From Saturday 27 July to Wednesday 14 August the 58th autodrama of the Teatro Povero di Monticchiello, “IL VELO DELLA SPOSA”, will be ‘in the square and on stage’. A dramaturgy participated by an entire country that questions itself on crucial issues for the community and in which those who watch can consequently recognize and find themselves. An experimental tradition that offers a new text every year, the show of the Teatro Povero di Monticchiello is conceived, discussed and performed by the resident actors.Every summer ‘in the square’ in the splendid village of Val d’Orcia.
THE BRIDE’S VEIL, 58th autodrama of the Teatro Povero
A small family epic, captured in three moments of its development: during the Second War, in the years of the economic boom, and finally today. The observation point, as always happens in the Teatro Povero, is that of the small Tuscan village overlooking the Val d’Orcia, in the south of the province of Siena.
The journey thus sees the history of our country unfold, having in the background three different marriages, symbolic passages in which the social order is perpetuated and renewed, junctions and crossroads in which individual choices of membership or rebellion coagulate.
The first step therefore has as its backdrop the drama of the war, with its aftermath of mourning, sacrifices and the desire to start again, starring a poor, peasant Italy, oppressed by the followers of the old regime but full of aspirations for redemption and fairness ; in the following passage, then, that moment of euphoria between the fifties and sixties, which, seen from the countryside, however presents an ambiguous nature: of redemption and liberation from the centuries-old oppression of marginality, certainly, but also of rupture, abandonment of ties and traditional social forms destined to suddenly collapse. Finally, an epilogue in today’s global and apparently innovative context, where, however, transparently, behind the instrumentality of progressive forms which are only superficial, we glimpse the social, individual and psychological oppressions that have always prevailed over groups and individuals. To which, finally, as always, each person’s choice can provide, if not an absolute remedy, at least the hope of another understanding, of a different way of living, in which that veil can finally be freed and follow its flight.
For online reservations: www.teatropovero.it Telephone: (+39) 0578 75 51 18, from Tuesday to Sunday 10/13 – 15/18; Monday morning only; alternative contacts in case of main line failure: 0578 75 52 73; or: (+39) 338 76 46 516
To eat, the Taverna di Bronzone, managed by the Teatro Povero, is open for lunch and dinner, from the evening of Saturday 27 July until Sunday 1 September.
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SHORT NOTE ON THE POVERO THEATER OF MONTICCHIELLO:
The Teatro Povero di Monticchiello is a social and cultural project born in the 1960s.
At the beginning of that decade the Tuscan village went through a profound crisis linked to the eclipse of the economic and social system that had characterized its existence for centuries: sharecropping. The population is halving, while work, culture and traditions are rapidly disappearing. Those who remain by choice or necessity therefore begin to reflect on the meaning of the transformations that overwhelm their world and their identities.
In a country without a theatre, it was therefore decided to unite around the idea of a show in the square, with an original theatrical formula that would soon become an attempt at collective reconstruction of the meaning and ideals of one’s lives. A way to resist the crisis.
Since 1967 every summer we have been in the square and on stage with our “autodrama”: a work that we build together, day after day, starting from the company meetings during the winter and up to the summer rehearsals and performances.
Today the Teatro Povero is also an example of a community cooperative, an entity that has personally taken charge of many services for the small community of Monticchiello and for those who come to meet us: our headquarters, the Granaio, hosts a multi-purpose emporium , a medicine distribution center (there is no pharmacy in the town), an internet centre, a newsstand; we manage “I Ristoranti di Bronzone”, a guesthouse, a small reception and integration centre, a social cycle workshop, educational projects, green areas of the town, laboratories… And much more!
Over five decades of street performances, cultural and social projects…
Faces, voices, visions, entire lives that pass before us, multiple generations that still collaborate on this adventure today. And above all, years of meetings: these decades would have been very little, in fact, without the solidarity, friendship, help and mutual recognition of the many who were close to us, of those who walked part of the road with us and with whom we willingly come back together every time, animated by spirits and valour
