Ruggero Cappuccio: “Campania Theater Festival in the name of contemporaneity”

“We bet everything on contemporaries, in a country that has always cared more for classical art and culture than contemporary. Well, reading the program of this edition of the festival, the first artistic element that catches your eye is that for the 85% of the authors represented are contemporary, many of whom are alive while almost all of them belong to the twentieth century: this is our only ‘red thread’ that binds the various shows “. This is what Ruggero Cappuccio, artistic director of the ‘Campania Theater Festival’, inaugurated yesterday evening, underlines to AdnKronos and will propose his performances until mid-December, for three months of programming, with the support of the Campania Region. “If we take a step back, we discover that in the nineteenth century they were more modern than us in considering ‘their’ contemporaries – reflects Cappuccio – just think that at the age of 24 Gioachino Rossini could enter the Teatro Argentina in Rome to represent his’ Barber of Seville ‘: today it would be unthinkable for a 24-year-old to enter La Scala in Milan or San Carlo in Naples to represent one of his works. Therefore, the’ Campania Festival ‘wants to take care of contemporary writings, finding in this choice its element of strength “. For the rest,” there is deliberately no fil-rouge, although honestly it would be much more comfortable and easier to organize a ‘themed’ festival, power or seduction or madness, choosing about twenty shows and forcing directors and playwrights to pretend to adhere to that theme … In fact, we care about intercepting the artists and knowing what their artistic need is. Our festival is based on contemporaneity and the fresco that comes out as a whole is closely linked to the inspirations of each individual artist “. The beginning of the September programming is certainly very ‘strong’, with titles and texts that after yesterday’s inauguration with ‘Fuck Me’, will continue next week with ‘Transverse Orientation’, with viewers forewarned on both occasions about the presence of full nude scenes … “The nude still causes a scandal among social classes that need a scandal – replies Cappuccio – In reality, what is scandalous is never the form but the motivation: Michelangelo’s nudes allude to the harmony or drama of the human being and the universe. It all depends on the motivation behind the nude: in the cases mentioned in our poster, the nude is not a decoy or an element of free scandal but it is an artistic necessity “. Billboard that also includes the inauguration of the dedicated exhibition to the musical genius of Pino Daniele on 18 September and which will then close in mid-December with ‘The pandemic dances’, a title at least evocative of the current pandemic caused by Covid which marks the season, not only theatrical, we are experiencing. “But we can save ourselves only with culture – underlines the artistic director – there are no other ways to survive”. (By Enzo Bonaiuto)