East

  • Production Fanny & Alexander and Drodesera/Fies with the cooperation of Les Brigittines, Bruxelles with the contribution of POGAS – Politiche Giovanili e Attività Sportive
  • Concept Chiara Lagani and Luigi de Angelis
  • Music Mirto Baliani
  • Photographs Enrico Fedrigoli
  • Dramaturgy Chiara Lagani
  • Costumes Chiara Lagani and Sofia Vannini
  • Morse choreography Luigi de Angelis and Koen De Preter
  • Direction, set, lighting design Luigi de Angelis with Koen De Preter
    and with Chey Chankethya
  • Voice of Oz Marco Cavalcoli
  • Iron monolith’s realization and planning Nicola Fagnani (Opera Ovunque)
  • Super8 shots Luigi de Angelis
  • Super8 editing Cesare Comandini
  • Assistant director Elizabeth Annable
  • Promotion Valentina Ciampi, Marco Molduzzi
  • Press office Marco Molduzzi
  • Logistics Sergio Carioli
  • Administration Marco Cavalcoli, Debora Pazienza
  • With thanks to Ong Keng Sen, Theatre Works, Massimo Paci, Symrise GmbH & Co.
  • With special thanks to Barbara Boninsegna and Dino Sommadossi.

Year : 2008

EAST

.- … –
I haven’t got a heart! Just beat on my chest and you will see:
NO HEART, ALL HOLLOW! NO HEART! ALL HOLLOW!
(F. L. Baum “The wonderful wizard of Oz”)
What hath Oz wrought!
(1844 May 24th, text of the first Morse message sent by man)

In the tale a woodman is in love with a young girl. The witch of the East, envious, casts a spell on his axe, which breaks him into pieces. The young girl collects those pieces and brings them to the smith. The smith attaches new pieces, made of tin, to the man.
But he forgets the heart. And so the man, without a heart, cannot love anymore, he forgets the young girl and leaves her.
In the tale a house coming from the West fell from the sky. It fell down upon the East, on its witch, and pulverized her.
In the tale a boy who hasn’t got a heart anymore speaks a language made of beats, using the organ and the pieces left.
Brief beats and long beats, beats of a Morse heart, an imagined and imaginary heart: TI TA TA TI TI TI TA TI TA TI TA TI TI TI TI TI TA TI…

In the tale a tinman goes to the Wizard of Oz to ask him a new heart.
In the tale the Wizard promised to a boy a new heart in exchange for his story.
That story is sunk into silence, into oblivion: it’s a tale broken into pieces, unspeakable, impossible. His words have been already written and are dictated to him: they are the very same ones of the story of Oz.
Will that boy be capable to pass round them, embody them, re-translate them, overtake them, face his own unavoidable test?
Will we be capable to impress on our memory his broken silent words? In the end, will we be capable to decipher his tale, buried into secret, nailed to a mysterious and inflexible rule, the one of numbers and rhythm? And then, will we be able to remember him, to tell about him again?

IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE VERB AND THE VERB WAS WITH OZ:
English/ Italian/ Morse

ARM / braccio / ._ ._. _ _ HAND / mano / …. ._ _. _.. ME / io / _ _ .

AXE / scure / ._ _.._ . HEART / cuore / …. . ._ ._. _ NO / no / _. _ _ _

CUT / tagliare / _._. .._ _ HOLE / buco / …. _ _ _ ._.. . SPELL / incantesimo / … ._ _. . ._.. ._..

FEET / piedi / .._. . . _ LEG / gamba / ._.. . _ _. TIN / stagno / _ .. _.

GIRL / ragazza / _ _. .. ._. ._.. LOVE / amore / ._.. _ _ _ …_ . TINSMITH / fabbro / _ .. _. … _ _ .. _ ….

GIVE / dare / _ _. .. …_ . MAN / uomo / _ _ ._ _. WITCH / strega / ._ _ .. _ _._. ….

TALE (to be recomposed, if possible, using the given words):

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