Gli orizzonti politici del teatro. Note sul pensiero e l’opera di Sisto Dalla Palma

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Article

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COMUNICAZIONI SOCIALI

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COMUNICAZIONI SOCIALI - 2021 - 3. Theatres and Politics Today Lights and Shadows of a Long Relationship

Title

Gli orizzonti politici del teatro. Note sul pensiero e l’opera di Sisto Dalla Palma

The Political Horizons of Theatre. Notes on the Thought and Work of Sisto Dalla Palma

Author

Claudio Bernardi

Publisher

Vita e Pensiero

Format

Article |

Pdf

Online from

02-2022

Doi

10.26350/001200_000140

Issn

0392-8667 (print) | 1827-7969 (digital)

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At the heart of Sisto Dalla Palma’s work and reflections lay the identification of the virtuous, participatory, liberating and transformative circle between performing arts, power and people. According to Dalla Palma, the Renaissance invention of modern theatre as a theatre belonging to the prince resulted in the enslavement of the people, who was cut off from political life, no more a protagonist but a mere spectator to be entertained. The alliance between artist and prince was based on a form of theatre that was closed, text-centric, perspective, frontal, ideal, removed from the people and real life. It was a top-down model of theatre, conceived as instrumentum regni, which could be well summed up in the motto “Everything for the people, nothing by the people”. As such, it was handed down, with the added Enlightened flavour of being a form of education for the people, from ancien régimes to modern democracies, becoming a system for the organisation of consensus. There are three main areas Dalla Palma addressed to relaunch the virtuous circle of participatory theatre and to challenge the vicious circles of the entertainment society. First of all, an opening to all the dramaturgies and innovative and experimental artistic languages, where action prevailed over vision. Secondly, following in the footsteps of Richard Schechner and Victor Turner, great attention to rituals, festivals and dramatic liturgies of various times and cultures, considered as models of popular Dionysian. The third area addressed by Dalla Palma was that of the social and community theatre, a performative workshop for the self-creation of individuals, groups and cities. According to him, it is only by releasing the creative energies of the performing arts into the worlds of real relationships that the horizons, powers and democratic potential of the theatre can be opened up.