Sacrifice the puppets

“Polis” is the third part of the project “Ho male all’altro,” which means something like “the other hurts me” or “I hurt with the other;” a series of works by Michele Abbondanza and Antonella Bertoni begun in 2000 inspired by ancient Greek tragedies.

After “Alcestis,” which looked at self-sacrifice through generosity and love, and “Medea,” the sacrifice of others (in this case children, represented by puppets hanged on a tree, like an installation by controversial artist Cattelan) for the same reasons plus jealousy, no particular myth or legend forms the background to this new piece, which premiered at the Oriente Occidente festival (also co-producer with the company) in Rovereto. It’s more about the tragedy of contemporary man, asking himself, what is the meaning of life? Is this challenging theme a good one to dance to? I doubt it.
Though dance in itself could be ans­wer enough, in some ways. Abbondanza and Bertoni decide to deal with this philosophical issue with a group of five performer-actors from the Piccolo Teatro of Milano School and a dancer, Bianca Francioni – extremely slim, pale-skinned and flame-haired.
All of them wear black men’s suits, white shirts and bowler hats. ...