© Marco Parollo
Uccelli
rewriting from Aristophanes’s The Birds
dramaturgy and direction Marco Martinelli
music Ambrogio Sparagna
with sixty teenagers of the Istituto Liceale E. Pascal di Pompei, Istituto Superiore Tecnico-Tecnologico e Professionale “E. Pantaleo” di Torre del Greco,
Dalla Parte dei Bambini, Foqus Fondazione Quartieri Spagnoli, Arrevuoto-Teatro di Napoli
Ambrogio Sparagna accordion
Erasmo Treglia violino a tromba, shawm, flauto armonico
Clara Graziano accordion, tammorra
Antonio “Lione” Matrone tammorra, bass drum
set and lighting design Vincent Longuemare
costume design Roberta Mattera
assistant directors Valeria Pollice and Gianni Vastarella in collaboration with Vincenzo Salzano
lighting Theo Longuemare
production Parco archeologico di Pompei
in collaboration with Ravenna Festival, Teatro delle Albe/Ravenna Teatro, Teatro di Napoli-Teatro Nazionale, Giffoni Film Festival, ERT/ Teatro Nazionale
thanks to the teachers of the school involved in the project and to Rosa Miecchi for the choreographic movements
Aristophanes is not just old museum stuff: he is an angry teenager. His pages bring together the swamp and the sky, politics and boundless desires. Pages that come back to life when they are “translated” by teenagers, as Marco Martinelli has been showing us for thirty years with his non-school, founded in Ravenna and then successfully exported: their Aristofane a Scampia was recently awarded the 2021 French critics’ association award as “Best book about drama”. Uccelli narrates an escape from the world, with the dream of soaring above the misery of everyday life, and also the danger that this revolution might turn into the most vicious of restorations. And with every step, the sparkle of a “coloured” chorus, comic invention woven into the lyrical power of the verses, the central fire of music and dance.
