Theatre-Dance Artistic residency at Teatro alla Misericordia between 2 and 12 of April
Open reharsal the 12th of April, at 9 pm RESTA! ELENA BORGOGNI / DE-MENS THÉÂTRE
direction Elena Borgogni with Elena Borgogni, Jeremy Braitbart, Angelo Romagnoli, Sebastien Weber, text collective writing DE-MENS THÉÂTRE with the support of the company Corps Rompu with the support of Teatro Comunale Nuova Accademia degli Arrischianti, Teatro Comunale Ciro Pinsuti, Centro di residenza della Toscana (Armunia – CapoTrave/Kilowatt) Resta! is a family story. Three generations, father, son and grandson. The transmission of masculinity in this family was done by omitting an important factor: love. Thus the grandfather, a former sea captain, branded his son with disappointment and harshness. The latter, Paul, a brilliant businessman, hides a cankerworm behind a façade of perfect, unabashed ease. Estranged from his affections, intimately convinced that he is a failure in the eyes of the Captain, he reiterates like a machine the ways to which he is accustomed: he is an absentee father who as soon as he can makes his son feel the burden of all his inadequacy. As, by reflex, is an insecure young man, who in the presence of his father loses all means and clams up between tics and loops. He lives isolated in virtual reality, inside his visors he opens like a butterfly, flies, meets friends, jumps and fights, dances–inside that alternative dimension he can do anything. But when he comes out of it what is left? Only one is the woman we meet on this journey, Sofia, cheeky and free, laughing loudly and living her passions to the fullest. Her affair with Paul will change her forever. He, a perverse narcissist, conceives of others as accessories to his outsized ego; he does not love, he possesses, he does not ask, he takes. From this relationship Sofia will be left with nothing but a shell, empty. A dance between Eros and Thanatos.  Â
Elena Borgogni, daughter of art, has been on stage since a very young age. After 17 years in Emma Dante’s company, she created the Italian-French company DE-MENS THÉÂTRE and OIKIA, a film production company.
DE-MENS THÉÂTRE is a newly formed French-Italian company from a long-standing project of actress and director Elena Borgogni. The theme of present absences is at the center of her journey with the creation of “Stay!” This project is designed to follow the traces that a detachment leaves in those who remain. The company’s working method reflects and respects a habit of artistic practice in the Borgogni family. Each member of the family has been practicing an art form and putting it at the service of the Theater for decades. Therefore, this family has also always been a working team that brings different languages into play to compose a single symphony.
