Pitecus
US Premiere
By Teatro Vascello- RezzaMastrella (Italy)
In Pitecus, Rezza-Mastrella analyze the relationship between man and his perversions in demented portrayals of many different people coming to grips with the Absurd.
Teatro Vascello, founded by Giancarlo Nanni and Manuela Kustermann,is Rome’s best-known venue for underground and independent groups and has presented works by Peter Brook, Robert Wilson, Robert Lepage, and Tadeusz Kantor among many others. Its method, called “scritura scenic” (scenic writing), goes beyond the written text to discover other meanings through movement lighting and sound together with actor’s voice and rhythm.
Rezza-Mastrella (Antonio Rezza and Flavia Mastrella) resident artists at Teatro Vascello, They are legendary and award-winning artists in Italy who have been creating theater, film, and installations combining visual arts and performance together since 1987. Mastrella is the one who creates the physical environment in which Rezza, the actor, lets loose his cantankerous spirits with a cockeyed humanity and relentless physicality.
Rezza-Mastrella have been the 2007 Francesca Alinovi Award dedicated to the convergence of art forms, and the 2013 Ubu Prize for The Shiny Path Of Excavation In The Unbridled Cruelty Obtained Through The Genius Of An Actor And Intuition Of A Visual Artist Original Plastic. RezzaMastrella’s work can be defined as ‘unclassifiable’. Their act has been welcomed by experimental stages, museums, art galleries and of course theatres in Italy and throughout Europe, as well as in Russia.
“Rezza, the creative crackpot tears the world to shreds!…In his twenty years of theatre our Antonio has been a great success, creating, together with the precious care of Flavia Mastrella, a series of characters closely linked to some maniacal form on various topics – expressive forms, remote or invented tongues – from Io to Fotofinish, from Pitecus to Bahamuth.” – La Repubblica
In Italian with English supertitles.
Since 1987, Flavia Mastrella and Antonio Rezza have created 13 plays performed by Rezza. In May 2013 they were awarded the Prix Hystrio-Other Muse and in December 2013, the Special Prize in 2013 UBU.
Special Event
Post-show talk back
Join us for a post-show talkback with Professor Frank Hentschker about the work of RezzaMastrella on Thursday, October 13th!
Frank Hentschker is the Executive Director and Director of Programs at Martin E. Segal Theatre Center as well as a Professor of Theatre at the Ph.D. Program in Theatre, The Graduate School and University Center, The City University of New York.