The story of Little Red Riding Hood is a substance present in Western imaginary since time immemorial; a substance that left traces generation after generation, deforming beliefs. Is it possible to reshape these forms? In Rosso (Red), a preview at Short Theatre 2023, Gruppo UROR reads the folk version of the fairy tale looking for notes and accents – removed by the tradition – that might produce new vibrations and alter what contemporaneity has kept of this old tale.
Three figures emerge from the darkness: a puppet, a female puppeteer and a performer. After learning of the grandmother’s death, Rosso (the puppet) steps out into the dark to try and free her from the yoke of the End. Here a metamorphosis takes place: creatures transform themselves, subject to the cyclic nature of bodies that are born and die and that, once dead, generate new life.
In the gap between organic and inorganic, in the relationship between the human’s flesh and the puppet’s. By way of the juxtaposition of contrasting archaic elements, Rosso explores the mysterious, sounds out the unfathomable inorganic side of life: can a puppet experience death?
Evelina Rosselli and Caterina Rossi founded Gruppo UROR when they were both attending the Drama Academy. Two fixed elements are the core of the group while the work team is expandable: according to the performative path peculiar to each project, different artists collaborate providing different points of view. Gruppo UROR has its roots in literary, philosophical, musical and artisanal studies that feed the performance, in search of a language that is body-witness of the mystery of representation. A mystery generated in the space inhabited by the performer, and between the performer and the audience’s gaze. This research translates into a work on the body, the mask, the light, the character, the sound and the matter.
dramaturgy and direction Gruppo Uror / Evelina Rosselli, Caterina Rossi
with Evelina Rosselli, Rebecca Sisti
costumes Valeria Forconi
light design Camilla Piccioni
sound design Gilberto Bartoloni
video Elena Incarnati
masks and puppet realization Caterina Rossi
graphic Jacopo Ernesto Gasparrini
production PAV in the frame of Fabulamundi Playwriting Europe
sustained by Teatro Vascello/la Fabbrica dell’Attore, Carrozzerie | n.o.t and Teatro di Roma – Teatro Nazionale
with the support of Mic – Ministero della Cultura
Studio presentation at Contemporaneo futuro – april 2023
ph. Margherita Masè