provincia di Bologna

in collaboration with Emilia Romagna Teatro Fondazione

Special thanks to:
Francesco Fiorentini,
Istituto Comprensivo di Volterra – Scuola Primaria San Lino,
Noris Cametti, Fabrizio Orlandi, Valentina Perrone, Federico Toni.

We’ve been living at the Ariette for 17 years and the animals have always been with us. Many animals, many breeds, many lives, many deaths.
They have always been nearby throughout our life, and we looked at them, trying to understand that “staying”, that “being anyway” in the absence of time, just moments of presents, one after the other.
And they look at us too. They listen to us, they become part of our habits so that we think with pleasure “Yes it recognizes me!”. But the mistery of their life stays the same.

The world of the beasts is different. We feel attraction for it together with fear, since we realize there is something “primal” in it, something of ourselves that we are not able to recognize any more.
We often associate animals with words like instinct, freedom and pleasure. In our search for an utopia, for another kind of world, for an endless happiness, the confrontation with them is inevitable.

BEASTS is the multitude of questions we ask ourselves daily, a tribute to our animals, to the desperate salvation we found in their eyes, and to the eternal impulse of life.